Services Provided by Adoption Agencies and Attorneys to Adoptive Parents

• Author: Jeffrey Kasky; Robert Andrew Kasky
• Pages: 33-38

33

CHAPTER

5

Services Provided

by Adoption Agencies

and Attorneys to Adoptive

Parents

Adoption services are customarily provided by a state-licensed adoption agency or an adoption attorney

licensed to practice law in the state where the adoption is to take place.

Agency Adoptions

As we have said, every state has unique laws, rules, and regulations which govern the placement of chil-

dren for adoption by agencies which are licensed, regulated, overseen, audited by, and answerable to a

state licensing authority.

The adoption agency typically orchestrates the process by arranging with the birth parent(s) and the

prospective adoptive family to place the child in the home of the prospective adoptive family after the

birth and after the execution of legal consent papers by the birth mother and, when required, the birth

father. The agency customarily coordinates the signing of these essential and crucial papers through its

legal counsel.

Once consent is given in the manner prescribed by law and by the parties whose consent is required,

the agency typically becomes the legal guardian of the child until either the birth parents’ legal rights to

the child are terminated or, depending upon the state where the adoption takes place, until the final hear-

ing in court takes place at which time the prospective adoptive family becomes the child’s legal parents

and the agency’s responsibility as legal guardian is extinguished.

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