Applying for Adoption: How Families Are Chosen

Adoption refers to the proper and legal placement of children with families. It also ensures that the placement of the children in a family is permanent. In the past, adoption has been focused on helping families find children. These days, adoption strives to find a safe and permanent home for children. It is required for workers who process the adoptions to acquire knowledge and understanding of the assessment and recruitment of adoptive parents or families, the arrangement of adoption for children with different strengths and needs, and poastadoption support services to ensure that there is attachment and permanency for the adopted children.

There are several types of adoptions in the United States. There is the domestic adoption of newborns that live in the United States and are adopted using private adoption agencies. Intercountry adoption is concerned with the placement of infants and children from other countries by citizens of the United States. The third type is the placement of children from the local foster care system by foster caregivers, kin, or adoptive parents selected for the child by the agency.

It is required for adoption workers to be culturally competent so they could understand and relate to persons from different cultures and so that the adoption can be done in a productive, sensitive, and cordial way. In assessing a family's capability to provide a permanent home to a newborn or child, the adoption worker needs to consider the safety and permanency of the child in the home, the family's expectations and intentions for adoption, personal and emotional maturity of the family, the characteristic interpersonal relationship within the family in terms of quality and stability, coping skills, parenting skills and abilities, empathy, the capability of the adoptive parents to give hands-on parenting, and the readiness to commit to life-long adoption.

If a family is approved for adoption, the recommendation must include the number, age, sex, and type of children suited for the parents. If the family is not yet ready for an adoption, either the family or the adoption worker has to come up with this decision. Written documentation, suggestions, and referral sources are expected from the report of the adoption worker if an adoption is deferred. If a family is deemed inappropriate for adoption, it is either because of its inability to provide a safe, nurturing, and stable environment for the child. Felony record, active substance abuse, mental instability, sexual disorders, and proven history of neglecting and sexually abusing children are factors that would immediately deny a family's wish to adopt.

A good match between a child and a family is decided certain factors such as emotional and financial stability, desire of parenting the child, compatibility of lifestyle, similarity of family and child needs, willingness of the parents to learn more about caring for the child, and adequacy of emotional support for the child.