Most State and County agencies are in desperate need of adoptive families for the children in their care and therefore seem to be the lowest cost alternative for adopting families. Organizations such as Jewish Social Services and Catholic Family Services offer sliding scale fees based on a family s yearly income. These agencies may also be retained for selective services such as preparing a homestudy for another agency or in the case of a private adoption. Private agencies may offer adoptive families an all in one fee or an al la carte menu of fees including an application fee, program fee, homestudy, medical expenses of the birthmother, placement fee, supervision after placement, document preparation and filing costs and counseling fees for the birthmother prior to and after the placement of a child. Attorneys customarily charge a professional fee, document preparation fee and recording costs.
Many facilitators charge application and program fees.
In addition to these fees, the adoptive family must retain an attorney, obtain a homestudy and may be responsible for the fees and expenses outlined in the previous paragraph. It is difficult to say which option an adoptive family should choose in making a decision as to whether to use an agency, attorney or facilitator when adopting a child. Obtain and contact references as well. Contrary to the national media's high profile coverage of adoption heartbreak stories, there are many more success stories than failures. Best wishes to all of you who are on the road to adoption.