The family is responsible for its own legal costs and travel expenses. Private adoption agencies are licensed by the state, but do not receive state or federal funding. DPRS licenses 30 adoption agencies, as well as many physicians, clergy and lawyers who serve as intermediaries in adoptions. Some only accept children or applicants of a certain age. Others serve unwed mothers and, in that role, provide privacy, food, shelter and medical care during the pregnancy, as well as schooling through local schools.
Some agencies specialize in foreign adoptions in which families adopt homeless children from abroad.
About half of the adoption agencies in Texas do business internationally. The Texas Legislature has taken important steps to expedite the adoption process. Only licensed agencies and birth parents may do so. Texas lawmakers also created a state paternity registry to expedite the adoptions of children whose fathers are unwilling to assume responsibility for their children. Furthermore, nonlegal fathers now must register with the Texas Department of Health or forfeit their right to be served in lawsuits relating to the parent-child relationship.