When planning to adopt, the subject of the cost of adoption has to come up at some time during the process.  My suggestion to you is to discuss adoption financial information with your agency or attorney from the beginning so that you can know a basic ballpark figure for what you can expect to pay during your adoption.  I have broken adoption cost into three categories in this article: private agency adoptions, special needs adoptions and independent adoptions.

The average cost for a private agency adoption ranges anywhere from $7,000 to $20,000. While this might seem like a huge range, there are various factors that affect what an agency charges.  A non-profit agency will typically charge less and base their fees on a sliding scale that is based on a family’s income.  For instance, I work for a non-profit agency and our fees are 15% of your gross annual income with a minimum of $8000 and a maximum of $15,000.  Another agency in town charges a flat fee of $18,000 and a third agency charges a flat fee of $15,000.  I have seen agencies in some part of the country start their domestic adoption fees at $25,000.  I would suggest discussing fees with different agencies in your area.

When discussing these fees you need to ask if they have a payment schedule, what these fees are used for and what happens to your money if a Birthmother decides to parent.  Most agencies have a payment schedule.  They might ask for something like a $1200 Home Study fee up front, ¼ of your placement fee when the Home Study is complete and then not ask for any more money until you receive a placement.  I would be wary of agencies who ask for all of the placement fee up front.  If a birthmother changes her mind and decides to parent, some agencies will eat the money themselves and others will charge the adoptive family for any money that was spent.  This is an important thing to discuss with your agency.

Agencies should be able to explain what their fees are used for.  Fee allocation might include counseling for the Birthparents, living expenses for the Birthmother, medical expenses, maternity clothes and court costs.  Most non-profit agencies also use a small portion of your expenses to go towards paying their caseworkers because adoption fees are their only means to stay in business.

The reason that I stress discussing fees up front with your agency is because there are some unreputable agencies that will charge exorbitant placement fees.  I work with a girl who worked at one of those agencies for two weeks before she quit because of the things they were doing.  For instance, one of the counselors there told her always to meet Birthparents for lunch and if they don’t show up eat lunch anyway and then the agency will charge the adoptive family.  Another thing that they did was when an adoptive family came to the agency to receive their child, the agency would keep the baby in the next room until the adoptive family signed papers and paid a large placement fee in full.  You need to make sure that you are not working with an agency that will do these types of things.

The fees relating to a special needs adoption are usually a little less then a non-special needs adoption.  Instead of 15% of your annual income it might be more like 10% of your annual income.  Some agencies might charge a smaller flat fee and other agencies charge the same fee across the board for all types of domestic adoptions.

In general, independent adoptions that are done through a lawyer tend to cost less than an agency adoption.  In independent adoptions, you are paying for each individual service.  You will only pay for what has been paid.  This means if both Birthparents cooperate with the process, and there are no medical or living expenses, you could pay around $2000 plus your Home Study and supervisory visit fees.  However, instead of having an agency as a go between or mediator you will have to do some of the foot work and will tend to have a lot more face to face contact which is fine for some families and not for others.  If a Birthmother decides to parent in an independent adoption, the adoptive family will not be reimbursed for any money they have spent.

Before choosing a particular agency or attorney, it is important to talk about adoption fees.  You need to feel like whoever you use is not in this just for the money.  You need to feel like they care about you and the Birthfamily and that any fees you pay will be used for their intended purposes.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 5:26 am and is filed under Adoption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.