Interested in adoption but overwhelmed about all the jargon and legal terms? As a mom through adoption who once was in your shoes, I know how intimidating it can be at the beginning of the process. Here are some common terms used in domestic infant adoption and what they typically mean within the adoption community (although the law is different in each state and terms can be used differently depending on where you are located):
1. Adoptee: This refers to a person who has been adopted, also known as an adopted child.
2. Adoption: The complete transfer of parental rights and obligations from one parent or set of parents to another. A legal adoption requires court action.
3. Adoption Agency: An organization, usually licensed by the state it operates in, to place children for adoption. Agencies may be public or private, secular or religious, for-profit or non-profit. Some states require that a licensed agency be involved in the placement of a child for adoption (often called an “Agency State”).
4. Adoption Attorney: An attorney who is licensed to practice law in one or more states, who files, processes and finalizes adoptions in court. In some states attorneys may also arrange adoption placements or “match” expectant parents with hopeful adoptive parents.
5. Adoption Advisor: Sometimes referred to as an “Adoption Guide”, “Adoption Coach” or “Adoption Planner”. An individual who guides, advocates and assists prospective adoptive parents through the adoption process, and assists in the selection of appropriate agencies and attorneys. Adoption Advisors, as opposed to Adoption Facilitators, do not have contact with expectant parents and do not locate or obtain a child for adoption.
6. Adoption Certification: Sometimes referred to as “Pre-Adoption Certification” or “Home Study Approved”. Most states require adoptive couples in their state to be evaluated for their suitability to adopt. This certification involves a home study of the adoptive parents, including an investigation of their health, finances, criminal background and possible history of child abuse or domestic violence. Most certifications take an average of 3-5 months and once awarded are valid for one year to eighteen months, depending on the state, but can typically be updated or renewed for a longer period of time. States like Arizona actually require that the home study be submitted to the court to receive Certification to Adopt.
7. Adoption Facilitator: Individuals that are not licensed as adoption agencies or licensed as attorneys, and who are engaged in the matching of expectant parents with adoptive parents, typically for a fee. Paid facilitators are illegal in most states, except notably California and Pennsylvania. An improper use of a paid Adoption Facilitator could have a detrimental impact on the finalization of an adoption.
8. Adoption Plan: An expectant parent’s decision to allow their child to be placed for adoption. A formal Adoption Plan may include i) the identity of the individuals or family that will adopt the child, or how those individuals will be selected; ii) The type of adoption (i.e. closed adoption, a semi-open adoption or an open adoption); iii) how the medical and living expenses of the expectant mother will be paid; iv) how the birth parents and the adoptive parents will be involved with each other after the adoption, including the nature and frequency and type of contact; v) which adoption attorney or adoption agency will provide assistance in obtaining the necessary adoption consents or relinquishments, and finalizing the adoption.
9. Adoption Triad: A term used to describe the three-sided relationship that exists in an adoption between the birth parents, adoptive parents and the adoptee.
10. Agency Placement: An adoption where the adoption consent is given to an agency, rather than directly to an adoptive family.
11. Birth Father: The biological father of a child that has been placed for adoption. In an adoption proceeding there can be a putative birth father and a legal birth father, both defined below.
12. Birth Mother/Expectant Mother: A woman who is pregnant and is considering adoption for her child after she gives birth. Recently it has become preferable to refer to the woman as expectant mother until she consents to the adoption, and at that time she becomes the birth mother.
13. Closed Adoptions: This type of adoption is used rarely today in domestic adoptions, but was traditionally the type of adoptions seen before the 1980s. In these adoptions, the birth family and the adoptive family do not share typically share any identifying information about themselves, and do not communicate with each other, either before or after the placement of the child. The adoptive family may receive some non-identifying health and other background information about the child and the birth family before the placement takes place. The birth parents may also receive non-identifying information about the adoptive parents.
14. Certificate of Adoption: This is the official document that is signed by the Judge at the time of the finalization of the adoption, which allows a new birth certificate to be issued for the adopted child by the Department of Vital Records, typically showing the adoptive parents as though they were the original biological parents of the child.
15. Consent to Adopt: The document that is voluntarily signed by the birthparents that allows the adoptive parents to adopt their child. In most states it must be signed in front of witnesses and a Notary Public. State law varies widely concerning when the earliest point in time is when a binding Consent may be signed by a birth parent. In some states a consent is irrevocable when signed, meaning it cannot later be taken back or voided by a birthparent, unless it can be shown that it was executed in an improper form or way, or at an improper time, or that it was obtained as the result of fraud, misrepresentation, force or duress.
16. Decree of Adoption: The document that a judge signs to finalize an adoption. It formally creates the parent-child relationship between the adoptive parents and the adopted child. It places full responsibility for the child on its adoptive parents and typicaly changes the name of the child to the name selected by its adoptive parents.
17. Department of Vital Records: The government department in each state that issues and maintains the official birth certificates and death certificates of individuals that were born or died in that state. In some states this department also administers a putative father registry.
18. Direct Placement Adoption: An adoption possible in some states where one or more of the consents are given directly to an adoptive parent, rather than first to an agency, who then consents to an adoptive parent.
19. Disrupted Adoption: Often called a “Failed Adoption”. This term generally refers to an adoption that for some reason has not become final, even though the adoptive parents were identified as the parents to adopt the child and the child may have even been placed in their home for a period of time.
20. Domestic Adoption: An adoption that involves adoptive parents and a child that are citizens and residents of the United States.
21. Emergency Placement: Often called a “stork-drop” or “baby born case”. An adoption match that is made after the child has already been born.
22. Family Profile: Also referred to as an “ado