Adoption Program

Fairfax County's Adoption Program is committed to serving everyone involved in the adoption process — birth families, adoptees, and adoptive parents — while providing permanency planning for children whose birth families are unable to raise them.

We offer counseling to birth parents considering the option of adoption, make adoptive placements for children in the agency's custody, offer support services to prospective adoptive parents and provide post-adoption social services and financial assistance.

Children available for adoption tend to be school-aged and part of a sibling group. The majority have been removed from their families because of abuse or neglect. They are legally available for adoption as a result of an termination of their parental rights through the courts. Many of these children have special physical, emotional, or educational needs. Nearly half are of children of color.

About 70 percent of the children placed for adoption are adopted by their foster parents. Foster parents expressing interest in becoming adoptive parents for a child in their home are given first consideration in recognition of the importance of continuing relationships for children.

Children are placed in foster care — a temporary placement outside their home — when their parents decide they are unable to care for them, or when the children are removed from their home as a result of abuse, neglect or other circumstances that make their present living situation unsafe.

Foster care is a temporary situation in which a child lives with a family, in a group home, or in a residential facility. During this time, problems in the family of origin are addressed so that the child can return home, or plans are made for permanent placement of the child outside his or her birth family.

Adoption addresses the permanent needs of children who cannot return to their parents or relatives.

Fairfax County's Adoption Program offers a variety of programs and services:

Home Studies for:

• Agency adoptions – involving families wishing to adopt a child in the agency's custody. Training and support are also provided.

• Independent adoptions (also called parental placements or private adoptions) – involving families who have identified a specific child or children they wish to adopt and have made arrangements directly with the birth family.

The training and home study process completed by all applicants is designed to promote self-assessment in prospective adoptive parents. It focuses on preparing them for their adjustment in becoming adoptive parents and their future role in raising an adopted child. Because of the serious commitment they are making, prospective families are encouraged to consider their decision at each step, particularly before meeting a child.

Components of the home study as required by state law include:

• a background check of local and state police records
• background check of child protective services
• a medical/physical examination
• marriage and divorce verification.

Other components of the home study include an assessment of the financial stability of the family, a brief autobiographical sketch, individual interviews, feedback from references and a home visit.

Special Needs Adoptions – adoption of children considered to have special needs for one or more of the following reasons:

• they are school-aged or older
• they have one or more siblings
• they have special physical, mental or emotional needs
• there is a hereditary tendency, congenital problem, or birth injury that could lead to future disability
• they are members of a minority race or of mixed racial heritage which may make it difficult to locate an adoptive home.

These children are eligible for ongoing support from the department and a subsidy to assist with the costs of ongoing treatment, services, or special accomodations.

Post-Adoption Services – including:

• assistance for adults adopted in Virginia wishing to search for their birth parents
• consultation services to other adults interested in the search process
• general information about adoption subsidies
• ongoing assistance to families who adopted in Fairfax County and who are applying for or are receiving an adoption subsidy
• a support group.

Step-Parent Adoptions – the investigation and writing of court-ordered reports in certain step-parent adoptions.

Married couples or single persons who are residents of Northern Virginia, who are at least 21, and who can provide a stable and loving home for a child are eligible to adopt through the Adoption Program.

Those considering adopting a child in the agency's custody are required to participate in a home study process which includes attendance at a 27 hour foster/adoptive parent training series. Applicants are encouraged to use the home study process to learn about themselves and to determine if adoption is right for them.

The goal of this process is to provide participants critical information about the life-long issues they will face as adoptive parents. Individual interviews and home visits complete the home study process.

The application and home study services are offered at no cost to those applying to adopt a foster child through this agency.

Adoption assistance subsidies are available for agency placements of children with special needs. Each family receiving an adoption assistance subsidy works with a social worker to access subsidy assistance and obtain supportive counseling, information, and referral services for needed community resources.