Private Agency Relinquishment Adoption

Private agency adoptions give a birth mother and/or birth father (called the “placing parents”) the greatest range of options for their adoption plan. For instance, placing parents can choose a completely open or completely closed adoption, or anything in between. At FCCA, we call this our "Domestic Adoption Program."

 

Placing parents who want to personally select the adoptive family for their child can review a variety of written profiles (with pictures!) of families pre-approved to adopt.  The placing parents are also given the option to meet potential adoptive families in person, or to correspond by email or telephone. Once a “match” has been made, the placing parents can choose the level of contact they want to have with the adoptive family prior to the baby’s birth.

 

In some cases, a placing parent may not want to select or meet the adoptive family. When that happens, FCCA will select a family for the child. This is not very common, but it is perfectly allowable if the placing parent prefers this arrangement. In every case, the selected family will have an approved adoption home study or certification, including fingerprint clearances, before the child will be placed in the home.

 

Private agencies such as FCCA are required by state regulations to offer the highest level of pre-placement counseling support for birth parents, as compared to any other type of California adoption. That means that FCCA will offer as much pre-placement counseling needed for the placing parent to be comfortable and secure about the decision. All options– not just adoption – are fully explained and explored. No birth parent is ever pressured to make an adoption plan, or to select a particular family for the child.

 

Most voluntary adoption plans are made during pregnancy. However, the formal adoption paperwork cannot be signed until the child has been born and the birth mother been discharged from the hospital. At that point, she will sign a “relinquishment” to place the child into the legal care of FCCA. If she picked a family for the baby, the relinquishment will specifically name that family as the home where the baby must be placed.

 

The relinquishment can be revoked up to ten business days after it has been filed with the State Department of Social Services, or until the Department has issued a written Acknowledgment to terminate parental rights, whichever occurs first.

 

At the time the relinquishment is signed, the placing parent and adoptive family may also choose to sign a post-adoption contact agreement. This legally-enforceable contract sets up the future relationship between the placing parent(s), the adoptive family, and the child. See the Open Adoption section for more information about these agreements.

 

The family must have an approved adoption home study or foster care certification at the time they accept custody of the child. After placement, FCCA will supervise the placement of the child with the adoptive parents for a minimum of four visits over six months, and then the adoption can be finalized in court. 

 

If the adoptive family resides outside of California, the relinquishment process (including the time allowed to revoke the relinquishment), the post-placement requirements, and finalization process may be quite different. In addition, the adoptive family cannot leave California with the child until the ICPC request has been approved. See the Interstate Placement section for further information.

 

Legal citations: California Family Code Sections 8700 et.seq.; 22 CCR 35127.1- 35231.