Adoption Qualifications

How are Adoptive Families Screened?

Expectant mothers thinking about placing their baby for adoption naturally have lots of questions. One of the most common that we hear at Lifetime Adoption: How are adoptive families screened?

The short answer to this question is that Lifetime’s expert adoption workers handpick, screen, and pre-qualify each and every adoptive family that contracts with us.

Our process is thorough and strict. That’s why we only accept about 17% of all adoptive parents that apply to our program. So for every 100 couples who apply, we select on average only about 17 of them.

Here are some more details that should help answer the question “how are adoptive families screened?”

Adoptive Families Screening Process

One of the first steps in the adoptive families screening process is when a licensed social worker conducts a home study evaluation and visits the adoptive family’s home. This evaluation includes a criminal background check, medical review, financial screening, and an FBI screening.

So as soon as you start to work with us, you can rest assured that your baby will be raised in a loving and safe family environment that meets our adoption qualifications.

Plus, you will be able to speak to prospective adoptive parents so that you can learn about them and their lives. This should help you choose who you’d like to adopt and raise your child.

Birth mothers can choose to speak with adoptive parents on the phone, online, or meet them in person. This is also part of the process of screening adoptive families. In other words, our birth mothers have the final say and are a huge part of the screening process for adoptive families.

All of our services are offered free of charge to birth mothers. That means you can review and contact as many families as you like. Of course, we will help narrow down your choices, based on your own personal preferences and what you want for your baby.

Our screening process and your contact and review of families go a long way toward finding people who will make good adoptive parents. It’s also a way to know that your baby will be safe and secure in his or her new family.

Adoptive Parents and Evaluations

Lifetime Adoption provides services to expecting mothers (and adoptive parents) nationwide.  The home study screening services are completed in the adoptive parents’ state by independent adoption social workers, which are then sent in their entirety to our adoption coordinators for review and approval. (In Florida, Lifetime conducts these home study screenings personally with adoptive parents.)

During the home study process, the social worker visits the home and collects information. This includes a physical examination of the home as well as interviews and questions for the adoptive family and anyone else who lives in that home.

If there is any history whatsoever of abuse and/or neglect, the screening and home study will reveal that information and the family will not be approved to adopt.

The home study also requires adopting families to provide documentation: birth certificates, employment and income verification, insurance documents, income tax records, and much more.

The social worker will also make sure a home is able to be made child-safe. They will look for possible hazards and the ways a family can protect the child from them.

For example, are cabinets and shelves locked up tight so that a child can’t grab any toxic cleaning supplies? Are there working smoke detectors? Is there a swimming pool and, if so, how will the family make sure the child doesn’t wander into it before learning how to swim?

Finally, the reviews, screenings, and exams continue even after the baby is in the home. Social workers will continue to stop by the home to see the baby and conduct more interviews as part of the adoption finalization process.

Of course, if you choose to participate in an open adoption, you as the mother will also get to keep in touch with your baby after you find adoptive parents for him or her. In many ways, open adoptions allow for a great extended family for those who adopt a child.

The adoption professionals at Lifetime Adoption will help you every step of the adoption process, just as we’ve done with so many expectant mothers since way back in 1986.

When you choose adoption with Lifetime, we will help you with finding an adoptive family for your child. We’ll make sure it’s a good fit for you and your baby.

You’ll be able to look at adoptive family profiles, create an adoption plan, and so much more. There are many adoption agencies out there, but few can match the experience, caring, and expertise of the adoption coordinators at Lifetime.