How are independent and agency adoptions different ?
Independent adoptions typically match adoptive families with a particular birth mother and the adoptive parents bear all of the costs and risks associated with a particular birth mother. Many agency adoptions proceed on a flat fee basis and allowable birth mother expenses for a particular birth mother are not passed through directly to the adoptive parents.
A. Agency adoptions involve a lengthy and relatively expensive screening procedure for potential adoptive parents. Agencies typically offer a much higher level of services to birth parents, including counseling, medical care or even room and board at a maternity care center. Independent adoptions, by definition, are simply adoptions that do not involve an adoption agency. These range from very simple adoptions to very complicated and expensive interstate adoptions. A simple independent adoption might involve the adoption of a child by their grandparents where both natural parents consent. The entire court file might only contain 12 or 15 pages. There is no home study, no waiting period, and very little investigation into the situation. An example of a complicated independent adoption would involve an interstate placement where the adoptive parents travel to another state, pick up the child from the hospital, wait for approval from both states before traveling home (the Interstate Compa
