Adoption Costs

You may be surprised and even shocked at the costs involved in an adoption.  Many people believe that their should be no costs involved since they are providing a loving home for a child.  Others believe that since adoption through the state foster care program costs little or nothing, that all adoption fees should be similar to those of the state.

It is interesting to note that an analysis of the actual costs involved in a state foster-care adoption showed that the cost approached $35,000.  But a family does not pay these costs since the costs are covered by the taxpayers, but the actual costs are still there.

In adopting through a private and hopefully non-profit agency (there are for-profit adoption agencies) or even through an attorney in a private adoption, your adoption costs are not covered by tax dollars and all of the fees are your responsibility.

The total expense for a child adoption depends on such factors as the child's age, nationality, ethnicity, whether the child has special needs, the specific adoption agency or adoption attorney you work with, how long you are willing to wait, what complications arise, and in an international child adoption, what country you adopt from.

Children in U.S. state foster care, special needs children and other "hard to place" children can often be adopted through special county, state, and local child adoption programs where state or federal subsidies help reduce or even eliminate your costs. If you are interested in such a child adoption, I suggest you contact your state's child adoption contact, your state's child welfare agency, and or your state child adoption exchange.  There is often little or no fee to you in a child adoption involving a special needs or hard-to-place child.

You will usually find that the costs involved in adopting a healthy newborn/infant born in the U.S. are significantly higher that in adopting a child with special needs, an older or "hard-to place" child or a child from another country. Remember, the total (bottom line) costs include many things, such as the birth mothers and child's medical and legal costs, your Home Study, federal, state, and country fees, as well as fees for the agency, attorneys, travel, orphanage, court, filing and foreign country fees. Your total cost of a healthy U.S. born infant can range from nothing to $60,000 - $70,000 and even higher.  Costs involved in an international child adoption can typically range from a few thousand dollars all the way up to approximately $40,000. 

All adopting families should be aware that changes in the U.S. tax law provide for a child adoption tax credit for qualified child adoption expenses incurred for an adoption.  The child adoption tax credit is up to approximately $11,000 for each child adopted.   Make sure to check with a qualified attorney, accountant, or tax consultant regarding this child adoption tax credit.

Another form of tax relief allows an employer to reimburse an employee for up to $10,000 of qualified adoption expenses per child.  Please review other possible sources of financial help and, as stated above, check with your employer and tax advisor to understand exactly how these adoption assistance laws and programs can benefit you.

At Adoption Services we pride ourselves on providing the highest level of personal and professional care.  We spend a great deal of time, effort, and money to reduce or eliminate risks.

We are a private, fully licensed, and non-profit agency.  As such, we receive no federal or state money to support our Agency and our programs.  Our program costs and agency overhead are paid solely by fees charged to adopting families. This means that our fees are higher than those charged by many state and religious organizations, but are lower than those charged by some other private agencies.

Remember, your TOTAL adoption bill includes not only agency costs (staff salaries, overhead, operating expenses, advertising, phone, etc.) but also your Home Study, all legal, doctor, hospital, state and federal fees as well as orphanage, court, travel, lodging, and filing fees.  Be careful when comparing fees since some agencies may give you partial costs and leave out fees charged by other governmental authorities, or hospitals, doctors, attorneys, or travel costs, or document preparation fees.

A complete and detailed breakdown of Adoption Services fees and the other miscellaneous fees you can expect to pay are part of our Program Description and Fee and Service Schedule that are provided upon request and provided to everyone who registers with our Agency.

If you adopt through one of our programs, the average of all the above fees paid to our Agency, other agencies, the attorneys, hospitals, and for travel and other miscellaneous fees, will be approximately:

When these fees are paid is important!

At Adoption Services, except for the Registration fee, none of these fees are paid "up front."  And your Registration is totally risk-free.  The Registration fee for our Domestic or International Program is fully refundable if we do not accept you into our adoption program.

The regulation of expenses and fees you, as the adopting family, are allowed to pay are addressed in most states as part of the state adoption statutes.  Typically the "allowable" fees are licensed adoption agency fees, legal and attorney fees and expenses, medical and hospital care for the birth mother related to the pregnancy and birth, the baby's hospital and medical care, and some of the expenses of the birth mother during and possibly after her pregnancy.  You may want to review your state of residence adoption law and you may find the Child Welfare Information Gateway article State Regulation of Adoption Expenses informative and helpful.

Please visit our home page to read about our commitment to assist adoptive parents like you as well as pregnant women and birth parents.