Domestic Adoption Costs

The "costs and fees" involved in a domestic (U.S.) adoption can vary greatly. Understanding the fees involved can be difficult. It is often made even more difficult by the fact that some adoption agencies, adoption facilitators, and attorneys do not outline all the costs up front which means you will spend much more than you originally thought.

You may be surprised and even shocked by the total fees involved in an adoption and to discover that a domestic adoption is frequently more costly than an international adoption.  Many people believe that there should be no costs involved in a domestic adoption since they, the adopting family, 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

The type of adoption you undertake is a major factor that affects your total child adoption costs.

If you adopt through a public (state operated) adoption agency you typically are adopting through a state's foster care program.  With these adoptions there are typically no fees, or very limited fees, that you will be required to pay.  Many states even pay you to adopt a child.  There are significant costs in a foster care adoption, but state tax dollars, and not you, pay the salaries and fees involved.

Children in U.S. state foster care, special needs children and other "hard to place" children can often be adopted through these public child adoption programs.  Typically the county, state, and and federal governments subsidize programs to 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 or infant born in the U.S. are higher than in adopting a child with special needs, an older or "hard-to place" child, or a child from a public agency. This is because when adopting through a private (non-public) agency or through an attorney in a private adoption, your adoption costs are not covered by tax dollars and all of the fees are your responsibility. You may end up paying costs including such things as the birth mother's and child's medical and legal costs, your Home Study fee, federal, state, and country fees, as well as fees for the agency, attorneys, travel, court and filing fees.

Other factors which can impact on your total adoption costs include such factors as the child's age, ethnicity, whether the child has special needs, the specific adoption agency or adoption attorney you work with, how long you are willing to wait, and what complications arise.

Your total cost for adopting a U.S. born child through a private agency or private source can range from approximately $5000 to $70,000 and even higher.

Financial Assistance for Adopting Families is a link that will provide information about programs that are designed to help you reduce the cost of adopting a child. These include up to $11,000 tax credit, assistance from employers, state programs to assist adopting families, time off from work to adopt a child, and many other programs from both private and public agencies. If you take the time to read up and become educated about these programs you will find that they can substantially help you reduce the cost of domestic child adoption.

As mentioned earlier, if you adopt through a state (public) adoption agency or foster care program there are typically no fees, or very limited fees, that you will be required to pay.  It is not that there are no costs in these types of adoption.  In fact, an analysis was done in 2004 to determine the actual costs involved in a state foster-care adoption.  The analysis showed that the cost was approximately $35,000 in 2004 dollars. An adopting family does not pay these costs since the costs are covered by tax-dollars, but the costs are still there.

Some adoption agencies, adoption facilitators, adoption attorneys and others involved in assisting persons to adopt a child do not initially disclose all the costs involved in adopting.  If you are on a limited budget this could become a nightmare.  You could literally spend thousands of dollars only to find that you do not have enough money to finish the adoption process.  Meaning you could experience horrible heartbreak and also could lose all, or part, of your money and still not succeed in adopting a child.

Below we have listed the various services, costs and fees typically associated with adopting a child domestically.

We  suggest you save this page to your "favorite places" so that you can use the list below to make sure that any agency or attorney or other individual you talk to is providing you all the costs and fees you will face. 

We advise you to save this page and use the information below because we have heard so many heartbreaking stories from families who lost both their chance to adopt a child and all their adoption savings because they were not told "all the costs" and "all the risks".

In a domestic adoption, the adoption process itself and the fees that you, as the adopting family, are allowed to pay are addressed in most states as part of the state adoption law.  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 helpful.

Be careful when comparing fees since some agencies, adoption facilitators, and attorneys may give you partial costs and fail to mention fees charged by other governmental authorities, or hospitals, doctors, attorneys, or travel costs, or document preparation fees, etc.  Remember, your TOTAL adoption bill includes not only agency costs but also many other fees such as your Home Study, all legal, doctor, hospital, state and federal fees as well as court, travel, lodging, filing fees and others.

You will quickly discover that agencies and private adoption sources may charge for any or all of the fees listed below and they may combine some of the fees in with other categories.  In some cases many of these fees are paid "up front" and may or may not be refundable.  You should ask any agency or other adoption resource about the following services and fees, when they are paid, and if and when they are refundable.

FEES ABOUT WHICH YOU SHOULD ASK EVERY AGENCY OR PERSON YOU MAY CONSIDER ASSISTING YOUR IN ADOPTION. (Your repeated reference to this list is the reason we suggest you save this page to your "favorite places" and print this page for later reference.)

REGISTRATION FEE

This is the initial fee an agency may charge to review your initial information, to see if they can help you, and to open a file. This fee typically ranges from $0-$2000. With our agency, Adoption Services, this fee is refundable if you are not accepted into our program.

APPLICATION FEE

This fee may be combined with the Registration and is usually paid when a completed application is being prepared.  This fee typically ranges from $0-$1000.

HOME STUDY APPLICATION FEE

This fee is submitted with the completed Home Study Application. The Home Study Application and the Application are typically used to prepare for the Home Study Interviews and to prepare documents that will later be required by local, state, and federal authorities. This fee typically ranges from $250-$4000.

HOME STUDY AND PRE-PLACEMENT REPORT HOME STUDY FEE

This fee covers the costs for the interviews and home visits that are made as part of the Home Study process.  Following the interviews and review of documentation, a Home Study Report is prepared. This fee typically ranges from $750-$4000.

HOME STUDY UPDATE FEE

All Home Studies must be kept current and they are typically valid for 1-3 years depending on your state of residence. If a placement does not take place within that period, a completely new Home Study may not be needed.  Rather, an update Home Study may need to be completed. This fee typically ranges from $0-$500.

HOME STUDY REVIEW FEE

This fee is typically charged when you have your Home Study completed by one agency but you work with a different agency to help you complete an adoption.  This fee typically ranges from $0-$1000.

ADOPTING FAMILY PROFILE

If the agency or attorney you work with uses a "pooling program", you will need to develop a profile.  The agency may charge for this or the agency or attorney may have you contact an outside source.  Additionally, there may be a monthly or yearly maintenance fee to keep your profile updated. This fee typically ranges from $100-$1500.  Our agency, Adoption Services, uses a fixed waiting list and not a "pooling program" so no profile is required.

AGENCY SERVICE FEE

This is usually the single biggest fee you will pay.  This fee typically covers on-site (agency office) services rendered to the adopting persons from the completion of the Home Study through the placement of the child, the termination, surrender, or relinquishment of parental rights, and the finalization of the adoption. Many agencies have all, or part of, this fee paid "up front" or at the time of a child referral.  If the placement and adoption do not proceed you may loose all or part of this fee.  This fee typically ranges from $3,000-$30,000.  With our agency, Adoption Services, this fee is paid only after the termination of parental rights and, accordingly, there is no risk you will loose any of this fee.

INTERSTATE ASSISTANCE FEE

When a child from one state is placed with a family in another state, the Interstate Compact administrators in both states must give approval of the placement.  The child must remain within the borders of the child’s state of birth until approval is given to travel outside the state of the child’s birth.  This fee helps cover the additional time in completing the paperwork, contacting and working with attorneys and other agencies in the state of the child’s birth, and for assisting in the entire interstate process. This fee typically ranges from $0-$1500. With our agency, Adoption Services, to assure no loss of fee, this fee is paid only after the termination of parental rights at the same time as the Agency Service Fee.  In addition, since Interstate approval can take 1-3 weeks, during this time you will have motel, food, and transportation costs.

POST-PLACEMENT SUPERVISORY FEE

In a domestic adoption and many international adoptions, after-placement (called post-placement) supervisory contacts and visits are required.  The number and frequency of these depends on state and federal laws.  Typically you are charged for the supervisory session, for travel time and travel costs, and for any needed reports.  This fee typically ranges from $150-$450 for each visit with the average number of visits being 3-4.

ADVERTISING AND NETWORKING FEES

In a private adoption or facilitator adoption many adopting families pay for news-paper and other advertising fees.  These fees can mount up to many thousands of dollars.  Most agencies include advertising costs in their overall agency fee but with a private adoption or a facilitator adoption this fee typically ranges from $0-$7500.

DIRECT REIMBURSEMENT FEES

This is a reimbursement for travel costs including car rentals, mileage, tolls, airfare, parking, taxi, phone, food, and hotel. Additional direct reimbursement fees are costs of hospital pictures, costs for overnight, next day, special delivery, certified mail, phone charges, etc. This fee typically ranges from $100-$1500.

ON-SITE SERVICES FEE

This applies only when an agency or attorney provides on-site (in-office) services based on an hourly rate. Typically, hourly rates vary from $100-$325/hour.

OFF-SITE SERVICES FEE

  This fee is based on out-of-office professional services.  Examples include conducting meetings and visitations with birth parents, adoptive families, hospital staff, attorneys, other agencies, home visitations for the home study and post-placement supervisory visitations, hospital visitations with the birth mother, birth father, baby and/or adopting family, hospital placements, attendance at legal proceedings and court hearings, and all other agency off-site services. Hourly rates typically vary from $100-$325/hour.

MEDICAL EXPENSES

The “average” medical bills for a birth mother and baby vary from zero to many thousands of dollars. The actual amount depends on the specific hospital and the needs of the birth mother and baby. The birth parents, the baby, and/or the adopting family may or may not have, or be covered by, insurance or medical assistance. Typically, you will be responsible for any of these bills that are not paid for by insurance or medical assistance.  These costs typically ranges from $0-$18,000.  Since you may loose any fees paid if the adoption does not proceed, ask the agency or attorney how these monies are protected.  With our agency, Adoption Services, you place the anticipated medical expenses for the birth mother and baby into a trust (escrow) account with the agency attorney to insure the payment of medical expenses and to assure these funds are not lost if the adoption does not proceed.

NON-AGENCY FEES INVOLVING ATTORNEYS

In domestic adoptions, this fee covers the attorney's interstate fees, the ending of the biological parents' rights, the preparation and finalization of adoption papers, allowable legal expenses incurred by the biological mother and father, and other needed legal services provided by attorneys.  Total legal fees typically range from $1500-$9500.

DOCUMENTATION AND AUTHENTICATION

These fees typically range form $100-$800.

At our child adoption agency, 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.  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 public (state) agencies and religious based agencies.

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 automatically provided to everyone who registers with our Agency.

When these fees are required to be paid is important! While at many facilitators and adoption agencies the fees must be paid up front which you at risk of losing your money without completing the adoption process 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. Additionally, the money to cover the birth mother and baby's medical bills is protected as is any Interstate Fee.

If you adopt through one of our programs, the average TOTAL of all the fees listed in the above section will be approximately $30,000 to $55,000 (depending on the type of child you adopt and the medical coverage for the baby and birth mother) for a healthy U.S. newborn or infant. 

When you call we will be able to give you a much more precise figure based on what you tell us you are looking for. Please remember in comparing costs that some adoption agencies, facilitators and/or attorneys may quote you a cost to adopt a child but that cost may not be a total cost and that they may tack on substantial fees and other items after you are already financially committed.

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

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Why You Need an Adoption Consultant

There are many risks when you go to adopt a child including losing a child after you have already taken them home (referred to as a disruption), loosing all of the money you have invested in the adoption if the birth mother changes her mind, or finding that there are previously unknown or undisclosed fees that may appear. Dr Berger has helped thousands of  adopting families with domestic adoptions and international adoptions and he is available to assist you no matter what type of adoption you chose to pursue and regardless of whether you work with an adoption agency, facilitator or adoption attorney.  He can help you save your  time, effort and money in helping you to decide what routes to take and the best way to achieve your goal of adopting a child. He can help reduce your risks and potential pain and can help you avoid many of the problems and pitfalls found in the adoption process. You can read and download his free adoption manual or, for more information on how he can help you, please visit his Adoption Consultant link or contact him by phone (1-800-943-0400) or email.