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Adoption Dictionary
These are some of the terms you may read or hear in connection with adoption.
Adoptable Child
A child waiting to be adopted.
Adopted Person or Adoptee
Someone who has been legally adopted.
Adoption Agreement
 A document in which birth and adoptive parents agree to a plan which outlines the degree of communication between them.
Adoption Plan
Refers to the birthparents' decision to allow their child to grow up in an adoptive family.
Adoption Social Worker
A trained professional who counsels birth and adoptive parents regarding adoption and parenting.
Adoption Triad
Birthparents, adoptive parents, and the adopted child(ren).
Adoptive Parents
Person(s) who adopt a child.
At-Risk Placement or Legal-Risk Placement
The placement of a child into a family when birthparents' rights have not yet been legally severed or when rights have been severed but the appeal period has not expired.
Birthparents (also known as birthmother and birthfather)
Biological or genetic parents of a child.
Confidential Adoption or Closed Adoption
An adoption plan where birth and adoptive parents do not meet, do not share identifying information, and do not keep in contact.
Designated, Private, or Identified Adoption
An adoption where birthparents identify a family without using the help of an agency or attorney.
Direct Consent Adoption
An adoption where rights are transferred directly from the birthparents to the adoptive parents.
Direct Placement
This occurs when waiting families receive the infant immediately after discharge from the hospital.
Disrupted Adoption
An adoption that fails before or after finalization.
Domestic Adoption
The adoption of a child who is born in the United States.
Dossier (only for international adoption)
The packet of documents that must be assembled and sent to the foreign country in order to receive a referral of a child for adoption. It always includes a home assessment, but also often includes such documents as medical reports, financial information and references. Requirements vary in each country.
Family Assessment or Home Study
A series of interviews, both joint and individual, and a home visit that are part of the pre-adoption process for adoptive families.
Finalization
The legal process which makes the adoption permanent and binding.
Final Order of Adoption
A document which states the child is legally adopted by a specific family. This document comes from the country where the child is adopted, i.e., either here in the US or in the country where the child was born
Foster Care for Infants (also known as cradle care, or interim care)
A temporary, loving home for an infant while the birthparents make a final decision regarding adoption or parenting.
Identifying Information
Information about members of the adoption triad such as full names and addresses.
Independent Adoption
An adoption where the child is placed directly with the adoptive couple, usually through an attorney or intermediary, without pre-adoption counseling for the birthparents or the adoptive couple.
Intake
The adoptive family provides information to an agency in order to start the adoption process.
Interstate Compact
A law that requires written notice of the intention to place a child from one state for adoption or foster care with a family in another state.
Networking
A process by which waiting families use a variety of techniques to make birthparents aware of their desire to adopt a child.
 Non-Identifying Information
Information which allows the members of the adoption triad to know something about each other, but does not directly identify them to each other. First names, physical descriptions, occupation, education, personality characteristics, hobbies, interests, and religious affiliation are examples of non-identifying information.
Open Adoption
An adoption plan in which identifying information about birth and adoptive families is openly shared, and there is ongoing contact after placement occurs.
Post-Placement (or Post-Adoption) Counseling
Counseling offered to adoptive families and birthparents after a child is placed for adoption.
Post-Placement (or Post-Adoption) Reports
After the child is placed with an adoptive family, a social worker must visit the family and submit a report to the courts. The number of visits and reports varies from state to state.
Post-Placement (or Post-Adoption) Support Services
Any assistance, offered by some agencies, provided to the adoptive family and birthparents after placement. It always includes visits in order to prepare post-placement reports. Other services are provided as necessary.
Pre-Placement Counseling
Counseling provided to prepare birthparents for the release of their child and to prepare adoptive couples for adoptive parenthood.
Profile
Pictures and information that introduce a prospective adoptive family to birthparents.
Relinquishment of Parental Rights
See Voluntary Termination of Parental Rights.
Semi-Open Adoption
An adoption plan where there is planned communication, spelled out in a written agreement, that takes place between the adoptive and birthparents while the child is growing up. The agreement and subsequent communication are arranged through a third party, a mediator, who is sensitive to issues of both families.
Special Needs Adoption (sometimes referred to as "children with special placement needs")
This phrase refers to children who have physical or emotional challenges, who are older children, or who are members of a sibling group or a racial minority (as defined by the federal government).
 Traditional Agency Adoption
An adoption where an agency identifies and brings together birthparents, children, and adoptive parents.
Voluntary Termination of Rights (sometimes referred to as Surrenders)
A situation where birthparents have chosen to legally relinquish their parental rights.
Waiting Families
Families waiting to adopt a child.
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