How to Find the Best Adoption Agencies in Indiana: 5 Steps
Everyone wants the best for their family. Choosing the right adoption agency is one of the most important decisions you'll make on your path to growing your family.
The right agency can guide you through the process with confidence, support, and transparency, making the journey smoother and more fulfilling. Learning to find the agencies that can provide this experience will help you set your family u for a successful adoption.
By following the guidelines we’ve laid out here, you can enter your adoption process having thoroughly vetted your options and found the best adoption agencies for your family. While you’re doing your research, we’d like to invite you to compare American Adoptions of Indiana against your top adoption agencies.
We believe our wide ranging experience, staff of local licensed professional and transparent wait times and prices make us a formidable competitor. Get more information or schedule a consultation to see if our services are right for you.
Finding the Best Adoption Agencies in Indiana
Finding a good adoption agency can be a lot of work; here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get the most out of the process. Remember, the best adoption agency for your family depends of your personal situation.
As we touched on before, American Adoptions is a licensed agency with transparent, public facing processes and an excellent track record stretching back 30+ years. We have dedicated local staff ready to help you. Contact us today to schedule your consultation.
The Best Adoption Agencies Near me
Though we are a national agency, we act locally. Our Indiana offices are staffed with local experts with Indiana-specific knowledge and deep community ties. These two offices are backed by the national American Adoptions agency, meaning we can offer families resources that smaller agencies could not.
If you’re ready to start your adoption journey or to learn more, contact our offices.
Indianapolis Office
Indianapolis, IN 46240
+1 (800) 236-7846
Brownsburg Office
Brownsburg, IN 46112
+1 (800) 236-7846
Questions to Ask Adoption Agencies
You may have scheduled a consultation, but the research doesn’t end there. In your first meeting with your adoption agency, be on the lookout for predatory behavior. Research can only get you so far, and scammers are good at hiding. Ask these questions to gain a more complete picture of the agency you’re dealing with, and remember to watch out for red flags.
What services do you provide?
Now is a good time to know whether you’ll need to hire third parties for steps of this process, like a home study provider and an adoption attorney.
What kind of support do you offer before and after adoption?
Some support, like home study preparation, pre-placement help, financial assistance and open adoption facilitation can have a great impact on your family moving forward. It’s important to know what you’ll be receiving up front.
Can you walk me through all the costs of this process?
This is an important question – do not let the agency representatives avoid giving you straight answers. Representatives should be able to give you at very least an estimate of costs associated with their services. Be sure to ask about reoccurring fees, hospital costs for the birth parent, and other things agencies may not include in your estimate.
What are your wait times? How are they calculated?
Wait times are essential information to know ahead of committing to working with an agency, especially if the agency charges reoccurring fees. Some agencies have been known to take on far more families than they can realistically place children with, creating wait times of up to five years, and then charge those families annually to keep their “services” active.
What Makes a Good Adoption Agency?
There are several factors that need to come together to make an adoption agency work well. Let’s break down some of the key components:
Licensing
While there are unlicensed adoption organizations with your best intentions at heart, remember that the licensing system exists to protect prospective parents like you from scams and exploitation. To learn more, refer to our guide on adoption agency licensing.
We are currently licensed in 12 states, including Indiana. This means that your information is kept secure and private at all times, and that essential information like our pricing structure, wait times and legal qualifications are all fully publicly accessible.
Transparency
Honesty and trustworthiness are pivotal aspects of any adoption agency. The best way to know whether you can trust an agency is by how much information they’re willing to share. If an organization is withholding information, there’s probably a reason why.
American Adoptions of Indiana is completely transparent about our internal processes. You can read about our wait times, pricing structure, adoptive family selection, the experience of our past customers and more.
Experience & Expertise
Experience refers to the number of years an agency has been taking on cases like yours successfully, while expertise references the formal training and certification of an agency’s staff. Both are essential for a well-rounded agency.
American Adoptions of Indiana has been taking on cases like yours for 30+ years. We have dedicated local staff who are certified and licensed in Indiana adoption law, ready to help you grow your family.
Positive Reviews
Personal experience is important. Read through online reviews, posts, and stories of past experiences. Try to gather a variety of perspectives to gain a holistic understanding of the agency you’re considering.
American Adoptions of Indiana has a great track record with the families we’ve helped. Feel free to verify this outside of our website, with Google Business reviews, adoption communities on Reddit and other online forums.
Personalized Support and Guidance
Everyone’s adoption story is different. Finding an agency that offers unique, personalized care for your specific situation can make a huge difference in your overall adoption experience.
We are proud of our personalized support. Each family who works with us is assigned an adoption coordinator, who stays with them and sees them through the entire process. This coordinator will get to know your family, your circumstances and specific needs and adjust your services accordingly.
Adoption Agency Red Flags
There are some things that could signify deeper concerns with an agency. Watch out for these early warning signs during your first interactions with your agency.
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Lack of Transparency: If you feel the agency representative is not answering your questions, there is probably a reason for that. Be wary of responses that sound like answers, but actually avoid giving out solid information.
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Hidden Fees: If your adoption professional begins mentioning fees you never discussed before, it may be a good time to consider changing agencies. Your representative should always be upfront with you about every cost involved in working with them. If there’s one hidden fee, who knows how many more could follow?
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Pressure Tactics: If you feel your adoption provider is pressuring you at any point, in any way, you should strongly consider changing agencies. This is your family. You deserve to make the choices that feel right to you.
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Poor Communication: If your adoption representative doesn’t get back to you within a few business days, consider what this may mean for the rest of your adoption process.
If you’re ready to stop waiting and begin your adoption journey, reach out to us today. We hope with our agency’s support you can begin your life as a parent in the way you’ve always dreamed of.
Disclaimer
Information available through these links is the sole property of the companies and organizations listed therein. American Adoptions provides this information as a courtesy and is in no way responsible for its content or accuracy.