Licensed Adoption Agencies v Unlicensed [Which Should I Pick?]

A licensed adoption agency in the simplest terms is an organization that has met your state’s standards for trustworthiness, transparency and risk-protection.

Licensed adoption professionals, such as agencies and attorneys, offer regulated services, while unlicensed professionals may have fewer legal protections and oversight.

Learning more about licensing and the risk of using unlicensed providers can help simplify your decisions around your adoption provider.

If you’re looking for more information on licensed adoption agencies, it may help to know more about our services. You can request free information from us to help you make your decision, or schedule a consultation.

What are Licensed Adoption Agencies?

A licensed adoption agency is an organization that meets the state’s requirements to legally facilitate adoption. Though each state has different requirements, most requirements relate to:

Obtaining a license to operate as an adoption agency is complicated process, where the state government comes to your offices and verifies that everything about your agency meets its standards.

This involves inspecting our offices, reviewing our files, and running comprehensive background checks on our employees. You can think of it as a home study, but for adoption agencies.

Licensed Adoption Agencies: Accountability

Licensing is not permanent. The state government reviews and inspects licensed adoption agencies multiple times per year, and will revoke their license if they feel the agency has violated the state’s regulations.

This isn’t just a bureaucratic process; it has real, tangible benefits to you. Ongoing government oversight holds licensed agencies accountable for mistakes, no matter how small. Public accountability helps ensure those who work with licensed agencies have a safe, transparent and reliable method of adoption.

Licensed Adoption Agencies: Benefits

Prospective parents working with licensed adoption agencies can rest easy knowing that the licensing process ensures these benefits:

How are Licensed Adoption Agencies in Indiana Regulated?

Licensed agencies have several files reviewed every year by state agencies. Files subject to review include:

These reviews serve to ensure agencies are following all local and federal laws, and makes sure adoptive families are being supported and respected.

Unlicensed Adoption Professionals: Facilitators and Consultants

Unlicensed adoption professionals are an organization or an individual facilitating adoption without a license from the state in which they reside. It is illegal to refer to yourself as an adoption agency if you are not licensed, so many of these organizations use the term adoption specialist or adoption consultant.

The practical effect of this is prospective parents will not be able to enjoy any of the benefits listed above while working with these agencies. There is no oversight, which means there is no way to prevent these organizations from lying, withholding information, or locking their clients into a predatory payment structure.

What is the Difference Between an Adoption Facilitator and Consultant?

Adoption facilitators make introductions between birth mothers and prospective parents. Adoption consultants are more like independent advisors, who can give advice or guidance on particular aspects of adoption but don’t directly facilitate it. Notably, unlicensed adoption facilitation is illegal in most states (including Indiana), whereas adoption consultation is not.

It is extremely important to note that these are informal titles that don’t have any licensing requirements or accountability.

In other words, all it takes to become an adoption facilitator or consultant is hanging a sign on the door. With the barrier to entry being so low, untrustworthy actors can use these informal titles to attempts taking advantage of families trying to adopt.

Drawbacks of Unlicensed Adoption Providers

Prospective parents working with an unlicensed adoption specialist may encounter these difficulties:

• Illegal or unethical practices

• High financial risk

• Inaccurate price advertising and predatory fee structures

• General lack of support

• Inadequate legal knowledge

• Inadequate service provisioning

• Unresponsive providers

• And more

Adoption Agency Licensing Across Multiple States

National adoption agencies are agencies that are licensed in two or more states. For each individual state the licensing process is separate and the restrictions are different, meaning that a national agency must meet both sets of restrictions. In addition to considering state laws, national agencies also abide by federal law.

This cross-country accountability structure creates an extremely transparent, outward-facing organization. American Adoptions, the national agency that backs our firm, is licensed in 12 states, including Indiana.

We are proud to say 12 different state governments consistently check our records, our legal expertise, and our ethics, as we continue to deliver you transparent wait times, honest prices, and crucial emotional support.

Connect with us now to work with a trusted, knowledgeable partner in your adoption process.

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