Expenses of Adopting a Child

Understanding what to expect in the way of adoption fees and knowing the state laws on adoption expenses could help you with the entire child child adoption process.

Some people believe that they should pay nothing for adopting a child since they, the adopting family, are providing a loving home for a child.  However, there are costs to every adoption and the provision of adoption services generates high overhead. 

Adoption through the state foster care program may cost you little or nothing, but there are still substantial costs involved.  It is interesting to note that the costs involved in a state foster-care adoption are approximately $35,000, but these costs are paid for by tax dollars and not directly by the family who is adopting. So the adoption process is still costly but the adoption to the family appears to cost nothing or almost nothing.

A private child adoption or an agency child adoption is different since the costs are not covered by tax dollars and all of the fees are your responsibility.  The final total expense will depend on several variables including factors like the child's age, nationality, whether the child is a special needs or hard to place child, what adoption agency or adoption attorney you work with, and what country you adopt from.

Typically costs involved in adopting a healthy newborn are higher than in adopting a child with special needs, an older or "hard-to place" child or a child from another country. The costs include many things such as the medical and pregnancy related expenses of the birth mother, your Home Study, federal, state, and country fees, agency fees, your attorney and the birth parents legal fees, court and filing fees as well as travel and foreign country fees.

Total cost of a infant can range from $0 to $60,000 - $70,000 and up, while international child adoption costs range from a few thousand dollars all the way up to approximately $40,000.

For a more detailed discussion of expenses visit the Adoption Services link Adoption Costs.

Most U.S. states have as part of their adoption law some regulation of the fees and expenses that you will be expected to pay when arranging a child adoption. To see how your state addresses this, visit ChildAdoptionLaws.com.  The Child Welfare Information Gateway article State Regulation of Adoption Expenses also discusses this issue in detail.

For additional information regarding adoption law issues, please visit Child Adoption Laws and for additional help regarding child adoption, please visit Adoption Services.