The Adoption Process in Pennsylvania

Written by Anthony Piccirilli

Sharing your life with a child is an opportunity to add meaning and value to it by helping a child grow to become a happy, caring, and productive individual. The adoption process allows you to achieve this even as you make a difference in the life of a child who might not otherwise experience the love and nurturing a parent provides. Anthony Piccirilli is a Pittsburgh adoption lawyer who can help make your dreams of either starting or adding to your family through adoption a reality.

Call Pittsburgh Divorce & Family Law, LLC at (412) 471-5100 to learn how he can help.

What Are the Steps to Adoption in Pennsylvania?

The Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption & Permanency Network outlines the state’s adoption process in eight simple steps.

1. Select an adoption agency, most of which you can identify in your local area by reviewing the County Children and Youth Directory found on the website of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

2. Complete an agency application, which requires information about your family composition, your background, and the characteristics of the child you would like to adopt. Your agency may also invite you to attend an informational session that discusses the adoption process and what to expect as you go through it.

3. Participate in a series of meetings with your adoption professional, which will lead to the creation of your family profile. This profile enables the adoption agency to make a better match for you even as the meetings will help you understand the complexities of adoption from the foster care system and how this may affect your family.

4. Register with the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange (PAE) even as your agency shares your family profile with other agencies to make a match. PAE checks the characteristics of families and children ongoing and notifies the agencies in its network when it identifies a potential match. Its agencies also try to make matches through their local recruitment efforts.

5. Spend time with the child you are matched with during the pre-placement visit an agency will schedule once it identifies a match. This will permit an opportunity to determine if the match is a good one for your family and the child.

6. Coordinate the child’s move into your home once the placement is permanent.

7. Expect an adoption worker to visit you regularly for about six months after the placement to offer support and assistance as well as to make certain your family and the child are building a stable relationship. These visits must occur before the adoption is finalized.

8. Appear in court for a hearing to finalize the adoption. A judge will review all of the necessary information, e.g., verification that the child may be adopted and that the agency consents to it. He or she will finalize the adoption once this happens and after reviewing information about the placement.

How Pittsburgh Divorce & Family Law, LLC Can Help

Pittsburgh Divorce & Family Law, LLC can guide you through the adoption process in Pennsylvania so that you can begin a new life with a child as part of your family. Attorney Anthony Piccirilli will help you each step of the way so that you know what to expect and to make the process is as seamless as possible.

Contact (412) 471-5100 to schedule a consultation to give a child a place to call home.