What is the difference between an agency adoption and an independent adoption?

Answer 1

The main difference is who facilitates the adoption.

An agency adoption is arranged through a licensed public or private adoption agency. The agency typically helps identify or match prospective adoptive parents and children, conducts or coordinates home studies, handles much of the required paperwork, provides counseling and support, and helps ensure that legal requirements are satisfied. Foster-care adoptions are commonly handled through public agencies.

An independent adoption (sometimes called a private adoption) generally occurs without an adoption agency acting as the primary intermediary. The birth parent(s) and prospective adoptive parent(s) may find one another directly or with assistance from attorneys or other permitted professionals. Attorneys usually handle the legal process, and required services such as a home study still must be completed.

Neither type allows the parties simply to bypass adoption law. Requirements concerning parental consent, termination of parental rights, home studies, court approval, expenses that may legally be paid, and waiting or revocation periods still apply.

In short:

Agency adoption: an authorized agency manages or facilitates much of the process.

Independent adoption: the parties arrange the adoption more directly, generally using attorneys and other required professionals rather than an agency as the central intermediary.

The availability and rules for independent adoption vary considerably from state to state, so the law of the particular jurisdiction is important.