California residents who want to adopt a child may have to follow different rules depending on the type of adoption they seek. The California Department of Social Services classifies adoptions using three general categories: agency, independent and intercountry. The categorization of a given adoption impacts factors like birth parents' rights, who is responsible for care and custody during the process and consent.
Learning more about adoption classification in California
When a parent chooses to put a child up for adoption, he or she has three different options to choose from. The parent can choose to engage in an open adoption, a closed adoption or a semi-open adoption. In a closed adoption, the adopting parents and the birth parents do not know who the other party is. While they may have some information about each other, no identifying information is provided.
Adoption in California is complicated, rewarding
The decision to adopt a child may be one of the most important things you ever do. It may also be hugely rewarding to make yourself the legal parent of a child you are not biologically related to. Many happy families in Orange County are the result of adoption.
