COA - Council On Accreditation

	Adoption Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Definition

Adoption Services provide information, counseling, and support to birth parents, children, youth, and prospective adoptive parents to facilitate permanent caring relationships for children within families. Adoption Services also provide support to birth parents, adopted individuals, and adoptive parents after an adoption has been finalized.

Note: The term “children” includes infants, toddlers, school-age children, and youth. The term “birth parents” includes expectant parents. The term “prospective adoptive parents” can include foster parents and kinship caregivers that are seeking to adopt the child in their care.

Note: When the case involves an Indian child, the agency should engage and collaborate with the child’s tribe throughout the provision of adoption services as outlined in the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which governs state proceedings involving Indian children. This requires the inclusion of tribal representatives throughout all aspects of service delivery including, but not limited to, assessment, service planning, permanency planning, and case closing. Additional opportunities for inclusion are identified in the standards. While collaboration with federally recognized tribes is required by ICWA, organizations should reach out to tribal representatives in cases involving federally non-recognized tribes as well, as their involvement in the case will improve access to culturally-relevant resources and help establish permanency through a heightened sense of belonging and connectivity to the child’s extended family, clan, or tribe.

While local Indian organizations are not granted the same rights as federally recognized tribes under the Indian Child Welfare Act, there may be circumstances under which their involvement is necessary and appropriate. These organizations can facilitate the child’s connection to his or her tribe, inform the family and the agency of services available to the child, act as an advocate for the Indian child and his or her family, and provide ongoing support and information. This involvement is particularly important when the child’s tribe does not have the infrastructure to participate formally in the case or when the tribe is geographically distant from the child’s home and their participation is somewhat limited.

Note: Home Study Services will complete: PA-AS 3, 6, 12, and 13 only.

Post Placement Services will complete: PA-AS 14.6, 11, 12, and 13 only.

Foster Care to Adoption Services will complete: PA-AS 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 only.

Note: Please see Self-Paced_Training: Adoption Services (AS) in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.


	PURPOSE: Adoption Services establish a permanent family for children and youth awaiting adoption, and increase the well-being and functioning of birth parents, adoptive families, and adopted individuals.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN Children and adolescents legally required to attend school. COA does not provide specific age limits for this term; however "school-age" is generally considered to be between the ages of 5 - 17 years old.


	FOSTER PARENTS State- or county-licensed adults who provide a temporary home for children whose birth parents are unable to care for them. Foster parents are not considered employees or personnel and are specifically referenced in all relevant standards.


	CAREGIVER The provider of physical, emotional, and social needs to another person, often dependent and unable to provide for his or her own needs. Caregiver is the generic term used for the direct service providers in Community Care and Support Services (CCS).


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.


	INDIAN CHILD As defined in the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), "Any unmarried person who is under age eighteen and is either (a) a member of an Indian tribe or (b) eligible for membership in an Indian tribe and is the biological child of a member of an Indian tribe." For purposes of compliance with ICWA, the definition provided in the Act shall apply. For purposes of access to services and resources, other more inclusive definitions may apply (e.g. Indian Education Act, tribal definitions, etc.).


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.


	INFANT A child aged one year and under.


	CASE CLOSING A voluntary or involuntary process which occurs when an organization no longer assumes responsibility for providing services to a particular individual, group, or family. Also known as "termination" or "discharge."


	INDIAN ORGANIZATION As defined in ICWA, "Any group, association, partnership, cooperation, or other legal entity owned or controlled by Indians, or a majority of whose members are Indians."