What is a private licensed adoption agency placement?
In an agency adoption, the birth mother relinquishes, or transfers, her parental rights to the licensed child-placing agency following the birth of her child. Thereafter, the adoption agency places the child with a prospective adoptive family approved through a comprehensive home study process. The private agency is responsible for screening the adoptive family, counseling the birth parents, handling the termination of rights of the biological parents of the child, providing permissible financial assistance to the birth mother, and supervising the placement until finalization. The agency holds legal custody of the child until finalization. Families can apply to Texas or out-of-state licensed adoption agencies. More Texas agencies are also handling the adoption of foreign children. In fact, one estimate is that sometimes as many as one-half of adoptions at some agencies are for children born overseas.
