What to Look for in An Adoption Agency

I’m Julie Tye. I’m President and CEO of The Cradle. I’ve been with the organization for over 18 years.

How does The Cradle help expectant mothers?
Our job is to help a woman understand what her options are, evaluate those options objectively so that she can make a plan that she won’t regret. So we don’t do adoption counseling, we do options counseling.

What qualities should an expectant mother look for in an adoption agency?
She should look for an organization that is tax-exempt and is a non-profit recognized under what we call 501(c)3. Tax-exempt organizations have very high standards of transparency when it comes to disclosing our financial position so an expectant mother can be sure that the agency isn’t profiting from her decision to make an adoption plan. I recommend that clients, whether you’re an expectant mom or a prospective adoptive parent, ask the agency for their audited financial statements. A 501(c)3 is obligated to disclose that financial information. If an agency withholds that information, which is a huge red flag that there’s something in their finances they don’t want you to see.

When an expectant mom is evaluating agencies, we recommend that she not only look at the website’s pages that talk to expectant parents but look at the website pages that talk to adoptive parents. Look for a process that includes a lot of education, where the parents are expected to attend classes with other prospective adoptive parents where they’re learning about the process of adoption and the lifelong implications of it. Most agencies on their website will describe what the process is for adoptive parents. Call the agency and ask how long an average home study takes. If you hear an answer that’s under three or four months, I would be concerned. And if you hear under two weeks, I would run in the opposite direction. It means that the agency is not screening adoptive parents properly. I really do think the bottom line, when anybody is evaluating adoption resources, is, “Does this organization exist for the purpose of finding families of children in need, or for finding children for families?”

Does The Cradle find families for children with special needs and for children of color?
Reputable child welfare agencies have as a driving force finding capable families for all children, including those children with special needs. It takes significant agency resources to find those families, but agencies that are committed to the children will be willing to invest those resources. It also takes significant resources to find families of color for children who are being placed for adoption. Our goal at The Cradle is to make sure an expectant mom has choice among families that she will select for her baby. We spend significant resources into creating awareness in the black community, here in Chicago for example, that there are babies available for adoption and that The Cradle is a resource for families of color that are looking to create or expand their families.