Provides information regarding the licensing and certification process for adoption and foster parenting including kinship fostering. Works with local agencies to recruit people who are interested in becoming foster/adoptive parents. Assists with applying for Cash Assistance and other financial assistance for kinship caregivers. Provides information about and referrals to community resources. Orientation meeting schedules are available on the website.

Arizona Department of Child Safety Foster Care & Adoption | Arizona Department of Child Safety Foster Care & Adoption

Programs that assess the needs and capabilities of children who have been relinquished for adoption, compile the children's social and medical histories, make arrangements for care and supervision of the children prior to placement, evaluate prospective adoptive applicants including a review of adoptive home studies, if available, and select and approve prospective adoptive homes.

Adoption Evaluation/Placement

Programs that link individuals who are in need of alternative living arrangements with appropriate private family homes that are licensed to provide foster care. Licensing requirements vary from state to state and, in some situations, licensing is not required at all. Programs that provide placement services for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for recruiting, training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.

Foster Home Placement

Programs that establish and enforce health, safety and program standards for foster homes, review applications for licenses, issue or deny licenses, inspect facilities for compliance with requirements and revoke licenses or bring disciplinary action for noncompliance.

Foster Home Licensing

Programs that provide information about the different types of adoption that are available as options and the requirements and procedures for adopting another individual for birth parents, adoptive parents and people who have been adopted. Included are programs that facilitate the adoption process by compiling information about children who are available for adoption in sharable formats such as photo albums, newsletters, video tapes or media campaigns (e.g., newspaper stories or television segments) that feature a particular adoptable child; and arranging activities such as picnics where prospective adoptive parents and children can meet informally. Also included are programs that provide referrals to organizations that offer adoption-related services a family might need.

Adoption Information/Referrals

Programs that meet with individuals who wish to adopt a child to evaluate the home environment in which the adopted child would reside and establish the suitability of the individuals to become adoptive parents. The studies explore people's reasons for wanting to adopt, their personalities, habits, life experiences and parenting ability or potential as a means of determining the kind of child best suited for placement in their home.

Adoptive Home Studies

Programs that provide temporary family living arrangements in agency-supervised private family homes for children who have been relinquished for adoption but have not yet been permanently placed. Some programs may also provide care for infants while birth parents decide whether to parent or place their child for adoption.

Preadoptive Foster Care

Programs that identify and enlist individuals and couples who are willing to provide a permanent home and new legal parentage for children who have been relinquished for adoption, particularly for children who have special needs.

Adoptive Family Recruitment

Provides free counseling to help women and couples who are facing an unplanned pregnancy or have recently given birth and are contemplating parenting options for their child. Assists women and couples in considering all their options, including parenting, adoption, abortion, kinship care, and foster care.

Spence-Chapin | Spence-Chapin

Programs that provide guidance and support following placement of a child to help the adopting family through the early period of adjustment or thereafter as needed.

Postadoption Counseling and Support

Programs that provide guidance and support for potential adoptive parents including assistance in understanding and evaluating the impact of adoption on their own lives.

Preadoption Counseling and Support

Divisions of businesses or nonprofit agencies that are responsible for developing products or delivering designated services to the public. Departments of NGOs are generally led by a manager, supervisor, director or vice president.

Nongovernmental Agency Departments

Programs that provide assistance for people who want to control the size of their families and the spacing of their children, usually through some form of birth control; who want to explore options for conceiving; who have a problem with infertility; or who have questions about the advisability of becoming pregnant or following through with a current pregnancy.

Family Planning

Programs that offer any of a wide variety of resources including books, audiotapes, video cassettes and learning games that provide information, techniques and suggestions for activities which enable parents to be more effective in their parenting role.

Parenting Materials

Programs that teach skills that enable parents to deal constructively and consistently with a broad spectrum of child rearing problems which may include sibling rivalry; school behavior and performance; poor self-esteem; shyness; drug use; sexual promiscuity; and the whole range of negative, acting-out behaviors including whining, temper tantrums, disobedience, insolence and destructiveness. Some parenting skills development programs utilize a step-by-step approach for managing specific problems and may incorporate application at home of techniques that were discussed and practiced in the classroom setting. Other programs may offer participatory family workshops which provide opportunities for parents and children to learn and practice methods for dealing with one another under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Most training programs teach the parent a particular way of talking and relating to their children that reinforces positive behaviors and communication and decreases negative behaviors while supporting the development of a relationship that is built on fairness, mutual caring and respect.

Parenting Skills Classes

Programs that identify and enlist people who are willing to provide foster care for dependent children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or abandonment and need an alternative family living arrangement, or for children or adults with developmental disabilities, sensory impairments, physical disabilities, emotional problems or multiple disabilities who are unable to live with their birth families or in an independent setting. Programs that recruit families to provide foster care for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.

Foster Parent/Family Recruitment

Programs that specialize in handling adoptions which allow for some form of association among birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees. In open adoptions, information about the adoptive parents and the birth parents (e.g., last names, addresses, and telephone numbers) is exchanged providing an opportunity for the adopted child to develop a relationship with his or her birth family. Whether ongoing contact is monthly, annually or sporadic depends on the parties and is generally decided by them rather than an agency or lawyer.