Agency adoption is best described as a two-step legal process.  The process is as follows:

1.    Birth parents’ rights to a child are relinquished or terminated to an agency.

2.    Adoptive parents adopt the child from an adoption agency.

Agency adoptions occur through either a public agency or a private agency.  The nature and circumstances that bring a child to a public agency are very different from those that bring a child to a private agency.  Adoptive parents should be aware of the differences between the two types of agencies:

1.  Public Agency:

Public agencies are run by the city or county.  Children in public agencies have often been abused and/or neglected. Their biological parents’ rights have usually been involuntary terminated.

When children enter a public agency, they are immediately placed in foster care.  The foster care system gives biological parent the ability to address the problems that caused the child to be placed in foster care.  If the court finds that the biological parent does not rehabilitate in a certain period of time, the child becomes eligible for adoption through the public agency.  This process takes time; as a result, children adopted out of public agencies are usually older than those adopted out of private agencies or through domestic independent adoption.  A benefit to choosing public agency adoption is the low costs associated with it.

2.  Private Agency:

Private agencies are licensed by the state.  Biological parents voluntarily entrust the child to the agency and the agency places the child with an adoptive family.  In some states, including Virginia, birth parents may place a child with a private adoption agency while recommending the adoptive parents.  Most private agency adoptions involve newborns.

In Virginia, private agency adoptions are governed by Virginia Code § 63.2-1221-63.2-1229 .  In this form of adoption, a private agency obtains physical and legal custody of a child after the child’s birth parents voluntarily relinquish parental rights to the agency.  The private agency adoption then places the child for adoption with adoptive parents.

Voluntary Termination of Parental Rights in Private Agency Adoptions:

• In Virginia, a birth parent voluntarily terminates parental rights by entering into an “entrustment agreement.” The “entrustment agreement” terminates all the rights and responsibilities of the biological parents.   This agreement may be revoked by a birth parent until the child has both reached the age of 25 days and 15 days have passed since the parent signed the agreement.  Additionally, a biological parent can revoke an entrustment agreement before the adoption becomes final if he or she can prove fraud or coercion.  Revocation must be in writing and signed by the birth parent.