How Do I Secure a Maine Adoption?
To adopt in Maine, you must e-mail the state’s Child and Family Services Department. The email must display your interest in securing a Maine Adoption and must also affirm your residency in the state. To contact your local department of Health and Human Services please www.maine.gov/dhhs/DHSaddresses.htm.
After contacting your local Department of health and Human Services office, you must go over the general requirements of a Maine Adoption; these requirements include minimum age, residency issues etc. After observing these requirements you will be invited to attend an informational gathering with other families looking to secure Maine adoptions. This meeting will explain the following requirements of an ME adoption:
• The meeting will go over the characteristics and ages of the children with special needs that are placed for Maine adoptions
• The meeting will help your family develop and understand reasonable expectations concerning your abilities to satisfy special needs children
• The meeting will go over the eligibility standards implemented by the state
• And lastly, the meeting will discuss the stages of the foster and/or adoptive care process and times for completing said stages
Maine Adoption Training:
After the informational meeting you will be invited to attend the state’s Adoptive and Foster Family Training course, which consists of 24 hours of prep training for parenting children with special needs. This course is administered in eight weekly sessions or over four consecutive Saturdays.
Maine Adoption: The Family Study Program
With a Maine adoption you and your family will be asked to construct autobiographies and participate in several interviews with a social worker. These interviews are an essential part of the Maine adoption process; they allow you and the social worker the opportunity to discuss how your family functions, it’s strengths, weaknesses and how that may affect your prospective Maine adoption.
Maine Adoption: Matching and Placement
Once you have completed the study and training process, and are approved by the Maine adoption agency, you will be given a photo-listing of children available for ME adoption. The list of children is selected for you based on your ability’s to meet the child’s unique needs; the focus of the Maine Child and Family Services agency is to find the right families for adoptive children. When a match is affirmed, a complete presentation of the child’s history and unique needs are presented.
After the matching process, the Maine adoption will proceed with a negotiation process. This procedure is implemented to provide adoption assistance to your family, depending on the needs of the child and the circumstances of your family. The Maine adoption process is then followed by “visitation” times which may last from several days to several weeks, depending on the needs of the individual family/child.
Maine Adoptions: Post Placement
When children are placed in your home, you will host home visits to help “fine tune” the adjustment process. These visits will last at least 6 months or until the agency can recommend the Maine adoption to be legalized in local court. To facilitate this process you may hire an adoption attorney to represent you in formal court. Following the adoption hearing in probate court, you will maintain sole legal responsibility for your child.
Maine Adoption: Post-Legalization Maine Adoption Services
The Child and Family Services agency views Maine adoptions as lifelong processes. All adopting families in Maine experience normal “developmental” crises in their lifetimes. Maine adoption agencies provide Adoption Assistance Programs through various subsidies, medical insurance through Medicaid and other services to ensure that ME adoptions are carried out in the most efficient manner possible. The agency’s caseworkers are available to provide consultation, including help via post Maine adoption parent support groups.
Maine Adoptions: Who are the Children Available for Adoption through the Department of health and Human Services?
Prospective Maine adoptions through the Department of Health and Human Services make children of all ages who have experienced loss or trauma available. Children typically up for ME adoptions need families that can provide unconditional love and nurturing; these children need an abundance of attention to fulfill their extreme physical, emotional and mental needs.
What Maine Adoption Services are Available through Private Agencies?
The bulk of private agencies provide birthparent services and counseling, as well as home studies and private adoptions to prospective Maine parents. Moreover, ME adoption services facilitate with the placement of infants and special needs children of all ages from Maine, the U.S. and several foreign countries. Some ME adoption agencies will also provide support agencies, search services and educational services to those involved in the Maine adoption process.
Who is allowed to secure a Maine Adoption?
Any unmarried individual or married may adopt according to Maine law on adoption. Adoptive parents may take any form; adoptive parents as varied as biological parents. The only thing ME adoption agencies care about is one characteristic: the adoptive parents must accept the child into their home as a member of their family.
How do I Find a ME Adoption Agency?
Maine adoptions may be processed by eight licensed full time private adoption agencies and 13 offices of the Department of Health and Human Services. Each agency provides a variety of adoption services throughout the state of Maine. Each Maine adoption agency has its own eligibility requirements and maintains its own file of prospective parents. Some Maine adoption agencies have Maine adoptions services for children with certain needs or characteristics; however, each Maine adoption agency must adhere to Interstate Placement Requirements.
