Role of Adoptive Parents
Adoptive parents become a 'forever family' to children who can no longer live with their biological family due to unresolved concerns for their safety and well being.
You must be interested in adopting a specific waiting child in Arapahoe County or Jefferson County to be considered by our program.
If you are not interested in any of our current waiting children, you are not open to being a foster parent or you only desire to adopt an infant or toddler, we recommend that you contact a private adoption agency or the Adoption Exchange.
To become an adoptive parent, you must:
- Attend an Informational Night
- Meet the Qualifications to Adopt
- Identify a Waiting Child with whom you would potentially like to be matched.
- Contact the Adoption Recruiter listed for each child you are interested in adopting.
- Complete Pre-Service Training and the Application Process
- Pass a Home Study
- If approved by our agency, undergo a Matching Process with our current waiting children.
Adoptive parents:
- Embrace adopted children as their own;
- Help the children succeed in a home free of abuse and neglect;
- Value the children's connections with family and loved ones;
- Foster the children's cultural connections;
- Nurture and guide the children's development;
- Handle difficult parenting situations, including lifelong emotional, behavioral, medical or developmental challenges that may result from the child's experiences with abuse, neglect, loss and separation;
- Provide the children with unconditional love and a lifetime of support.
Adoption is only considered possible:
- After all comprehensive efforts are exhausted in returning the child to their birth family,
- Parental rights are terminated, and
- The child is deemed 'legally free' by the District Court.
Adoption Support
Our adoption teams will work to provide resources and supportive services to an adoptive family until the adoption is finalized. County staff will assist with filing legal documents on behalf of the adoptive parents to finalize a child's adoption in the court system. Adoptive families may receive ongoing assistance and referrals to post-adoption resources, based on the child's needs.
Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties do not serve as an adoption agency for private adoptions and cannot facilitate adoptions outside of the child protection system.
