Verify the adoption route and providers, prepare official requirements, plan staged family costs and maintain support after placement.
Learn about the actual domestic, intercountry, kinship or foster-care route and the responsible authorities. Consider the child’s identity, relationships, access and long-term support needs. In foster care, understand the current permanency goal and the role of reunification rather than treating fostering as a low-cost route to a guaranteed adoption.
Check the agency or professional’s current license, authorization and role through the responsible authority. Obtain written information about eligibility, training, assessment, consent, matching, legal steps, fees, complaints and support. For cross-border cases, verify the applicable immigration and adoption requirements through the official authorities before committing.
Use the agency’s current checklist for interviews, references, background checks, health or financial records, training and home assessment. Understand how the process assesses the family’s ability to meet a child’s needs. Keep sensitive documents in the designated secure system and track only useful references and next actions in the planner.
Obtain written fees and refund terms for the actual process, including legal work, assessment, travel, postplacement requirements and support. Add expected arrival costs, ongoing care and any chosen work or income change. Use actual payment milestones and test delays, while keeping possible tax benefits or assistance separate from payment-day cash.
Use the official route for consent, placement, legal proceedings and required reports. Ask the agency and legal adviser to explain each milestone and any remaining conditions. Prepare the household and support network for the child’s actual needs, including continuity of relationships, education, healthcare and communication where appropriate.
Confirm post-adoption services, records, benefits and ongoing family support. Reconcile actual expenses, reimbursements and documentation. For tax year 2026, the maximum federal adoption credit is $17,670 and the potentially refundable portion is up to $5,120, subject to eligibility, phaseouts and timing rules. Review the current instructions for the applicable year.
Keep route-specific learning tasks, official contacts and questions about responsibilities and support. · Track provider verification, official requirements, questions and dated written responses. · Manage assessment and training tasks, document references, responsible contacts and confirmation dates. · Track the actual placement, postplacement, legal and support tasks with receipt or outcome references. · Keep support follow-ups, expense-document references, tax questions and the next family review.
Plan actual family-arrival, recurring care and one-time agency, legal and travel costs, with income reduction shown separately.
Use the dated cash timeline for actual fees and expected receipts. · Update the actual household costs and receipts after the process advances.
Check practical care windows when the household’s arrangements change.
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Child Welfare Information Gateway explains the assessment and preparation involved in a home study. Its overview is not a substitute for current local requirements.
California DSS explains its family-reunification and concurrent permanency process. Verify the plan and authority for the actual child and jurisdiction.
IRS guidance explains qualifying expenses, timing and benefit coordination. The separate 2026 adjustment announcement gives that year’s maximum and refundable portion.
Record what each payment covers and the applicable refund terms.
Relationships, identity, services and practical family support remain relevant after the legal process.