Adoptive Parent's Requirements
While adoption seems like a system of definite answers and strict delineations, it is in fact a complex system with many different factors contributing toward approval for adoption. You may be surprised to find that conditions you thought made you ineligible, such as a lower income or single status, do not necessarily bar you from adoption. Governed by many parties, including state, federal and international law, adoption is a system with many rules, but many exceptions. The key for a parent or parents who wish to adopt is patience and an ability to explain why an exception to a seemingly hard and fast rule should be made in their case.
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Limitations
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There are many more strictures determining who can adopt than the law. While legal requirements do exist to determine eligibility to adopt, a number of other factors are at play. Adoption agencies can set their own standards of adoption, allowing certain agencies to have more strict requirements than what is legally required. Additionally, the birth parents can make criteria decisions that can determine your eligibility to adopt the child. Finally, your own limitations, whether it be financial or the age of the child in question, will shape the boundaries you place around yourself when adopting.
Relationships
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Adoption is available to most, but not all family units in the United States. A single person is allowed to adopt, as is a married couple. You can be eligible for adoption whether you already have children or have none. Gay men and their partners are eligible for adoption the entire United States except Missouri and Florida. That being said, adoption agencies will often set their individual criteria, for infants in particular, to allow only couples who have been married for several years.
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International Adoption
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Another factor that often limits adoption are the rules placed on adopting international children by the children's nation of birth. Some examples include nations that do not allow adoption by single parents, such as Thailand and Armenia. Some countries even have weight restrictions on prospective parents, such as South Korea, which insists that parents not be more than 30 percent overweight.
Age
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Age is one factor that is universally important in adoption considerations. While certain countries allow for adoption up to the age of 60, anyone over the age of 55 must accept certain limits within the United States. Typically, any hopeful adopter over the age of 55 may only adopt children who are already of school age.
Criminal Record
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One of the most unyielding parts of adoption law are those requirements designed to weed out potentially negligent parents. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 requires that parents putting children up for adoption must be provided with a criminal background check of the potential adopting parent. Furthermore, any person convicted of child abuse, spousal abuse, neglect, child endangerment, child pornography or many violent crime, such as rape, murder and sexual assault are not allowed to adopt under federal law. Other crimes, even some violent ones, such as assault and drug-related felony convictions, only make a potential adopter ineligible if the crime was less than five years previous to the adoption attempt.
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