Adoption is the preferred permanent plan for those children who cannot be reunited with their parents. HSA contracts with community agencies which offer free adoption information and processing. Adoption staff assists both the child and the adoptive family to make sure that the placement is successful. Call for information about free adoption services.

How Can I Learn More about Adopting a Child?

Children need lots of love and lots of patience. Adults who are willing to provide these qualities and who can take on the responsibility of raising a child are eligible to become adoptive parents.

Adoptive parents can be experienced or new parents. They can be single, divorced, homeowners, renters, young adults or retired elders, with a modest to high income, with or without physical disabilities.

Through a partnership with Adoption-SF, the San Francisco Department of Human Services recruits, trains and prepares families to provide loving homes for San Francisco’s children.

What Is the Process?

After you contact Adoption-SF, you will be referred to one of several Bay Area agencies who will invite you to a regularly-scheduled information meeting. If you decide to proceed, you will be visited in your home to interview your family and also to determine if you have sufficient space appropriate for a child.

Social workers will help you prepare your family for adoption. Training is provided to parents in advance of any placement, centering on parenting and focusing on how to strengthen and support children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected. When an adopted child becomes part of your family, you will be offered ongoing support through monthly home consultations and continuing education. You will be offered the wisdom of other adoptive families in monthly gatherings.

The entire process, from screening through finalization, can take from six months to twenty-four months depending on the child's circumstances.

To meet some of San Francisco’s children who are seeking a permanent home, visit Adoption-SF’s website: http://www.adoptionsf.org