by Laurie Walker and Desiree Koudele

Each year American Adoptions takes a fresh look at the average range of adoption expenses and wait times our families are experiencing. We do this so that we can continue to provide more of an accurate reflection to families on both of these topics to better prepare them for what to expect on an average with their own adoption experience. In prior years, this has resulted in the agency increasing the average wait times that we prepare families for, while in other years this has resulted in the average wait times decreasing. In the past, the average adoption expenses have stayed the same while other years they have been shown to have increased for many reasons.

On December 1st, American Adoptions made a change to how we are preparing families for the average adoption budget range and wait time to reflect what our agency has seen over the past few months. Those new updates include:

Traditional Program

  • Average Wait Until Adoption Opportunity: 1-9 months
  • Average Wait Until Placement: 3-12 months
  • Cost: $30,000 to $44,000*

*Approximately 14 percent of the adoptions in this program are above $44,000 due to higher cost medical bills, legal fees and support provided to pregnant mothers. The agency fees are the same in every adoption regardless of the total cost of the adoption.

Agency-Assisted Program

  • Average Wait Until Adoption Opportunity: 1-9 months
  • Average Wait Until Placement: 1-12 months
  • Cost: $22,000 to $28,000*

*Approximately 10 percent of the adoptions in this program are above $28,000 due to higher cost medical bills, legal fees and support provided to pregnant mothers. The agency fees are the same in every adoption regardless of the total cost of the adoption.

Why the Change? Although still more than half of American Adoptions’ families are hitting the 3-9 month placement timeframe for the Traditional Program or the 1-9 month timeframe for the Agency-Assisted Program (as were our previous timeframes), our agency has seen a slight shift in these programs over the past few months. As a result, our agency began to see that less than 75 percent of our families were adopting within those standards. It’s our preference to provide families with an average expectation depicting what 75 percent or more of our families experience with a wait time. This being because we know some families feel like they are failing if they go beyond the average and begin to fear an adoption will never happen only because they are not adopting within the average time frames. In efforts to decrease that type of negative response some families have, we’ve decided to raise the expectations to more accurately reflect the current trend we are seeing. This does not mean the trend could not change again. It certainly has before and likely will again in the future. Our agency will continue to keep families updated and report any future changing trends.

Does this mean the agency is working with less birth mothers or doing less adoptions? No, not at all. In fact, the agency is on track to complete more adoptions this year than in any other year.

Now that the wait for an adoption opportunity mean and average support and education fee ranges have increased, does the agency suggest we increase our post-activation budget too? The agency recommends always ensuring your APQ is as flexible as it can be to your comfort level. Although it is not necessary to increase your budget, if you feel you are able to please make contact with your Adoptive Family Specialist. Just as any additional openness to your APQ can increase your profile exposure, so can an increase in the budget.

For more information or to discuss how these changes may impact your family, please contact your Adoptive Family Specialist at 1-800-ADOPTION.