Child adoption facilitators versus child adoption agencies: The US government and many state authorities are receiving and ever growing number of complaints concerning child adoption facilitators operating in various states and countries.

Agencies vs. Facilitators is an informative article about the differences between using agencies or adoption facilitators to adopt. Laws differ from state to state about whether facilitators can legally operate, particularly if they receive money for their services.

The improper use of a paid Adoption Facilitator could have a detrimental impact on the finalization of an adoption, and may even present problems under state criminal statutes.

I confess to not knowing much about why some people choose to use facilitators as opposed to agencies. Is cost a factor? As problematic as some agencies may be, I would think that they might be safer.

According to the article above, some states and countries do not require that adoption facilitators be licensed. Does that make sense to anyone? We require licenses for people to cut our hair and many less important services, but not to handle the adoption of a child? Somehow that seems wrong to me.

They also say that since some facilitators are not licensed that it makes it difficult to hold them accountable if they commit fraud or other bad practices. Accountability seems a huge issue in adoption with facilitators OR agencies. Although some agencies do not seem to suffer many consequences when they breach ethical standards, it seems the tide is turning in that respect and we are holding agencies more accountable these days.

Any industry or service that is not licensed seems much less likely to suffer any consequences when they have ethical lapses. What are the advantages of using an adoption facilitator as opposed to an agency, particularly in states or countries where they are unlicensed? I am guessing that you might get many different responses to this question. Like much in adoption, there may be a variety of opinions.

Although I have heard a great deal about ethical issues with agencies, I have not heard too much about adoption facilitators. I would be interested to know the difference in experiences between the two, and especially about the ethics of each. Of course, agencies and facilitators differ greatly, but I am curious as to the reasoning behind using a facilitator instead of an agency.


Further Reading:

Facilitators (defined)


Adoption Facilitators


Photo by Jan Baker 2007