What is A Home Study?
All prospective adoptive parents are required to complete a home study.
This is true for any type of domestic adoption. In Massachusetts anyone hoping to adopt must have their home study completed by a social worker at a licensed nonprofit adoption agency.
Though the home study process may sound complex and possibly intrusive, we hope it will help you decide if adoption is right for your family. It also helps ensure that children are placed into homes that are ready for them and can provide a nurturing environment.
We hope that you and Adoption Resources will become a team working together to build your family.
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Home Study Components
There are three purposes to a home study:
- To educate and prepare the adoptive family for parenting through adoption
- To learn about the adoptive family for the purposes of “matching” with a child
- To evaluate the family based on guidelines provided by the state in which they live
How Long Does a Home Study Take?
At Adoption Resources we hope to do the home study meetings in four weeks, if your schedule allows. Collecting the supporting documents often takes a bit longer. The sooner you can get the documents, the sooner we can complete the home study.
Home Study Interviews
A home study is usually made up of three to four interviews. This is a time to think and talk about the child you hope to adopt. Speaking about health and legal concerns as well as birth parents is part of this discussion. You may be asked to talk about your own childhood and attitudes about parenting. Past experiences with stress or loss can often be discussed in these meetings as well. We hope this will be a self-reflective time to educate yourself about parenting through adoption. If you are adopting as a couple, one interview will be with each person individually and the others will be with the two of you together. If you have other children in your home already they may be asked to meet the social worker.
A Home Visit
The home visit is conducted to make sure your home is a safe place for a child. You do not need to own your home. We hope you will have working smoke detectors, safe drinking water, and a hazard free environment for a child. We do not expect you to have a place already prepared for a child.
Supporting Documents
References, medical, reports, and criminal clearances are legally required to complete a home study. All of these items are listed for you in the home study packet which will be mailed to you from Adoption Resources. All of the forms and directions are there to help you collect the supporting documents.
Build Your Family Through Adoption
Your welcoming and positive attitude that first time we met, and every time after that, made the process so much easier. Thank you for everything Adoption Resources does. We wouldn’t be the family we are today without you.
−ADOPTIVE PARENTS