Eligibility Requirements for International Adoption

1. The adoptive home must meet the physical requirements for adoptive homes established by the Department of Early Education and Care regulating that there is adequate space and that health and safety issues are adequately addressed.

2. The applicants must be at least twenty-five years of age or older to become an adoptive parent. Singles and couples may apply. Couples must have been together for at least two years at the time of the application.

3. All household members must have a background free of conduct, which in the judgment of Community Care Services, bears adversely upon their ability to provide for the safety and well-being of children. All applicants and household members are required to complete a Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) and a family background record check with the Department of Children and Families. Applicants should not have a report of child abuse or neglect on file with any state division.

4. The adoptive home must provide a safe and stable environment and have the capacity to successfully parent and meet the physical and emotional needs of all children in their home.

5. The adoptive parents and all household members need to be free of communicable disease and physical and mental disabilities which would interfere with their ability to care for children. A written statement from a physician is required.

6. Applicants must participate in an interview process with an adoption social worker providing information around family history, individual history, social, educational, and health history as well as motivation for adopting.

7. Applicants must provide Community Care Services with three written references.

8. Applicants must be financially stable and have an income and assets that sufficiently meet the needs of the family including any prospective adoptive children.

9. Applicants are required to attend MAPP (Massachusetts Approach to Partnerships in Parenting), the DCF pre-licensing training program for pre-adoptive families.

10. All members of the household need to participate in the homestudy.