9 Jobs In Adoption Agencies To Consider For Your Career

Family planning comes in many forms, and there are numerous professionals who work in different areas of this field to support people who want to add children to their families. Many people use adoption agencies to add a child or multiple children to their families through legal means. If you’re interested in a career in adoption, it’s useful to understand the types of jobs available to you in this field. In this article, we discuss some jobs in adoption agencies you can get to start your career and help introduce children to loving homes.

Why look for Jobs in Adoption Agencies?

Your reason for looking for jobs in adoption agencies likely depends on your personal ideals, but there are a few common reasons many people join this field. For example, you may have personal experiences with adoption and want to recreate the rewarding experience you saw when your family or friends adopted a child. If you enjoy working with children, a job in this field can be a great choice as, depending on your role, you may interact regularly with children and their families.

A career in adoption can be rewarding and fulfilling, and there are many areas of work from which you can choose. Some examples are the legal sector of adoption, the mental health and counseling portion, and the family matching and foster care aspect. With skills in these areas and a passion for adoption, you may greatly benefit from a career with an agency.

Jobs in adoption agencies to start your career

Here are some common jobs in adoption agencies you can consider as you think about starting your career in adoption services:

1. Child adoption specialist

National average salary: $36,079 per year

Primary duties: An adoption specialist focuses on placing children with adoptive families, which they accomplish by screening adoption candidates and helping them meet a child who can fit well into their family. They may complete duties like visiting potential adoptive families’ homes, identifying the qualities adoptive parents want in a child, and communicating with families throughout the adoption process. These professionals interact regularly with both adoptive parents and children to establish bonds and prepare families for their new responsibilities.

2. Family advocate

National average salary: $37,498 per year

Primary duties: A family advocate may work with an adoption agency to help children who are involved in a parental rights dispute. To do this, they may visit the home of a foster child’s biological or adoptive family and determine whether the environment and parental behaviors create a safe and supportive space for children to live in. Family advocates present their information to family courts and help judges decide cases about parental rights, including access to a child and legal guardianship.

3. Case manager

National average salary: $39,181 per year

Primary duties: An adoption agency case manager works with foster children to keep track of their adoption case, or their guardianship records and caretaking needs. Some responsibilities of a case manager for adopted children include managing mental and physical health treatment plans, assessing a child’s developmental and survival needs, and filing paperwork for medical treatment. Case managers often work with only a few children or groups of siblings at a time and communicate with them, their foster parents, and their adoptive parents to discuss the child’s needs.

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4. Outreach Coordinator

National average salary: $42,983 per year

Primary duties: An outreach coordinator works in the business side of an adoption agency and promotes the agency’s mission through outreach campaigns. These campaigns may involve partnering with other organizations, collaborating with community marketing campaigns to expand awareness, and organizing events that help the agency expand its client base. This job is useful for those who want to work in adoption but have experience in marketing, communications, or public relations, as this job interacts less with children and families and instead promotes the goals of the agency.

5. Administrative assistant

National average salary: $43,336 per year

Primary duties: An administrative assistant in an adoption agency typically works in an office with other administrative professionals to manage the operations of the agency. Some duties of this role are taking phone calls and responding to emails, providing information to visitors of the agency, collecting and filing paperwork for adoption and foster parent applications, and providing support during community events. Administrative assistants work mostly with adoptive families, foster parents, and other adoption professionals who work in their agency, but they may not interact as much with children.

6. Adoption counselor

National average salary: $50,223 per year

Primary duties: An adoption counselor is a counseling professional who supports adopted or fostered children, foster parents, and adoptive parents through the adoption process. Adoption counselors create counseling plans and address the concerns of a family in the adoption process, provide emotional support and educational resources, and answer questions for families. They may also recommend additional health services and treatment for children going through the adoption process, especially if the child needs more help transitioning and adjusting to their new life and family.

7. Social worker

National average salary: $57,904 per year

Primary duties: A social worker in an adoption agency performs many duties to maintain a stable environment for children and families involved with their agency. Adoption social workers may work with a small group of children and individual families to connect biological parents with children, establish relationships between children and adoptive or foster parents, complete background and home checks on potential adoptive families, and recommend counseling and other resources. These employees are often a great point of communication for families to communicate with the adoption agency and other professionals.

8. Family Therapist

National average salary: $61,271 per year

Primary duties: A family therapist may work for or with an adoption agency to provide therapy services to biological and adoptive families in their community. The services a family therapist may give families include family dynamic assessments, coping mechanisms for families handling adoption or parental rights challenges, and referrals to other mental health and behavioral professionals when children encounter transitional challenges, behavioral disorders, or mental health issues. These services are often vital to helping families maintain healthy environments for biological, foster, and adopted children.

9. Family lawyer

National average salary: $79,986 per year

Primary duties: A family lawyer or family attorney works in the legal sector of adoption and may support an adoption agency’s legal needs. Duties may include creating and reviewing contracts, determining the validity of parental rights claims in court, and explaining the legal adoption process to prospective parents. While family lawyers may also work directly with families in adoption proceedings, working with an adoption agency often requires less time in courtrooms and more concentration on the legality of the agency’s operations.

Tips for Working in an Adoption Agency

Use the following tips to help you succeed in a job with an adoption agency:

• Do your research. When you start a career in adoption, do some research about your state’s regulations and laws regarding fostering and adopting children so you can better understand the field. This can help you answer questions from families and better understand the processes that you help to implement, which may help you be more knowledgeable and effective in your role.

• Understand your skills. Professionals working for adoption agencies have various skills that help them succeed in their role, and understanding your special and impressive skills can help you improve your productivity and work quality. Think about the skills that make you qualified to work in an adoption agency and apply them to your daily duties.

• Decide your passion. Before you find a job in adoption, decide what your passion is within this field and consider how you can apply that passion to your job. For example, you may be passionate about helping children, connecting families or providing support, which you can do through your typical responsibilities or volunteer activities through your agency.

• Get involved in the community. As an adoption professional, you can get involved in your community to learn more about the families near you and determine how you can provide them with a better experience. Depending on your role, you may be able to offer educational services about topics like mental health for adopted children or improve community outreach campaigns.

• Ask for help when needed. When you face challenges in your job at an adoption agency, ask for help from your colleagues to ensure you can perform your job to the best of your abilities. Consider how getting help from others can support your work in helping children and families complete the adoption process.

I hope you find this article helpful.