Categories: Adoption

Post-Adoption Agreement: 7 Ways To Draft An Agreement Faster.

Congratulation on your efforts to increase your family. It is not an easy task, but it is worth the effort.

At last, you will have reasons to be happy once again. This post is to explain what a post-adoption agreement means, adoption agreement examples, and templates, and to answer your question ” do parents have to agree to the adoption?”

Let’s get started.

What Is A Post-Adoption? Agreement.

A Post-Adoption agreement, also known as PACA, is a contract between the adoptive family and the birth parent, which allows communication between both families, and the child.

The importance of a post-adoption agreement is to protect the rights of both the birth families and birth families. And if you are planning to adopt or give up your child for adoption, then this post is for you.

Certainly, a post-adoption agreement is never a custody agreement or another way of cooperating between the adoptive family and the birth family.

It is just a way to maintain contact through pictures, calls, letters, or even visits.

Purpose For The Post-adoption Agreement.

The main purpose of the post-adoption contact agreement(PACA) is to protect the interest of the adopted child during either open adoption or semi-open adoption.

As you both agree on this, you agree to maintain the frequency of the contact or any type of communication for a stipulated period as the child grows.

Many birth parents may prefer not to have any contact with their child after adoption, and so they choose a closed adoption.

But these days, birth parents prefer to know whoever adopts their child and that’s why they go for open or semi-open adoption.

General Benefits Of Post-Adoption? Agreement.

If you are planning to adopt a child and seeking to know how to draft a perfect post-adoption agreement, then I believe you also know the benefits.

There are many reasons to have a post-adoption agreement. It will help you and the adoptive family be on the same page.

The agreement will also prevent troubles that may come from adoptive parents after the adoption.

It is also clear that the agreement provides the birth family with the encouragement to move forward with their adoption plan

The birth family is also reassured of their right to receive information about their child, and that they have chosen the best family for their child.

Post-Adoption Contact Agreement Benefits To The Birth Mother:-

Post-adoption agreements can benefit the birth family in so many ways.

One of the greatest benefits is that they are being reassured that they are doing their best as they give up their child for adoption.

It is not always easy for adoptive mothers when they decide to give up their child for adoption.

Knowing that they still have a chance to contact the child as he/she grows is a morale boost for them.

Another thing that boosts the birth mothers’ joy about PACA is that they are sure that they made the right choice for adoptive parents for their children.

Through communication and contact agreed upon, they are reassured daily.

Benefits Of PACA For The Adopting Parents:-

As an adoptive parent, the contact agreements help you to raise your adopted child.

The reason is that as the child grows, he/she may have questions about their birth, also, you may need information about the family’s Medical history.

The post-adoption agreement will help you get the information needed. It will also help you and the birth family build a strong, healthy, and lasting relationship.

How PACA Benefits The Adopted Child:-

Even the adopted child benefits from this post-adoption agreement and one of the main benefits is that they get quick answers to the questions about their birth, birth parents, and adoption.

Certainly, it is okay and important for any adopted child to ask questions about their birth, and adoption.

By putting the contact agreement in place, the birth parents and the adoptive parents are all of the same interest to help the adopted children can get the information whenever it’s needed.

For the child, having the opportunity to get information about their background, and heritage helps them build great confidence.

How To Draft Post-Adoption Agreement:-

Drafting a good post-adoption agreement will depend upon your personal preferences and that of the other person involved.

Note that a post-adoption agreement is not a custody agreement as I mentioned earlier, because every birth mother relinquished her right after adoption.

The contact agreement is just to maintain the communication levels and not a parenting agreement.

It helps to set boundaries about your contact with the other party in the adoption.

The agreement defined how and when the adoptive family will contact the birth mom and the birth mother also.

Things To Include In The Open Adoption Agreement:

As you drift the draft the post-adoption contact agreement, it is important to include everything that interests you.

The reason is that it is your contact agreement, so you need to tailor it to suit your adoption vision.

Nobody should tell you what to include and what not to in the contact agreement. Some people are ready to put down all their concerns while others don’t.

Check out the list below to know what to include or not.

Contact Information (Identifying information):- This contact agreement clause is where both parties will agree to drop all their contact information like – name, current address, phone number, and other relevant information. The file will be dropped with the organization.
Mode of Visitation:- This normally depends on the court to decide and the state laws. The birth mother has no more parental rights to the child after adoption, so should not decide when to see her child or not.
Method of Communication:- This clause is to regulate the communication with the child. Since the information of both parties is left with the agency, the agency will then make both parties choose when to visit the child, call or send pictures.
Invalidation:- This clause helps to decide when the contract should be refuted. This normally comes up when a reason arises for that. For example, when the child suffers physically or mentally for any reason or the birth mother commits a felony.
Miscellaneous:- This clause contains the details on how the agreement will be enforced as well as how alterations will be made to suit any situation.

Also Included In The Post-Adoption Agreement Are:

Whether you have the right to post photos on social media.
How should your child address you the new parent?
How often to visit to see the child?
Where would the visit take place?
Who would be around during the visits?
When and how often the updates and photos should be provided.
The methods of providing the updates and photos ( would it be through email, social media, or private chats)?