Requirements & Considerations

Requirements

Please make sure you are willing to take a child into your home. Anoka County adoptive parents may be single, married, childless, or already parenting children. Parents may rent or own their home. Having a high income is not a prerequisite.

Before adopting Anoka County residents must complete a pre-adoption orientation and training program. The training program is approximately 16 hours long and provides information on what to expect when adopting.

Adoption Family

You must apply for an adoption study. An Anoka County social worker will then be assigned to work with you on an adoption study. Once you have been assigned a social worker you must participate in an adoption study. Also called a home study, it consists of a background check, references, expectations, etc. Every Minnesota resident wishing to adopt a child must have an adoption study completed by a licensed adoption agency.

Adoption education and home studies are free of charge to individuals interested in Minnesota’s Waiting Children Program. Anoka County Social Services and a number of private agencies throughout the state of Minnesota are part of the Minnesota Public / Private Adoption Initiative.

Considerations

Concurrent or Permanency Planning Foster Care

Also called permanency planning foster care, concurrent planning is a dual-track case plan. The plan provides foster care for a child while the foster parent works closely with the child’s birth family toward reunification. If the child’s reunification with the birth parents becomes impossible, the child in foster care may be adopted by the foster parent. Most children who have this option as part of their case plan are under the age of eight years old. This may not be a good alternative for families interested in adopting a very young child or infant.

Small Girl

The job of a foster parent is to provide temporary care for a child whose family of origin is experiencing problems and cannot adequately care for a child. The goal of foster care is to reunite the child with his or her birth family as quickly and safely as possible.

Foster care providers receive a monthly stipend to help provide for the child in their temporary care. The stipend varies and is determined by the child’s needs. For more details, see Anoka County Child Foster Care.

Cost

There are no placement fees or charges for a home study if you apply to adopt one of Minnesota’s Waiting Children. Depending on the child’s special needs, financial assistance may be available. The program reimburses families for costs of non-medical items and provides adoptive parents with resources to help secure the services and support necessary to meet children’s special needs. In addition, the program provides Medical Assistance as a backup to families’ health insurance.

Length of Time

There is no “typical” length of time to complete the adoption program. How long the process takes depends on the time it takes to complete the requirements and find a child who may be a good fit with a family.

Anoka County requires all Pre-Adoptive parents to first be licensed foster care providers.  It is required that you attend a foster care orientation prior to the Pre-Adoption Training.  Please visit the Child Foster Care page on this website to sign up for an orientation.  

If you are an Anoka County resident who wishes to consider adopting a child, please arrange to attend a Pre-Adoption Training.  For more information on these classes, please contact Brittany Koneczny with Children's Home & LSS at brittany.koneczny@chlss.org or call 651.255.2228.  Families can also register on line at https://chlss.org/education-events/foster-care-adoption-education-classes/.  

For Anoka County Adoption specific questions, please contact Nancy Le 763.324.1654 or email nancy.le@co.anoka.mn.us