This was a question I had back when I was in elementary school. I had asked my mom but she had no clue. In my little brain I thought it was wrong to buy children, but now I’m wondering if that’s not actually the case. What is that money being spent on?
In: Economics
We adopted locally. The total cost to us was about $20K. Adoption is handled by states, and varies significantly across the US.
About $13K of that went to the adoption agency. They have people who work with women who are seeking to give children up for adoption. They help would-be adoptive parents through the process of getting their state certification (our state requires you to be first certified for foster care). The agency also works with the finding possible matches. Additionally the agency provides support to both sides of the family during and after the adoption process. And the agency maintains its own certifications and runs deep background checks and makes inspections.
About a few hundred went to classes and certifications for our foster license.
The last ~6K went toward lawyer and court fees for the legal side of things.
After the adoption closed, we were able to claim a $13K deduction for our costs. This was recouped by reducing our federal income tax over the next few years.
EDIT: Also note that in a lot of infant adoptions the birth mother changes her mind, and the match does not go through. So the agency’s costs need to cover the potentiality that they will need to work with multiple birth moms for every adoptive family.
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