The State of Colorado defines a “kinship adoption” as one in which a relative such as a grandparent, sibling, aunt or uncle adopts a child. In these cases, a homestudy is often unnecessary. A family can order the required forms from the County they live in, fill out the forms, request a court date, and often complete the kinship adoption by themselves. If you would like help filling out the papers and if you would like a social worker to accompany you to court, even if you are not required to have an adoption agency, we would be pleased to help you.

In some cases where the court has questions about the suitability of the placement, the court may require a homestudy so that an adoption worker can assess the situation and give an in-depth report to the court about your family.

We understand that most families seeking a kinship adoption are not in a position to pay large fees. To help families seeking a kinship adoption, we have adjusted our fees so that families with low incomes only pay half of our normal homestudy fee—the rest is supplemented by funds from our Foundation.

A family who is related to a child but not as closely as “kinship” is defined is considered a regular adoption by the State of Colorado, and must complete the full homestudy process just like an unrelated family.

Sometimes kinship adoptions involve adopting children from other states, and this requires an Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC). We will help with this, too.