How Old is Too Old to Adopt?
by Becky Birtha

There is no specific older age limit for adoption. Private adoption agencies can and do set their own limits with regard to age, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, and other criteria. Some agencies have very narrow guidelines for who can be approved. Such limits are more likely to exist at agencies that primarily work with families seeking to adopt healthy infants.

But other agencies will have different rules. For school-age children and teenagers, in particular, many adoption agencies are working to be more open, since there is such a great need for families. Sometimes, if the need arises, grandparents adopt their own grandchildren, and many people of "grandparent age" adopt, often after they have already raised one family. Eighteen or twenty years of active parenting may seem like a daunting task to you at age fifty plus, but adopting a teenager might reduce those years to nine or ten.

If you are an older single or couple entering the adoption process, your social worker will want to be sure that you have a support system and good back-ups to provide additional or emergency help. This could include your grown children, other relatives, a religious community, friends or neighbors.

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This article previously appeared in a slightly different format in the Wednesday's Child Update Newsletter (WCupdate), Issue 12, April, 2006.