Roadmap to Adoption
- Main
- >
- Roadmap to Adoption
Roadmap to Public Adoption
This map outlines the steps you need to take – all the way from thinking about adopting a child or youth to becoming an adoptive parent.
Adoption can be complicated and even confusing at times. You can refer to this roadmap throughout your journey. At each stop along the road, you can hover over the rest area to access more details.

Centralized Adoption Intake Service
Centralized Adoption Intake Service
The Centralized Adoption Intake Service provides a central point of information and support to help you learn more about adoption and decide whether adoption is right for you.
Applying to become an adoptive parent
Applying to be an adoptive parent
Once you have decided that adoption is right for you, contact:
- Your local children’s aid society for public adoption
- A licensed private adoption agency or licensed individual for private domestic adoption
- An adoption agency or individual practitioners who are licensed to facilitate intercountry adoptions for intercountry adoption
For public adoption, you must contact the children’s aid society in your area and request an application. Each society handles inquiries differently and the Centralized Adoption Intake Service can help you complete an application. If you are Indigenous, you may explore working with an Indigenous society in your home community.
Once your application is complete and submitted to your local society, they will review it and get back to you.
Are you Indigenous?
Are you Indigenous?
If so, consider if you want to work with an Indigenous child well-being agency.
An Indigenous child well-being agency can advise you about how they provide permanent homes to children and youth in their care and their application process.
Homestudy & parent preparation training
Homestudy & Parent Preparation Training
Once your adoption application is approved by your local children’s aid society, they will advise you if they have a waitlist and will speak to you about completing the mandatory requirements of a homestudy and parent preparation training.
The homestudy includes four-six interviews with an adoption worker from your local society. The interviews usually take place after personal and medical references are conducted and criminal record and child welfare checks have been collected. Parent preparation training consists of 27 hours of in-class or online learning. It is called Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE). Private PRIDE training is also available at AdoptOntario – PRIDE).
For caregivers of Indigenous children and youth, HEART and SPIRIT are integrated home study and training. These tools were developed by ANCFSAO to be culturally appropriate alternatives to SAFE and PRIDE to engage and train caregivers in a way that supports and nurtures the cultures, heritages and identities of Indigenous children and youth.
Once your homestudy is approved and parent training is completed, you are approved to adopt a child from any society across the province.
Matching and pre-placement
Matching and pre-placement visits
Your society will contact you if there are children or youth who appear to match the strengths and characteristics of your family. You will receive information about the proposed match and the child or youth will learn information about you. Children and youth have a right to have a say in decisions about who will adopt them. If and when everyone agrees to proceed, introductions will be made. This process can involve many different feelings including excitement, hope or uncertainty. There may be several meetings between you, the child or youth, foster parents, social workers and the child or youth’s significant birth family members.
While you are waiting for a match, it’s an excellent time to deepen or consolidate the learning that began in your parent preparation training. You can also increase your opportunity to adopt children in other areas of the province in a few ways; by attending regional or provincial adoption events and by registering or updating your profile as AdoptReady on AdoptOntario.
Register on the AdoptOntario databank. When your homestudy is approved, you are encouraged to register on AdoptOntario as an AdoptReady applicant. By registering on the databank adoption workers from across the province will have access to your family profile, know more about you to identify possible matches, and know how to contact you through your adoption worker.
Child or youth placed in adoptive family
Adoption placement
When the child or youth officially move into your home, it is usually referred to as adoption placement. This is an important period of transition in the home to ensure the placement is appropriate for you and the child or youth. It typically lasts at least six months. For some children and youth, it may extend to a year or more, depending on how the transition is going. Your adoption worker will visit regularly during this time to offer advice and support you and your family. Adoptive families have said that this period of time is filled with changes and new experiences. It is important to be empathetic and responsive to the thoughts, needs and behaviours of the child or youth during this transition time.
You may wish to seek additional support through:
- Pathways to Permanence 2 training, a specialized series of classes delivered by the Adoption Council of Ontario for adoptive caregivers who are parenting children who have experienced trauma and loss as part of their history; and
- Parent2Parent Support Network: Parent peer supports provided by Adopt4Life, which provides individual support to parents and caregivers by facilitating support groups and helping parents navigating supports and services in their community. Adopt4life is an association for adoptive parents that has established a community network of adoptive parents that provides resources, education, expertise and peer support to adoptive families who are experiencing or have experienced challenges after adoption placement.
Adoption finalization
Adoption finalization
When everyone in the family is ready, your adoption worker will begin to finalize your adoption. If the child or youth you are adopting are over the age of seven, they must legally consent to the adoption. Your child will be assigned a lawyer, who will explain adoption to them. You may wish to consult with a lawyer as well because there will be some documents that you will need to complete. Once all documentation is complete, the courts will review them. A judge will make a court order to finalize the adoption.
Post adoption supports
Post adoption supports
When your adoption has finalized, you may continue to seek support from your children’s aid society by seeking advice or referral for services, supports and possible adoption subsidies. You can learn more here.