Adoption Service Providers
An Adoption Service Provider (ASP) is a licensed private adoption agency or an individual who advises a birth parent when the birth parent is considering the placement of their child for an independent adoption. An ASP may be utilized, and is not necessary, in cases where the prospective adoptive parent is known to the child as a grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling, legal guardian who has been the child’s legal guardian for more than three years, or is a person named in the will of a deceased parent as an intended adoptive parent where the child has no other parent.
Registry of California Adoption Service Providers
California statute (Family Code 8502) requires an ASP to be a Licensed California adoption agency, or a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), or a Licensed professional clinical counselor having a minimum of five years full-time experience providing professional adoption casework services while employed by a licensed California adoption agency, a County Child Welfare agency, and/or the California Department of Social Services (Department).
The statute does not allow for any substitution of experience. The applicant must have five years of experience in a California adoption agency. Thus, for example, direct-adoption experience in another state, or experience in a California adoption agency providing services other than adoption, cannot count toward the five-year experience requirement.
The Department has no authority to waive, modify, or otherwise make exemptions to these statutory requirements.
If you meet the statutory requirements to be an ASP, you may register with the Department by doing the following:
- Email a photocopy of your original or renewed LCSW and/or LMFT license.
- Obtain from the California adoption agency or agencies for which you worked while gaining the required five years of experience a letter(s) attesting to your employment experience. The letter(s) must specify that your experience was professional adoption casework services performed after receipt of either a Masters in Social Work (MSW) degree or a post-graduate degree listed in Section 4980.40 of the California Business and Professions Code.
- List the names of the counties you will be available to provide ASP services.
These documents should be emailed as a package to: AdoptionServiceProviders@dss.ca.gov.
The Department will review your submitted documents and notify you by email whether your application has been approved or disapproved.
Below is a current listing of LCSWs and LMFTs who have been certified by the Department as an ASP in accordance with Section 8502 of the California Family Code. Also listed are those licensed California adoption agencies which have indicated that they will act as an ASP.
How to File a Complaint Against an Adoption Service Provider:
The Department, ASP, parents, guardians, adoption agencies, and providers all play a role in protecting the health and safety of children. The complaint process is an important tool to help monitor the provision of ASPs in order to meet health and safety standards as required by law.
- The complainant shall email adoptionserviceprovider@dss.ca.gov with their full name, contact information, the placing agency (County/Regional Office/Agency), the identification of the ASP, and a description of the complaint. If the complainant does not have access to email, they may mail this information to:
California Department of Social Services
Adoption Services Branch
Attention: Adoption Policy Unit
744 P Street, MS 8-12-521
Sacramento, CA 95814
- The complainant will be notified in writing that the complaint has been received.
- The Department will complete the Consumer Complaint Form and Release of Information for Complaints to submit to the Board of Behavioral Sciences.
- The Department will coordinate with the Board of Behavioral Sciences. There will be communication with the ASP on record and it may be determined that the ASP will temporarily or permanently be removed from the CDSS Registry.
How to Report an Unregistered Adoption Service Provider:
The complainant shall email adoptionserviceprovider@dss.ca.gov with their full name, contact information, the identification of the ASP, and a description of the complaint. If the complainant does not have access to email, they may mail this information to:
California Department of Social Services
Adoption Services Branch
Attention: Adoption Policy Unit
744 P Street, MS 8-12-521
Sacramento, CA 95814