Adoptions Adoption Service Providers

Adoption Service Providers

Registry of California Adoption Service Providers

California statute requires an Adoption Service Provider (ASP) to be a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) or a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) having a minimum of five years full-time experience providing professional adoption casework services while employed by a licensed California adoption 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 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:

  1. Email a photocopy of your original or renewed LCSW and/or MFT license, and
  2. 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.), and
  3. 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 within three weeks of receipt, notify you by email whether your application has been approved or disapproved.

Below is a current listing of LCSW and Licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Counselors who have been certified by the Department as ASPs in accordance with Section 8502 of the California Family Code. Also listed are those licensed private adoption agencies which have indicated that they will act as ASP.