Private placement agencies more or less work for you as your adoption representative, most of these agencies are nonprofits but generally all of them charge a placement and home study fee for their services. These agencies arrange and help with adoptions between private parties, more commonly known as birth-parent-placements, or in a situation where the birth parent(s) release their children to an agency for adoption placement. Under the right state license, a private placement agency can also place children from the state foster care system for adoption and foster care. This could be a solid alternative for some gay and lesbian, single and large families wishing to adopt from the state system. Keep in mind that these are still private agencies, even though they may be nonprofit agencies. This means they are permitted to develop their own criteria for the prospective adoptive parents. Age, income level, religion, fertility status, marital status and sexual orientation all may be agency considerations.

While a private agency may accept an adoption application from a gay and lesbian person, they may ask that only one parent legally adopt the child; even in a state that permits joint adoptions. Later, after the first adoption a second parent adoption can be sought if permitted in the given state. In this manner they can “omit” the family structure, by saying the adoptive parent has assistance from another unrelated adult sharing the same home.

Pro
• Agency support in form of case worker and groups
• Assistance with paperwork and process
• Support offered to birth parents
• Legal process may be taken care of internally
• Costs known upfront
• Smaller case loads often allowing more contact and help for the family
• Able to "work outside the box" to come up with solutions
• Often more connected better with community resources

Con

• Lack of control over process
• Agency bureaucracy
• Normally can have a longer wait time for placement (in the case of birth parent placement)
• Can think they know everything and unwilling to see outside agency help
• Can sometimes isolate families in order to keep them within in their own network