Department of Health and Human Services - Biddeford

Department of Health and Human Services: Adoption services include home studies and placement of children in the legal custody of the Department. DHHS serves all of Maine through 13 offices.

Step 1 - Contact Us. Step 2 - Informational Meeting. Once you have made contact with us and our staff have gone over the general requirements of our adoption program [such as minimum age, residency etc.] you will be invited to attend an informational meeting, with other families wishing to adopt. Our staff will: Explain the ages and characteristics of the children with special needs that we have for placement; Help your family to develop and clarify your expectations about your abilities to meet these special needs of our children; Discuss the eligibility standards of our agency; Talk about the stages of the adoptive and foster care process and reasonable times for completing these stages. Step 3 - Adoptive and Foster Family Training. You will then be invited to attend our Adoptive and Foster Family Training, which consists of 24 hours of preparatory training for parenting children with special needs. This is done in eight weekly sessions, lasting three hours each, or over four consecutive Saturdays. The sessions include the grief and loss process, how children come into care, working as a team to meet the needs of a child, how to cope with challenging behaviors in children and many other core issues in foster and adoptive care. These classes are taught by experienced adoptive and foster parents. Step 4 - Family Study. You and your family will be asked to write autobiographies and participate in a series of interviews with a social worker. These interviews allow you and the social worker the opportunity to discuss your family's history and functioning, including your strengths and challenges, and how that may play out by adopting a child with special needs. Step 5 - Matching and Placement. After you have completed the training and study process, and are approved as meeting our agency standards, you will given a regular photo-listing of children available for adoption in Maine and matched according to the child's needs and your ability to meet those needs. Our focus