Programs and services for Orange County children and their families.
Featured Services
Adoption Overview
Adoption is the permanent, legal transfer of parental rights and responsibilities from a child’s birth parents to the adoptive parents. There are four basic ways to adopt: international adoption of a child from another country; adoption through a private adoption agency; independent adoption arranged directly with the birth parents; and adoption of children in foster care through a public agency.
Any parent or person who has legal or physical custody of a child can get help in locating the child's other (non-custodial) parent, establishing a child's paternity (legal fatherhood), establishing a child support order, modifying or adjusting a child support order, obtaining health insurance for a child, collecting current child support, and enforcing a child support obligation (collecting past due child support) by completing an Application for Services form.
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Adoption is the permanent, legal transfer of parental rights and responsibilities from a child’s birth parents to the adoptive parents. There are four basic ways to adopt: international adoption of a child from another country; adoption through a private adoption agency; independent adoption arranged directly with the birth parents; and adoption of children in foster care through a public agency.
Any parent or person who has legal or physical custody of a child can get help in locating the child's other (non-custodial) parent, establishing a child's paternity (legal fatherhood), establishing a child support order, modifying or adjusting a child support order, obtaining health insurance for a child, collecting current child support, and enforcing a child support obligation (collecting past due child support) by completing an Application for Services form.