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Olmsted County Social Services provides adoption services to children in the Minnesota Waiting Children’s Program and the families who seek to adopt them.
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- Children who are available for adoption come from throughout the State of Minnesota and almost all of them have been removed from their biological families due to abuse or neglect.
- There are typically between 500 & 600 “waiting children” across the state, with Olmsted usually having between 0 and 8 at any given time.
- Most waiting children are over the age of 8, many have physical and/or emotional disabilities, some are brothers and sisters who want to stay together, and many are children of color.
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| There is not a fee for adoption services for special needs children, and there are funds available before and after adoption to help families. |
If interested, you will need to go through the same licensing process as one does to become a foster parent. Please check our Child Foster Care Licensing web page for more detail. |
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Once your home study is completed and you are licensed for foster care:
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- We will register you on the Minnesota Adoption Exchange or help connect you with some of the children involved in concurrent planning.
- The Adoption Exchange, in addition to our agency, will attempt to match you with Minnesota waiting children or those children who come into placement with our agency that need a resource family.
- Resource family homes provide care for children, actively support reunification while committing to the possibility of adoption if reunification cannot take place.
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| We encourage you to call and ask any questions that you develop throughout the process. We can be reached at 507-328-6456 or 507 328-6432 if you have questions or want more information. |
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