Children and youth in need of foster homes and adoptions are aided by public or private agencies which recruit parents, arrange for placement, provide services, and monitor the home. Where adoption is not the goal, such agencies also work to reunite the natural family. Foster care and adoption agencies are regulated by the state.
No individual has the right to be a foster or adoptive parent, and counties and agencies can refuse any applicant for any reason. Each private agency and each county department of social services develops and uses, in accordance with regulations of the state Department of Human Resources, its own criteria for choosing parents. Some counties and agencies will allow single people (including openly gay and lesbian couples) to be foster parents, and others do not. Lesbians and gay men rarely provide these parenting services except where traditional parents are unable or unwilling to cope with the child.
Any person over 18 years of age is allowed to adopt a minor child. There is
no restriction on the marital status or sexual orientation of the adoptive
parent. The adoption will become final after lengthy investigation of the
prospective parent's home life and financial status, if the Clerk of Superior
Court finds the adoption to be for the best interests of the child and finds
that the prospective parents are "fit persons to have the care and custody
of the child."