How to Adopt a Child in Florida: Process, Costs, and Home Study

To adopt a child in Florida, you complete a home study, secure the end of the birth parents’ rights either by their consent or by court order, file a Petition for Adoption in circuit court, complete at least 90 days of post-placement supervision in your home, and appear at a final hearing where a judge decides whether the adoption serves the child’s best interest. The process is governed by Chapter 63 of the Florida Statutes, and from first steps to final judgment it usually takes several months to more than a year.

The specific steps you follow depend on who you are to the child. A stepparent or close relative moves through a streamlined version. Everyone else works through the full sequence below.

Who Can Adopt in Florida

Any adult can adopt in Florida. A married couple must petition jointly, but an unmarried adult can adopt alone. A married person can petition without their spouse in limited situations, including when the spouse is the child’s existing parent and consents, or when a court excuses the spouse’s participation for good cause or the child’s benefit.¹

There is no minimum income and no age rule beyond being a legal adult. The court will look at whether you can meet the child’s material needs, but the review is about overall stability. Florida law also bars rejecting an applicant solely because they have a physical disability or because they plan to homeschool. A disability can only weigh against you if it would genuinely prevent effective parenting.¹

Choose Your Adoption Path

The path you take changes the timeline, the cost, and which procedural steps apply to you.

Agency adoption. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) or a licensed private agency matches you with a child. Adopting through DCF’s foster care system is generally the least expensive route and may come with ongoing financial support if the child has special needs.²
Private (independent) adoption. Birth parents and adoptive parents arrange the placement directly, usually with an attorney as intermediary. Higher cost, but often faster when a match already exists.
Stepparent adoption. You adopt your spouse’s child. No home study is required unless a court orders one, and the final investigation is waived.³
Relative (kinship) adoption. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and other relatives within the third degree of consanguinity can adopt. The home study and final investigation are waived unless the court directs otherwise.⁴

Stepparents and qualifying relatives can also skip the separate termination of parental rights case that other adoptions require. Instead, they file a combined petition for termination and adoption with the required consents attached.⁵

Complete the Home Study

For non-relative, non-stepparent adoptions, a favorable home study has to be done by a licensed child-placing agency or licensed professional before the child can be placed with you. At minimum, the study includes interviews with the prospective adoptive parents, background screening through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the DCF central abuse registry, an assessment of the physical home, a financial review, documented adoptive parenting education, and disclosure paperwork confirming you were informed about the process and available support services.³

A favorable home study is valid for one year. If a child in DCF custody is involved, the study must be completed within 30 days of initiation. You cannot take placement of the child until the study comes back favorable, with one exception: if your home is already a licensed foster home.³

Fees from licensed private providers commonly run from roughly $1,000 to $5,000. Adopting through DCF can reduce or eliminate this cost.

End the Birth Parents’ Rights

A child cannot legally have two sets of parents. Before an adoption can be finalized, the biological parents’ rights must end, either by their consent or by court order.

Voluntary Consent

A birth mother can sign consent no earlier than 48 hours after birth, or when she is notified she is medically cleared for discharge from the hospital, whichever comes first. A birth father can sign at any time after the child is born. No consent can be executed before birth.⁶

Revocation depends on the child’s age when consent is signed. For a child under six months old, consent is valid immediately on signing and can only be withdrawn if a court finds fraud or duress. For a child over six months old, the parent has three business days to revoke by sending written notice via certified mail to the adoption entity. After that window closes, the same fraud-or-duress standard applies.⁶

Involuntary Termination

When a birth parent will not consent, a court can terminate parental rights through a formal proceeding filed in the county where the child lives or where the adoption entity is located. Grounds include abandonment, abuse, neglect, and failure to support the child. The birth parent has the right to contest.⁵

File the Petition for Adoption

Once parental rights have ended, you file a Petition for Adoption with the circuit court. The adoption case is separate from the termination case, with its own case number and file.⁵

The petition includes identifying details about the child and petitioner, the date you gained custody, a statement that you can provide for the child’s material needs, and your reasons for adopting. Attach:

A certified copy of the judgment terminating parental rights
The favorable preliminary home study (unless you are a stepparent or relative)
Any prior declaratory statement from the court
Documentation of an interview with the child, if the child is older than 12

⁷

Complete Post-Placement Supervision

Once the child is living in your home, a supervision period of at least 90 days begins. A case manager or adoption counselor visits your home a minimum of three times, with the first visit within one week of placement. The child must be contacted at least once every 30 days, and the entire family must be seen together at least once. At the end of the period, the case manager files a final assessment.⁸

Attend the Final Hearing

The court cannot hold the final hearing until at least 30 days after the termination judgment and at least 90 days after the child was placed in your physical custody. Stepparent and relative adoptions with valid consents on file can skip this waiting period and go straight to hearing after filing.⁹

You and the child must appear before the judge, either in person or by phone with court permission. The judge reviews the file, confirms your commitment, and decides whether the adoption serves the child’s best interest. If it does, the court enters a Final Judgment of Adoption.

What the Final Judgment Changes

The judgment replaces the prior legal family structure. Birth parents lose all parental rights and responsibilities, and every legal relationship between the child and their biological relatives is severed. From that point forward, the adopted child is treated as your biological child for all legal purposes, including inheritance, insurance, and government benefits.¹⁰

One exception: if a birth parent has died and a stepparent or close relative later adopts the child, the child’s right to inherit from the deceased parent is preserved.¹⁰

After the judgment, the court sends the required information to the state registrar to issue a new birth certificate reflecting the adoptive parents’ names.

Costs and Financial Help

Costs range widely by path. Adopting from DCF foster care can cost little or nothing out of pocket. A private domestic adoption through an agency or attorney commonly runs from $20,000 to $50,000 or more once agency fees, legal fees, court costs, and allowed birth-parent expenses are counted. International adoptions tend to be the most expensive. Legal fees alone for independent adoptions typically range from a few thousand dollars to well over $10,000.

Florida law allows adoptive parents to pay certain expenses for the birth mother, including actual prenatal care, medical costs, and reasonable living expenses for up to six weeks after birth. Any fee contract must be in writing, and no court will approve any payment that amounts to compensation for locating a child.

Federal Adoption Tax Credit

For 2025, the IRS allows a maximum credit of $17,280 per eligible child, adjusted annually for inflation. Qualified expenses include adoption fees, attorney fees, court costs, travel (with meals and lodging), and home study fees. Expenses for adopting a spouse’s child, surrogacy arrangements, or costs reimbursed by an employer do not qualify.¹¹

The credit begins to phase out at a modified adjusted gross income of $259,190 in 2025 and disappears entirely at $299,190. It is nonrefundable, so it can reduce your tax to zero but cannot generate a refund on its own. Any unused credit can be carried forward for up to five years.¹²

If you adopt a child with special needs through a public agency, you can claim the full credit amount regardless of your actual expenses.

Florida Adoption Subsidies

Florida offers ongoing financial help to families who adopt children classified as having special needs. Three conditions must all be met: the child cannot safely return to the birth parents, a specific factor makes the child harder to place (age, disability, sibling group, medical condition), and reasonable efforts to place the child without a subsidy have failed.¹³

Qualifying factors in Florida include children eight or older, developmental delays or physical or mental disabilities, sibling groups placed together, risk for a diagnosed medical condition, or meeting SSI disability requirements. A strong emotional bond with current foster parents can count as a factor, though not as the sole qualifying condition for federal Title IV-E funding.

Qualifying families can also be reimbursed up to $1,000 per child for non-recurring adoption expenses like court costs, attorney fees, and the home study. There is no income eligibility requirement for this reimbursement.¹³

When Interstate or Tribal Rules Apply

Two federal laws layer extra requirements onto certain adoptions. Missing either can derail an otherwise valid case.

The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) applies when a child is moved from another state into Florida, or from Florida to another state, for adoption. Both states must approve the placement before the child crosses state lines, which can add weeks or months. The ICPC does not apply when the child is being sent to a parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult sibling, adult aunt or uncle, or legal guardian in the receiving state.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) applies if the child is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe. The tribe must be notified of any involuntary termination proceeding by registered mail, and the proceeding cannot move forward until at least ten days after the tribe receives notice. Federal law sets a mandatory placement preference order: first, a member of the child’s extended family; second, other members of the child’s tribe; and third, other Indian families. A tribe can set a different preference by resolution.¹⁴

Time Off Work After Placement

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible employees 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for the placement of a child for adoption. The leave must be used within 12 months of placement. To qualify, you must work for a covered employer and have been there at least 12 months with at least 1,250 hours worked in the preceding year.¹⁵

Federal employees get a better benefit under the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act: up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for the placement of a child for adoption or foster care. To use the paid leave, the employee must agree in writing to return to work for at least 12 weeks after the leave ends.¹⁶

Many private employers offer paid adoption leave, though the terms vary. If your employer runs an adoption assistance program that reimburses expenses, remember that reimbursed costs cannot also be claimed for the federal adoption tax credit.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Section 63.042 – Who May Be Adopted; Who May Adopt
2
Florida Department of Children and Families. Explore Adoption
3
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Section 63.092 – Report to the Court of Intended Placement; Preliminary Study
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Section 63.125 – Final Home Investigation
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Section 63.087 – Proceeding to Terminate Parental Rights Pending Adoption; General Provisions
6
Justia Law. Florida Statutes Section 63.082 – Execution of Consent to Adoption or Affidavit of Nonpaternity
7
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Section 63.112 – Petition for Adoption
8
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code Rule 65C-16.010 – Adoption Placement, Post-Placement Services
9
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Section 63.122 – Notice of Hearing on Petition
10
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Section 63.172 – Effect of Judgment of Adoption
11
Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit
12
Internal Revenue Service. Notable Changes to the Adoption Credit
13
Florida Department of Children and Families. CFOP 170-15 Chapter 05 – Maintenance Adoption Subsidy
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 25 Section 1915 – Placement of Indian Children
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 29 Section 2612 – Leave Requirement
16
U.S. Department of Labor. Paid Parental Leave