1. Information Meeting - A meeting for the community to learn more about the programs offered by LSS. This is encouraged but optional. Information meeting schedule.
2. Registration - Once you have decided to join a program at LSS, submit a registration form and fee to the Minneapolis office. Registration form.
3. Application - At the start of the program, you will be provided an application to complete and return to the agency. The application documents meet the requirements of MN Department of Human Services and agency practice.
4. Adoption Training Seminars - Education on the adoption process and general adoption issues. Offered in our metro offices and includes openness panel and presentations by local adoption experts.
5. Adoption (Home) Study Interviews - After completing the adoption training, you will have individual meetings with your social worker with the goal of a recommendation as an adoptive family and a written adoption study document for use in the process.
6. Family Profile Book - Families prepare materials with a letter and pictures that represent themselves and place them in the Book that is reviewed by all birth parents that work with LSS.

Adoptive and Birth Parent Connection

7. Match Meeting - Birth parents and adoptive parents meet to get to know each other and discuss the possibility of an adoption match. An LSS counselor provides support as needed for these initial connections.
8. Cooperative Agreement Meeting - Birth parents and adoptive parents meet to plan for all phases of the adoption, including the hospital stay, placement of the baby, and their future relationships. An LSS counselor provides guidance in discussing and developing this Cooperative Agreement.
9. Placement of Infant with the Adoptive Family - Most adoptive placements occur directly from hospital discharge. The LSS worker provides support in the hospital and is present to support the placement process.

Adoptive Parent Post-Placement Support

10. Post Placement Supervision - In Minnesota, families must have supervision for a minimum of three months after placement of the child in their home. This must be provided by a licensed agency and a recommendation submitted to the court.
11. Finalization of Adoption/Legal Adoption - Families, or an attorney on their behalf, finalize their adoption in the court in their county. LSS provides guidance to the family and supportive documents to the court.

Adoptive and Birth Parent Open Relationship

12. Open Adoption Relationship Building - Direct contact between birth and adoptive parents as agreed to in the adoption process or as it evolves over the years. If issues arise regarding contact that families are not able to work out on their own, LSS offers mediation to the families to aid in this process. This is a free service to families in an open adoption. LSS Mediation information.