Home | Site map | Contact us | Help |

Search Child Safety:

Adoption

• About adoption
  • Adopting a child
  • Differences between biological and adoptive parenting
  • Adoption programs
  • Adoptive parent education
• For birth parents
  • Consent to adoption
  • Finalising adoption
  • After your child is adopted
• Adopting a child from Queensland
  • General Children's Adoption Program
  • Frequently asked questions about Queensland adoption
• Adopting a step-child or relative
  • Relative and Step-Parent Adoption Program
  • Issues to consider
  • Alternatives to adoption
  • Consent requirements
  • Leave of the Family Court
• Adopting a child with special needs
  • Special Needs Children's Adoption Program
• Adopting a child born overseas
  • Intercountry Adoption Program
  • Overseas country information
  • Frequently asked questions about overseas adoption
  • Intercountry adoptive parent education
• After adoption
  • Release of information
  • Mailbox Program
• Library
• Contacts
  • Community organisations
  • Other government contacts
  • Raising concerns or complaints

About adoption

Adoption is a legal process that establishes a permanent relationship between a child and their adoptive parents. Adoption transfers the legal rights and responsibilities of parenthood from a child's birth parents to their adoptive parents. The child's legal relationship with their birth parent is permanently changed as is the child's legal relationship with extended family members and future generations.

There have been over 50,000 adoption orders made in Queensland since 1917. It is estimated that adoption has directly affected over 350,000 people in Queensland and indirectly affected many thousands of other Queensland families.

Thousands of families in Queensland have adopted children born in Queensland and children born in overseas countries and many children in the past were adopted by their step-parent.

Our department is responsible for administering adoption legislation and providing statutory services in Queensland to:

• parents considering adoption for their children
• children requiring adoptive placements
• people seeking to adopt children
• people seeking information about their adoption.

How is adoption governed?

The Adoption of Children Act 1964 and the Adoption of Children Regulation 1999 are the key pieces of legislation governing our adoption services.

There are two primary principles that guide adoption practice and philosophy in Australia. These principles are:

• the best interests of the child are paramount in all aspects of adoption practice
• adoption is a service for children, not a service for adults.

These principles are enshrined in:

• various Australian states' adoption legislation
• Council of (Australian) Social Welfare Ministers National Minimum Principles in Adoption 1993
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) 1989
• Hague Convention on protection of children and co-operation in respect of intercountry adoption.

These principles ensure that the needs and best interests of children remain the primary consideration in any adoption process.

They also recognise that no one has an automatic right to adopt a child, and that adoption is not an arrangement or direct contract between a child's birth parents and other adults seeking to acquire the care of the child.

The welfare and best interests of children who require adoptive placements are the highest priority in the adoption process.

Top of page

Further information

For further information about adopting a child from Queensland or from overseas, contact our Adoption Services Queensland Unit.

Top of page

Last updated

4 July 2008