How To Become An Adoption Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an adoption specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Lesley Casarez Ph.D.

The process of adoption can be complicated and long-winding. Luckily, there are adoption specialists that can help families adopt children either domestically or internationally, increasing the chances of approval and helping keep the costs down as much as possible.

The job responsibilities of an adoption specialist include performing adoption studies on families, completing adoption paperwork, educating families about the adoption process, referring families to relevant services providers, and reporting to the adoption program manager. In some cases, they also provide post-placement adoption services to families. Adoption specialists usually travel for work when they are not in the office.

Adoption agencies require their specialists to have degrees in social work, psychology, or other relevant majors. Experience in foster care, adoption, or child welfare is also a common requirement. Moreover, adoption specialists must have exemplary skills in communication, time management, and organization, as well as high levels of empathy and compassion for the families they deal with. Adoption specialists make around $43,000 per year.

What general advice would you give to an adoption specialist?

Lesley Casarez Ph.D.

Director, Quality Enhancement Plan Program Coordinator, M.S. Professional School Counseling Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, Angelo State University

Curriculum and instruction are such a broad field that graduates can tailor their job searches to fit their particular interests. Whether a candidate wants to focus on pedagogical development, curriculum development, instructional strategies, or program evaluation and data analysis, advanced degree programs in curriculum and instruction allow them to do so. The job market is changing right now, with many educational entities shifting to either a hybrid or entirely virtual model for students. With this change, graduates will need to adapt to a more technological-based environment in which they operate.

ScoreAdoption SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $41,070

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.51%

Asian 2.67%

Black or African American 13.37%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 4.19%

White 63.14%

Gender

female 89.40%

male 10.60%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an adoption specialist

Explore adoption specialist education requirements

Most common adoption specialist degrees

Bachelor's

67.5 %

Master's

20.1 %

Associate

7.8 %

Start to develop specific adoption specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Foster Care	14.70%
Social Work	14.34%
Adoption Process	5.87%
Mental Health	5.30%
Child Welfare System	5.11%

Complete relevant adoption specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New adoption specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an adoption specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real adoption specialist resumes.

Research adoption specialist duties and responsibilities

Lead a special DSS project to give pre and post adoptive services to families.
Lead presentation and training sessions to community and inter-agency groups.
Mediate conflicts between patients, handle medical emergencies, assist patients in developing and implementing positive and cooperative living skills.
Work within various Michigan court systems, along with DHS, and various area agencies as needed.

Prepare your adoption specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your adoption specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an adoption specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable adoption specialist resume templates

Build a professional adoption specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your adoption specialist resume.