Adoption Services

Olmsted County Health, Housing, & Human Services provides adoption services to children in the Minnesota Waiting Children’s Program and the families who seek to adopt them.

  • Children who are available for adoption come from throughout the State of Minnesota and many of them have been removed from their biological families due to abuse or neglect.
  • Almost all of the adoptions are with families who have been a concurrent family for the child.  This means that the family provided foster care for the child and actively supported reunification while committing to the possibility of adoption if the child cannot be reunified.
  • There are typically between 500 and 600 “waiting children” across the state of Minnesota waiting to be adopted. Olmsted County usually has about 25 children at any given time, most of those children have an identified family either through a relative or concurrent planning family.
  • Most waiting children are over the age of eight, many have mental, physical, or emotional needs.  Some of the children are brothers and sisters who want to stay together.  Children are from diverse backgrounds.
  • Families would need to be licensed for foster care and go through the licensing process.
  • There is not a fee for adoption services for special needs children who have been in foster care and there are funds available after adoption to help support families for most children.

How do I get started?

Before you are eligible to adopt, you will need to go through the same licensing process as one does to become a foster. Please refer to the foster care link on our website for details on how to get licensed. This would be the first step in the process.

If you have questions about the process, we can be reached at 507-328-6390 or fostercare@olmstedcounty.gov.

For those families that want to adopt but do not want to do foster care we encourage you to consider one of the private agencies that works with helping families become connected with children who are already legally free for adoption. If you want to adopt and do not want to use the foster care path, use a private adoption agency.

Adoption and Concurrent Permanency Planning: Working together to help families.

Olmsted County foster care, kinship care, and adoption support group

Olmsted County warmly invites you to join our foster care, kinship care, and adoption support group. This group is open to the public and created especially for foster parents, kinship caregivers, families considering adoption, and families who have adopted privately, domestically, or internationally.

Our goal is to offer a safe, friendly, and welcoming space where families can:

  • Connect and build supportive relationships with others
  • Discover helpful resources and tools
  • Share questions, concerns, and experiences in a caring environment

We meet on the fourth Thursday of every month from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Family Resource Center, located at 930 40th Street SW, Suite 110, Rochester, MN. For those who cannot make the meeting in person, a virtual option will be provided. If RPS is closed, the group will not meet. In November and December, we will meet on the third Thursday of the month.

For questions, or additional information, please contact:

Melissa Overbo, Olmsted County Post Permanency Social Worker, 507-328-6840, melissa.overbo@olmstedcounty.gov.

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