In the world of adoption, there are many pathways through which a child may come to be part of a family. At The Barker Foundation, we offer many placement options:

• The Domestic Adoption Program places infants born in the United States. We work primarily with prospective adoptive families and birth parents in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
   
• The International Program places infants and toddlers from countries in Asia. Africa, and Latin America.
   
• Concurrent Adoption gives prospective adoptive families the opportunity to participate in our Domestic and International Programs through a concurrent adoption process.
   
• The Older Child Program, Project Wait No Longer: Permanency for Foster Youth, places older children from public foster care with families who are willing to meet the challenges of parenting children with special needs such as medical or physical concerns, emotional or behavioral issues or who have experienced abuse and neglect.

• The Waiting Child Program places children through our International Programs with families who are able to meet the unique needs of a child who is older and/or a child with known medical needs, ranging from minor correctable conditions to more severe and/or permanent conditions.

Eligibility

Because we view adoption as a lifelong process designed to fulfill the needs of children, we believe in being in close proximity to our families.

For that reason, most Barker programs are designed to serve families throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Under certain conditions, however, we do place children with families out of the area. Please refer to "Options for applicants living outside our service area."

The following are general applicant guidelines for all Barker Foundation placement programs:

• Applicants are in good physical and mental health
• Applicants are not actively involved in infertility treatment at the time they make application to adopt
• A parent will stay home with the child fulltime for a minimum of six weeks following the placement of the child in the family’s home. Barker encourages parents to consider taking at least three months leave to remain home with their child if at all possible.
• For specific requirements and procedures, please refer to individual programs.

Although the requirements, procedures and fees for each program vary, the essential process through which we and our prospective families come to know each other, the home study, is the same for any of our programs.