Virginia’s adoption statutes state that a child may be place for adoption by:

1.  A licensed child-placing agency.

2.  A local Board of Social Services.

3.  The child’s parent or legal guardian if the placement is a parental placement.

4.  Any agency outside the Commonwealth that is licensed or otherwise duly authorized to place chldren for adoption by virtue of the laws under which it operates.

The term “parental placement” is defined in the law as “locating or effecting the placment of a child in a family home by the child’s parent or legal guardian for the purpose of foster care or adoption”. The law specifically states that the birth parent or legal guardian of a child may place a child for adoption directly with the adoptive parents.

It is important to note that these laws grant a birth parent the right to make a placement. This right is subject to compliance with the procedural statutes which goven Parental Placement Adoption, but it is not subject to competing interests of other persons. This means that other persons, including family members, cannot defeat a Parental Placment Adoption by seeking custody of the child.

A judge must approve the placement and has the power to prevent the adoption from proceeding if he believes that it is not in the child’s best interests. He does not, however,have the power to choose another set of adoptive parents. As long as the placement is an appropriate placement, it must be allowed.