Can You Adopt as a Single Parent in New Jersey?

Maybe you haven’t found that someone special or you just prefer to remain single, but you want to experience the joy of being a parent. So you’ve considered filing for adoption, but are uncertain whether your unmarried status will prevent you from adopting. In New Jersey, that’s generally not a barrier to adoption.

New Jersey has a well-deserved reputation nationally as an “adoption-friendly” state. While some other states look at marital status or sexual orientation as one of the factors in determining your fitness to adopt, New Jersey has no such restrictions.

Just because New Jersey does not prohibit single parent adoptions, however, does not mean that you won’t run into obstacles as a single person trying to adopt. Often, adoption agencies will give preferential treatment to married couples seeking to adopt, or a birth parent may be reluctant or unwilling to consider a single parent in a private adoption. The laws in New Jersey, while allowing single parent adoptions, do not provide the authority to compel an agency or a birth parent to give a child in adoption to a single parent. If you are a single person seeking to adopt a child, your best approach is to work directly with an agency that specializes in or supports single parent adoptions.

Adoption Attorneys in New Jersey

At the law office of Cofsky & Zeidman, LLC, our lawyers bring more than 25 years of experience to every matter we handle. Attorney Donald C. Cofsky has personally handled more than 1,500 adoption proceedings since joining the bar in 1974. Attorney Bruce D. Zeidman has protected the interests of clients in state and federal courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania since 1984. We understand the challenges you face, and can help you identify all your options so that you can make good decisions that are in your best long-term interests.

Contact our office online or call us at (856) 429-5005 in Haddonfield, NJ, at (856) 429-5005 in Woodbury, NJ, or in Philadelphia, PA, at (856) 429-5005. We also provide a free initial consultation in personal injury and workers’ compensation matters.