Computer systems and methods for facilitating adoption

Abstract

Disclosed is a data store for use by a first and second class of adoption participants having access privileges. A query is initiated for a first member of the first class or a second member of the second class upon access privilege verification. When for the first member, the query defines a qualifying family that may adopt an unborn or newly born child from the first member. When for the second member, the electronic query defines characteristics of (i) a qualifying unborn or newly born child that may be adopted by the second member and (ii) optionally the birth parents. Data store records are either associated with members of the first or second class of adoption participants. The data store includes records from a first and second adoption agency. The data store is searched with the query thereby obtaining a search result comprising one or more records matching the query.

Description

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The field of this invention relates to improved computer systems and methods for facilitating adoption.2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]In many instances, the traditional approach to adoption has been a “closed adoption.” The birth parents sign over their parental rights to the adoption agency and the adoptive parents are called and informed that there is a child available for them to adopt. The birth parents and the adoptive parents never meet or share identifying information about each other. Often there is never any contact of any kind between the adopted child and the biological parents.[0003]Gaining in some popularity are “open adoptions.” An open adoption involves the birth and adoptive parents meeting, usually before the baby's birth, and sharing personal information, including last names, phone numbers, addresses, and a desire and commitment to maintain an ongoing relationship. The form of relationship varies widely. On one end of the spectr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0029]Advantageously, the data store includes records from a plurality of different adoption agencies. In one exemplary embodiment, the plurality of records comprises a first set of records from a first adoption agency and a second set of records from a second adoption agency. In some embodiments, the data store includes records from two or more adoption agencies, three or more adoption agencies, four or more adoption agencies, five or more adoption agencies, ten or more adoption agencies, or twenty or more adoption agencies. This is highly advantageous because the first class of adoption participants and / or the second class of adoption participants gain access to the records of multiple adoption agencies even in instances where they have a contractual relationship or other form of agreement with only a single adoption agency. By gaining access to the records of multiple adoption agencies in this confidential manner, the time that it takes for adoptive parents to find a suitable baby is considerably reduced. Moreover, by gaining access to the records of multiple adoption agencies in this confidential manner, the time that it takes for birth parents to find suitable adoptive parents is considerably reduced, thus benefitting both parties.

Problems solved by technology

Nonetheless, this does not mean the traditional agency-assisted adoption in which a closed adoption is pursued is not a suitable method for some birth parents and adoptive parents.

The agency pulls together all aspects of the adoption plan and may or may not provide the adoptive parents with an attorney.

In the case where the parties do not use an agency to find each other, the parties have the difficulty of screening each prospective party to make sure they are a suitable match.

Often the parties are not sufficiently skilled or informed on ways to screen for suitable partners.

For example, in the case of prospective adoptive parents, the prospective adoptive parents may not know what questions to ask or what warning signs to look for when screening for appropriate birth parents.

Thus, although advances in computer technology and the advent of globally connected computing networks gets the message from the birth parents and the adoptive parents out to a wider audience, the globally connected computing networks do little or nothing to filter through all the prospective adoptive parents and / or birth parents to find an appropriate match.

However, even in these instances, a drawback remains.

While this service serves a significant need, it has drawbacks.

First, it does not provide privacy to the children that are available for adoption.

Second, the service is not reciprocal: while adoptive parents can search for suitable children, birth parent cannot use the service to search for suitable adoptive parents.

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