Post Adoption Contact Agreements
- AdoptInter
- Sep 26
- 3 min read
NCFA Resource Page What They Are, What They Include, and How They Help
The Adoption Advocate is a free publication created by NCFA to educate and support adoption professionals, policymakers, families, child welfare specialists, and other interested parties on today's most relevant child welfare and adoption issues.
Adopt International is a proud member of National Council For Adoption.
Adoption Advocate No. 186 - Post-Adoption Contact Agreements (PACA) are helpful tools in guiding contact between adoptive and birth families. Learn more about these agreements.
August 20, 2025
“How often will there be phone calls between my child and their birth mother?”
“What will visits with my child and their birth parent look like?”
“Will I be in touch with my child’s birth parents via social media?”
“If I place my child for adoption, will I be able to see pictures as she grows up?”
“If I place my child for adoption, will I be able to share important information about our family’s history with him?”
Open adoption is now the norm in the United States, with a robust body of research highlighting the benefits and importance of openness. Research from the Minnesota Texas Research Adoption Project, one of the largest and oldest longitudinal studies of adoptive families and birth mothers, finds the following benefits of open adoption:
Adolescents understand that there are multiple adults in their lives who care for them but have different roles in their lives and see their birth relatives as real people who can share information about their background;
Birth mothers have less unresolved grief; and
Adoptive parents don’t fear birth parents but rather benefit from their relationship with them.[1]
However, open adoption is certainly not a straightforward endeavor, and embarking on an open adoption may bring up all of the above questions for adoptive and birth parents. A Post-Adoption Contact Agreement (PACA) can be an important tool in addressing these questions and becoming comfortable with the answers.
What is a Post-Adoption Contact Agreement?
A PACA can help to fill the void created by the fact that the law does not define what constitutes contact between adoptive and birth families. As Advokids explains, a PACA, a common part of an open adoption, is an arrangement that creates guidelines for contact after the adoption is finalized.[2] These agreements are typically made between members of the adoptive family and members of the birth family and can also include the child if they are over the age of 12. They usually include provisions for sharing information about the child in the future, as well as considerations regarding the amount and type of contact that will occur.
PACAs can promote effective communication and ensure that everyone is on the same page. If, as the child grows up, there is any sort of breakdown in communication or disagreement about what was agreed to originally, the PACA provides a written reminder of what all parties agreed to. PACAs help ensure that phrases such as “we’ll stay in touch,” which are vague and can be interpreted differently by different people, are clearly defined and agreed to. PACAs can also help the relationship between the birth parents and adoptive parents stay on track as adoptees grow up and receive more autonomy in decision-making regarding ongoing contact with their birth family.
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If you found this article useful, you might also find this useful: Adoption Tax Credit 2025, Adoption Tax Credit FAQs, What is open adoption?
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