According to the Code of Virginia, Title 63.2, Chapter 12, only two types of placements for adoption are legally permitted: those made by duly authorized agencies (public social services departments and private licensed child placing agencies) and those made by birth parents or legal guardians.

Placements made by parents are those arranged directly between the birth parents, or legal guardian, and the adoptive parents. State adoption laws afford children and parents involved in parental placements many of the same protections and services that exist when an adoption is arranged by a public social services department or private adoption agency.

When a placement for adoption is being proposed to occur across state lines, the requirements of the ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) must be met unless the parent is placing their child with a step-parent, grandparent, adult brother or sister, or adult uncle or aunt. Written permission of the Compact Administrator in the state of the child's proposed new residence must be obtained before the placement may occur. Because the Compact is law, compliance with its requirements is mandatory; not discretionary. In Virginia, the Interstate Compact law is found in the Code of Virginia, Title 63.2, Chapter 10.

• Parental Placements for Adoption and the Interstate Compact

Note: Information about a specific state's procedures, requirements, and interpretations and application of the ICPC should be obtained from the ICPC Compact Administrator or Deputy in that state.
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