History

The Adoption Service was created on 1 August 2000.
Before 2004, the Adoption Service acted as a State adoption institution. 

The purpose of the Adoption Service was:
• to manage the accounting of people wanting to adopt children and children that may be adopted; 
• to organize adoption in Lithuania; 
• to coordinate the work of municipal child rights protection services in the area of adoption; 
• to protect the rights of adopted children; 
• to protect lawful interests of adopted children. 

Adoption service: 
• improved the adoption process;  
• improved the assistance provided to adopted children and adoptive parents; 
• educated the society about the adoption. 

Since 2005, the Adoption Service was assigned with more functions. The Service had to provide methodical assistance to municipal child rights protection divisions. It had to teach their specialists, to consult them. It was assigned to implement international protection measures. Therefore, the name of the Adoption Service was changed into the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service.

The Service: 
• organizes the development of knowledge of specialists of municipal child rights protection services; 
• organizes training and attestation of specialists implementing the inspection of preparation of guardians and adoptive parents for guardianship and adoption;
• collects statistics on children, analyses it; 
• coordinates municipal child rights protection services;
• implements international measures of child rights protection; 
• informs residents on child rights, guardianship and adoption procedures; 
• organizes adoption in Lithuania and in foreign States. 

The State intended to create a child rights protection system equally operating in the entire country. Therefore, on 1 July 2018, all Lithuanian Child Rights Protection Divisions in municipalities were connected. They began their work in accordance with equal standards and practices of representation and defence of children rights and interests in the entire country. 

The Service:
• defends and guarantees child rights and represents child rights and lawful interests; 
• reacts to notifications on possible child rights violations 24/7; 
• organizes education of the society about the matters of child rights protection; 
• collects information on the condition of child rights protection in municipalities; 
• provides methodical assistance and proposals for municipal institutions and authorities concerning the improvement of implementation of child rights protection; 
• coordinates the work of mobile teams concerning the provision of assistance to families; 
• assesses the situation of the child, initiates the analysis of a case, makes decisions on individual cases; 
• organizes guardianship and adoption of a child; 
• coordinates the supervision of guardianship; 
• defends the child’s rights and lawful interests at court, participates in court hearings; 
• submits the court with conclusions, represents the child’s interests; 
• participates in the execution procedure of non-material court orders taken with regard to a child; 
• represents the child’s interests during a preliminary investigation or criminal procedure at the court;
• cooperates with other institutions and non-governmental organizations on matters of guarantee of child rights protection.