CAAA meets bi-monthly. The southern meetings are in Los Angeles; northern meetings in the Bay Area. The meetings are attended by representatives from almost every adoption agency in California as well as people who have directly participated in adoptions or are simply interested in practice issues.

CAAA participation is a combination of professional social workers, representing adoption agencies, as well as "lay" people interested in adoptions who usually represent adoptive parents, birth parents or adult adoptees. Each agency is entitled to one "lay" representative who may attend meetings, contributes to discussions, and vote on issues.

CAAA has been a forum for discussing mutual problems, for considering changes in adoption practice, and for sponsoring legislative action. Services to all members of the adoption triad (birth parents, adopted child, adoptive parents) have been expanded and improved due to the organizational belief that "where there is mutual exchange, there is constructive growth,"

CAAA has influenced state regulatory change by publishing position papers on current and sometimes controversial issues. CAAA has published positions on: The Need for Public and Private Adoption Agencies, Children's Rights, Parents Rights, Community Rights, Philosophical Statement on Open Adoption Records, A Statement of Rights of Birth Parents, and Placement of Minority Children.

CAAA collaborated with the California Department of Social Services and the County Welfare Director's Association in the production of "California Adoptions into the Twenty First Century", a major policy planning conference held in San Diego in 1997. This conference resulted in the creation of the Governor's Adoption Council and Initiative, leading to substantial changes and improvements to adoption child welfare practice in the past eight years. For a full report on the success of the Governor's Initiative click here.

CAAA has initiated training workshops for professional staff on current trends and new methods of practice.

California Adoption Agencies are working with over 7,000 children at any one time but reviews the adoption potential of over 13,000 children annually,

California Adoption Agencies bring together children needing placement over 7,500 times each year. The family often works with one agency, and the children are in the custody of another agency. These co-operative placements extend out of California as well.