Listening to Parents: Overcoming Barriers to the Adoption of Children from Foster Care
This report identifies a major reason why so many children have not found homes: The vast majority of potential parents who are recruited – well over 90% -- do not ultimately wind up adopting a child, not because they don‘t want to, but apparently because they decide not to deal with a system they perceive as too frustrating, bureaucratic and just plain unfriendly.
The study lays out detailed recommendations for changing the system and improving children’s prospects of finding permanent, loving families. An executive summary (5 pages) and the full report are both available at the site as pdf files.
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The Adoptive Families Web Site
Adoptive Families, a national adoption magazine, presents everything you need to know about adoption on this site. It has check lists, links to articles, adoption attorney and adoption agency lists, and more.
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National Adoption Day
This special day is a collective national effort to raise awareness about the 129,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving families. The site has an event planning section, information on adoption, and requests that those communities planning a special event on Saturday tell the site what you’re doing.
What’s Working for Children: A Policy Study of Adoption Stability and Termination
This new report offers generally good news for the growing number of children being adopted from foster care nationwide. The study finds that the vast majority of adoptions from foster care are remaining intact over time. It raises questions about the effectiveness of state data collection systems on adoption terminations and offers recommendations to improve policies and practices.
Among the principal findings:
- Terminations Seldom Occur. Concerns that policies promoting adoption would lead to increased terminations generally appear unfounded.
- Data Collection is Inadequate. An array of problems prevent a thorough understanding of the reality on the ground (of disruption and dissolution rates) or of the impact of various risk factors.
- Nontraditional Parents are Effective – Families headed by single, foster, older, lower-income and less-educated parents (as well as by kin) have better stability rates than the average, and therefore provide important opportunities for recruitment and placement from foster care.
- Post Adoption Services are Vital – In addition to careful matching and preparation before a placement, providing assistance of various kinds after the child is in a home is vitally important in helping minimize disruption and promote adoption stability.
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The Trend Toward Mixed Race Families The Christian Science Monitor reports on a significant rise in mixed-race families due to interracial marriages and multiracial adoptions. Data from the 2000 Census show that more than 1 in 6 adopted kids is of a different race from their parents and about 1 in 15 marriages in the US is interracial, up from 1 in 23 in 1990.
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Online Adoption
About 3,000 children awaiting adoption have their photos and descriptions posted at the site of this new internet adoption site. AdoptUSkids is funded by HHS and run by the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia , which developed the site and is managing it.. Most of the children on this site are school-age and have handicaps. Many of them are racial or ethnic minorities. All of them are awaiting adoption through public agencies.
About 3,000 children awaiting adoption have their photos and descriptions posted at the site of this new internet adoption site. and run by the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia , which developed the site and is managing it.. Most of the children on this site . Many of them are . All of them are awaiting adoption through public agencies. The website offers other services too. Potential parents can take online courses to prepare to adopt. A section for social workers will speed replies to parents interested in children.
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American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Adoption by Same-Sex Parents
In a policy statement released this week the American Academy of Pediatrics lands firmly on behalf of the children of same-sex parents. In the policy statement the AAP says "Children deserve to know that their relationships with both of their parents are stable and legally recognized. This applies to all children, whether their parents are of the same or opposite sex."
The AAP position in brief: Children who are born to or adopted by 1 member of a same-sex couple deserve the security of 2 legally recognized parents. Therefore, The American Academy of Pedriatrics supports legislative and legal efforts to provide the possibility of adoption of the child by the second parent or coparent in these families.
If you’d like to read the complete statement, it’s short – two pages long -- and comes with a list of references.
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