Adoption Practice

  Janice Expecting a child who has lived through a disrupted adoption to believe in the permanency of a new parental commitment is a very tall order. Think about it: How many adults get hurt in a relationship and then walk confidently into the next one with an open heart and mind? Each time we… More

Inside and Outside There was a time when my identity was that of an abused, neglected, and abandoned foster child. Sometimes I sense that the same lonely little girl still resides somewhere deep inside. However, I’m relieved to now have a cluster of other, more positive, identities: social worker, wife, mother, foster mother, adoptive mother, writer, and advocate… More

by Catherine Sanders I came into the system in 2008 when I was 13 years old. At that time, my case plan was reunification. I knew from the start that I didn’t want to return to my biological mother. I constantly told my workers and everyone else involved in the case that, but no one… More

In 2013, Pennsylvania’s Statewide Adoption and Perma­nency Network (SWAN) launched #MeetTheKids, a new campaign to recruit foster and adoptive families. This unique effort features 12 Pennsylvania youth in foster care using iPods to film each other while they discuss foster care and their need for a permanent family. While the youth filmed one another, a… More

Now entering its fifth year, the Georgia Cold Case Project is designed to change outcomes for children who have been in care for years and are likely to age out of care without achieving permanency. The project is a joint effort of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and the Supreme Court… More

Lexie entered foster care when she was 15 years old and aged out without finding a foster or adoptive family. She has become a vocal advocate for finding families for all children and youth in care. The article below is adapted from remarks Lexie gave at a briefing on Capitol Hill in September 2014 titled… More

In 1999, the California Department of Social Services and Consortium for Children partnered to launch an innovative new program—Permanency Planning Mediation. The partners were looking for an effective way to use openness to shorten a child’s time in foster care by avoiding costly and time-consuming contested termination of parental rights hearings while also helping maintain… More

From Summer 2012 Adoptalk   According to the 2012 AFCARS report, close to 84,000 Hispanic or Latino children were in care at the end of fiscal year 2011. About 22 percent (almost 23,000) of those children were waiting to be adopted. Of the 50,516 children who found adoptive families in 2011, 21 percent (10,757) were… More

Think back to when you were leaving high school and starting college. What did you do in the summer? Attend cookouts and other events with your family? Sleep in and hang out with friends? Work to earn money for school? What about the 20,000 youth in foster care who age out each year. How do… More

from Summer 2011 Adoptalk “He’ll never amount to anything.” Would those words destroy or motivate you? For me, the words simply seemed true; I should be a failure. Statistics would predict that I’m in prison, but that wasn’t my destiny, was it? Who can know for certain if I will amount to anything, and why… More

“Part of the adoption process should be to help adoptive parents and children connect with other adoptive families. I don’t go to the agencies when I need answers. I go to other adoptive families and find out how they handled the situation.”  ~ adoptive parent In September 2010, NACAC began surveying adoptive families in the… More

Published in the Summer 2010 issue of Adoptalk In fall 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rewarded 38 states for increasing foster care adoptions. Some states were particularly adept at finding families for older youth—in 2008, adoptions of children nine and up rose 39 percent in Florida, 25 percent in Texas, and… More

This NACAC publication identifies key policy and practice barriers to the adoption of older children and youth. It also makes recommendations for changes that will ensure that more older children and youth achieve permanence. The publication also highlights existing policies and programs that are helping more older children find permanence through adoption. Download a PDF… More

From Spring 2009 Adoptalk The experience of being a foster or adopted youth is both complex and unique. As such, the process of diagnosing mental health concerns can be paradoxical and problematic. Unlike other children, these youth have lost their first families. In addition, they may have been exposed to drugs or alcohol, abuse or… More

This NACAC manual is intended to help parents and family advocates learn how to set up parent-to-parent networks to provide post-adoption support in their own communities. The document provides information on six model peer support programs and explores in detail NACAC’s former MN ASAP parent support network. Click here to download PDF… More

The bond between parents and children, even in families where abuse and neglect occurs, can be quite strong. Children who enter foster care after spending years with their birth family never forget their family of origin, and some never lose the primal desire to return home. For teens in foster care who lack other permanency… More

This publication describes characteristics of older waiting children and identifies barriers that are keeping children and youth in care. Then it provides detailed steps that child welfare administrators and workers can take to replicate successful youth permanency efforts. Download a PDF… More

from Summer 2005 Adoptalk The federal fiscal year 2003 AFCARS report suggests that by October 2003, more than 40 percent of children in foster care who needed adoptive families—nearly 50,000—were African American. By contrast, as of July 2003, only 13.3 percent of the entire U.S. population was black. This appalling disproportionality makes the task of… More

Spring 2005 Adoptalk   According to the Children’s Bureau, a child’s chance of being adopted dramatically drops once he or she is within a few years of adolescence. It is also commonly understood that teens who age out of care face a very uncertain future. To address the need to seek stable homes for older… More