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Foster Care Adoption Strategies and Programs

When children in foster care cannot safely be reunited with their birth families, State child welfare agencies implement multifaceted services to help them connect with potential adoptive families as soon as possible to minimize their time in out-of-home care, including State and local examples.

	The Basics of Adoption Practice: A Bulletin for Professionals Child Welfare Information Gateway (2006) Provides an overview of the basics of adoption practice and the responsibilities of adoption workers. Foster Parent Adoption: What Professionals Should Know Child Welfare Information Gateway (1994) Describes the agency's role in promoting and supporting adoptions by foster parents.

Forming Families For Kids: States Act to Increase and Speed up Adoptions (PDF - 105 KB)
Voices for America's Children (2004)
Looks at how States have tried to increase and speed up adoptions from the child welfare system, and whether these adoptions are successful.

Foster Care Adoption in the United States: A State-by-State Analysis of Barriers & Promising Approaches
The Urban Institute (2004)
Common barriers to finding adoptive families for children in foster care and promising practices to overcome them.

Listening to Parents: Overcoming Barriers to the Adoption of Children from Foster Care
Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (2005)
Recommends that child welfare agencies develop ways of listening to prospective parents throughout the adoption process and responding to their needs and concerns.

Partitioning the Adoption Process to Better Predict Permanency
McDonald, Press, Billings, & Moore
Child Welfare, 86(3), 2007
View Abstract
Presents results of a study examining the length of time from a child’s removal from home to adoption finalization and factors influencing the timeliness of adoptive placement and finalization.

When Children Cannot Return Home: Adoption and Guardianship
Testa
Future of Children, 14(1), 2004
Examines the evolution of U.S. child welfare policy and practice with respect to permanence when family reunification is not possible. Discusses strategies and trends for adoption and legal guardianship and presents demographic characteristics of children most likely to experience these options.

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State and local examples

Increasing Knowledge About Foster Care Adoption: Barriers and Potential Solutions (PDF - 215 KB)
University of Massachusetts Center for Adoption Research & Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (2006)
This policy brief focuses on knowledge about foster care adoptions among Massachusetts residents and includes recommendations for more targeted recruitment efforts.

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Updated on December 7, 2007