Increase Exits from Foster Care to ADOPTION

Root Causes: Timely Exits from Foster Care to ADOPTION

Why Is this Trend Important?

When children can’t return home, adoption (or legal guardianship) can provide them with the opportunity to grow up with a family to receive the love, nurturing and support they deserve. Adoption can provide children with a more legally and emotionally secure future, while also ensuring that the special needs of children adopted from foster care are met.

What Do We Know About This Trend?

Timeliness to adoption is a challenge for all but a few states, particularly when viewed from a longitudinal perspective. While the overall number of children adopted has increased significantly over the past decade, it still takes too long for a finalized adoption to occur. The median percentage of children in care for 17 months or longer at the start of 2005 who were adopted by the end of that year was only 20.9 percent. [i]

What Are The Forces And Influences at Work?

· Age of children. The age of a child has tremendous influence on their ability to become adopted from foster care. As children in foster care get older, their prospects for adoption continue to diminish.

· Special needs of children. Many children adopted from foster care have special needs that must be met even after the adoption is completed. As fewer children come into care and more are successfully returned home, those children who become legally free for adoption have mental health, health and developmental challenges that require quick attention, support and resources for families who adopt.

· Concurrent planning. By focusing on the promise of a permanent family from Day 1 of a child’s involvement with the child welfare system, states can ensure that planning for their future has already begun when children can’t return home. A child’s options and resources for adoption by relatives and others do not have to wait until children are legally free for adoption.

· Court improvements. Timely court attention to each and every foster child’s situation can have a significant impact on their prospects for successful adoption to ensure that children do not stay in care longer than is necessary and that plans for their future move forward as soon as possible.

· Financial resources for families . The adoption subsidy is the most important determinant of whether or not children get adopted, particularly adequate supports for children with special needs.

Federal financing. Federal legislation enacted in October 2008, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, ensures that children adopted from foster care receive federal subsidies to care for children with special needs and also allows states to continue investing in timely adoptions with state dollars that are freed up as a result of the legislation.