Many single people are choosing to adopt, reflecting national trends toward greater acceptance of nontraditional families. Nationally, approximately one-quarter of children and youth, or about 22 million, are growing up in single-parent households. In 2011, nearly one-third of adoptions from foster care were completed by unmarried people. This included adoptions by 1,400 single men and more than 13,000 single women. Several research studies have shown that adopted children raised by single parents experience outcomes that are as good as, if not better than, those for children adopted by couples.
Parenting a Child Who Has Been Sexually Abused: A Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents
This factsheet discusses how you can help children in your care by educating yourself about child sexual abuse, establishing guidelines for safety and privacy in your family, and understanding when and how to seek help if you need it. Reading this factsheet alone will not guarantee that you will know what to do in every circumstance, but you can use it as a resource for some of the potential challenges and rewards that lay ahead.
A Need to Know: Enhancing Adoption Competence Among Mental Health Professionals
For a variety of reasons, adopted individuals and their families are more likely to use mental health services than is the general population. Helping adoptive parents manage these life complexities for themselves and their children can be a challenge, often requiring the help of professionals. Adopted individuals, as children and through their life cycles, can encounter a range of concerns (e.g. ones related to identity) with which they want and need professional assistance. Furthermore, birth/first mothers and fathers also frequently need the services of mental health counselors as they struggle to cope with their loss and, for a growing number of these individuals, to find satisfying ways of managing ongoing relationships with their children and their adoptive families. Mental health and allied professionals must be prepared to meet the needs of these individuals and families. They must possess not only the foundations for competent clinical practice, but also a deep understanding of the unique issues involved.
Published by:
Policy Perspective
August 2013
Funded by: The Donaldson Adoption Institute
2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book
2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book
2020 State Trends in Child Well-Being
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation, June 22, 2020
The 31st edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® Data Book describes how children across the United States were faring before the coronavirus pandemic began.
This year’s publication continues to deliver the Foundation’s annual state rankings and the latest available data on child well-being. It also identifies multi-year trends — comparing statistics from 2010 to 2018. As always, policymakers, researchers and advocates can continue using this information to help shape their work and build a stronger future for children, families and communities.
A Guide for Father Involvement in System of Care
This guide shares information about the importance of fathers in the lives of their children, and it identifies potential consequences if they are not involved. It also offers strategies for systems and families, especially those who are involved in systems of care, to help fathers become more involved. Section I discusses statistics about the presence and absence of fathers in families.
Supporting Your LGBTQ Youth: A Guide for Foster Parents
There are approximately 175,000 youth ages 10–18 in foster care in the United States.1 Of these youth, an estimated 5–10 percent—and likely more—are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ).
Family to Family Tools for Rebuilding the Foster Care
Older foster children and youth have a pressing need for permanency. Almost half of the 538,801 children in out-of-home care at the end of the federal 2000 reporting period were ages 10 to17 (Gibbs et al., 2004). As one youth explained, “Our time is almost up. We want a home, and people we can call parents.” Still, tens of thousands of foster youth emancipate from the system without connections each year. This crisis has provoked a groundswell of action by youth advocates, and a call from young people themselves to change the system. It is not typical for youth to leave foster care and function effectively on their own. Older children need parents and the support of committed adults. Research shows that disadvantaged young people who are connected to adults do better: They relate to others with ease, take fewer risks, have better health, and overcome adversity more easily.
Published by:
The North American Council on Adoptable Children
for The Annie E. Casey Foundation Family to Family Initiative
Criminal Background Checks for Perspective Foster and Adoptive Parents
All States, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico have statutes or regulations requiring background investigations of prospective foster and adoptive parents and all adults residing in their households. In most States, the background investigation includes a check of Federal and State criminal records. Most States also require checks of child abuse and neglect registries. States may deny approval of a foster care license or adoption application if any adult in the household has been convicted of a disqualifying crime or has a registry record of substantiated or founded child abuse or neglect.
Stepparent Adoption
Adopting a stepchild is the most common form of adoption. A stepparent who adopts agrees to become the legal parent and be fully responsible for his or her spouse’s child. After the stepparent adoption occurs, the noncustodial parent (the parent not living with the child) no longer has any rights or responsibilities for the child, including child support.
Infant Safe Haven Laws
Many State legislatures have enacted legislation to address infant abandonment and infanticide in response to a reported increase in the abandonment of infants. Beginning in Texas in 1999, “Baby Moses laws” or infant safe haven laws have been enacted as an incentive for mothers in crisis to safely relinquish their babies to designated locations where the babies are protected and provided with medical care until a permanent home is found. Safe haven laws generally allow the parent, or an agent of the parent, to remain anonymous and to be shielded from prosecution for abandonment or neglect in exchange for surrendering the baby to a safe haven.
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