About 7.8 million children live in grandfamilies.  Some grandfamilies are multigenerational households where families pool resources and grandparents provide care so parents can work.  In others, grandparents or other relatives have stepped in to keep children out of foster care when parents are unable to care for them. Sometimes grandparents have stepped in and a parent… [read more]

Since its founding in 1974 by adoptive parents, the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) has been dedicated to the mission that every child deserves a permanent family. Through education, support, parent leadership capacity building, and advocacy, NACAC promotes and supports permanence for children and youth in foster care in the United States and Canada. Some… [read more]

More than 104,000 children in the United States are waiting in foster care to be adopted by permanent, loving parents. These youngsters, who are on average 8 years old, typically remain in temporary situations over three years before being placed with “forever families.” The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 aimed to promote… [read more]

This User’s Guide was created to serve as a “road map” for family members. You can use it to help make sure your family is on the right path, and make sure the process follows closely to the principles and activities of wraparound. In the following pages, you will first see some basic summaries of… [read more]

Haciendo lo que puedas para sentirte lo mejor possible. Todos podemos beneficiarnos al aprender qué hacer para tener buena salud. Los jóvenes en cuidado de crianza (foster care) tienen que enfrentar muchas cosas estresantes en sus vidas. A menudo, se sienten muy heridos emocionalmente. A veces sus capacidades de manejar los problemas están agotadas. Pueden… [read more]

Parents, guardians, caregivers and school administrators will sometimes disagree over whether a student resides in a school district and can be enrolled in a district public school. The information in this manual is designed to help parents, guardians and caregivers understand the legal concepts involved in residency disputes, and to inform them of their legal… [read more]

Today’s reality is far different as a result of the Internet, and the changes – some or better, others for worse – are accelerating every day. That means people who want to make connections are being enabled to do so more easily and more quickly than had ever been possible before, but it also means… [read more]

It is difficult to describe the extent to which the Internet is changing the everyday realities of adoption – and the lives of the millions of people it encompasses – without using words that sound hyperbolic. But a yearlong examination of the effects of this very new technology on a very old social institution indicates… [read more]

For an adoption to take place, the person available to be adopted must be placed in the home of a person or persons eligible to adopt. All States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands have laws that specify the persons who are eligible to… [read more]