Successful Adoption Indicators

See also, "Indicators of Adoption Disruption"

There are several factors that can predict the possibility of a successful adoption as well as the possibility of an adoption disruption. Having a good understanding of your family and the dynamics that it presents can help circumvent any possible problems before and after a child comes home.

Adoptive families that are working towards or currently possess the following characteristics are more likely to have a successful adoption experience.

Adopting A Child From Foster Care

Right now, there are thousands and thousands of children who in the foster child adoption system waiting for a adoptive family. The parental rights of these children have permanently been terminated and there is NO possibility that the child will EVER be returned to their birth home. Often when families think of adopting a child, they visualize an infant or toddler, not an older child or sibling group. On average children in foster care that need a family are at least eight years of age or part of a sibling group of two or more. Imagine being ten years old and not having a mother or father to count on or not knowing if or when you’ll have to move to yet another home. Some of the children waiting in foster care for adoption are wonderful students, participants in school sports and other activities, and have no needs other than their age, membership in a sibling group or race.

There is often a misconception that adopting a child that is school-aged will be more difficult or will have challenging behaviors that may not fit into an existing family. In actuality, they are children in the foster care system that may have emotional, behavioral, or medical needs but not all fall into one of these categories. As an adoptive family you would know what the needs of the child are and often, the child has NO needs other than being a member of a sibling group, an older child or teenager.

When you are considering adopting an older child, your agency or law firm WILL provide you with a full written history. It will contain specific information about the child as well as non-identifying information about the birth parent and other birth siblings. Birth parent information may include their age, employment history, IQ, any problems with addiction, as well as why their parental rights were terminated. A full background report will be presented to you and you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions, talk to previous caregivers (foster parents), and current therapists or teachers.

The true benefit of adopting an older child is that all information about what he or she likes or dislikes, what their strengths or weaknesses are and general personality traits are all known. You can match the likes of your families to the child that is placed in your care. Do you like sports, reading or music? Your personality traits will come out in the homestudy process and your agency or law firm will do their best to find a child that needs you.

In additional to background information, you will receive a FULL MEDICAL HISTORY on both the birth parents and child. The reports will include past and current medical information. Children who come from the foster care adoption system come with a medical card that will cover any pre-existing medical conditionals. Your family will be able to use this medical card until the child is 18 years of age or they graduate from high school and it covers general medical care, any type of therapy, dental and vision.

Children from the foster care adoption process is generally done at low or no cost to the adopting family. The adoptive family will actually receive a tax free monthly stipend until the child graduates from high school to help offset the cost of raising the child. Some states will actually help PAY FOR COLLEGE! Your will help you every step of the way during the adoption process and they will help determine for which programs you may be eligible. When you finalize a foster child adoption, you will actually be eligible for an Adoption Tax Credit of $11,650.00 for each child that you adopt. This means that you will get a refund of taxes up to that total prorated over a five year period!

When you consider adopting a child, think about a child that REALLY needs a home. When a child turns eighteen and they were never adopted, the child becomes HOMELESS. Two-thirds of the males will be arrested and 40% of the females will become pregnant within the first year. Often, children born to these women will also fall back into the system. Opening your home to a school-aged child will reward you in a multitude of ways for a lifetime.

The Public Adoption Process and the Adoptive Families

Adopting a child from the public welfare system can be a challenging, yet exciting experience. The public adoption process can be cumbersome at times, with little understanding of how the system operates. This is often frustrating to a family that is trying to adopt. Potential adoptive families simply want to provide a loving, stable home but then find they have to wait through a long, cumbersome adoption process. It is essential that families don’t get discouraged and leave the process all together. Support, patience and understanding of the public adoption process may be helpful.

Adoption in Ohio as in most states, use the public matching process. A social worker is assigned to a child, and works with that child while in foster care, preparing him or her for a permanent family. At the same time, the social worker is recruiting and searching for a permanent adoptive family for this child. This recruitment first takes place with any possible biological relatives, then generally moves to a local search, and then finally a national search of possible “stranger” adoptive families. Often social workers will read many homestudies to consider for the same child. The social worker will narrow down this group of potential families to the top three to five families that the worker feels may best meet the child’s needs. There then is some type of committee or “staffing” held to help determine the best possible match for the child. There are times that the acting social worker will interview each family, and/or the program that wrote the family homestudy. Sometimes families are asked to make photo albums to show their family, and even videos of themselves to show the committee a little about themselves. This video and album may be the child’s first introduction to the family after they have been identified as the selected family for the child. There are many varieties to this adoption process, but they generally follow a similar course. After a family is identified, they are presented with as much information as the program has on the child, (sometimes this information is presented before the staffing). Often the family is able to talk with foster parents, teachers, and even therapists to help make a decision as to whether they feel they would be able to meet the needs of this child. Once a decision is made by the family and the program to move forward, a visitation process is established. The child and the family visit, and spend overnights together until everyone involved is ready for the child to move in to the adoptive home permanently.

Once the child moves in with the family, the true transition begins to take place. Families find it helpful to work with the child’s previous therapist (if they were in counseling prior to the move) while beginning the process with a new counselor closer to their home. The social worker will continue to work with the family and the child to help with any needs that may arise during this time. States vary, but the adoptive families can formalize adoption in Ohio, after six months. This is an exciting time, which signifies to the child the end of a social worker making decisions for them while becoming a permanent member of their “forever family”.

When a younger child is being placed for adoption, the social worker can identify a home relatively quickly. It is not unusual for a social workers to have more than 50 to 100 homestudies to read for children under eight years old. With older children, social workers may have to look through many program’s and resources to find homestudies of adoptive families that may be able and willing to parent such a child. The greatest need is for families open to adopting minority children or those children over the age of 8 or sibling groups.

The process of adopting a child out of foster care can be a “roller coaster ride” with different guidelines to follow depending on the agency with whom you are working. There are thousands of children waiting for a loving, permanent family and a better understanding of the public adoption process and the types of children that are waiting will make the trip until your family is home much smoother.

Successful Adoption Indicators

There are several factors that can predict the possibility of a successful adoption as well as the possibility of an adoption disruption. Having a good understanding of your family and the dynamics that it presents can help circumvent any possible problems before and after a child comes home.

Adoptive families that are working towards or currently possess the following characteristics are more likely to have a successful adoption experience.

If your family is ready to move forward in starting the adoption process or re-evaluating were you are heading while waiting to adopt please contact us at All About Adoption Consulting 330-665-1811