Persons Seeking to Adopt

Author(s):	National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (HHS)
Availability:	View Publication Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:	2000 - 2 pages

Statistics from a variety of sources are reported in this factsheet about the characterstics of prospective adoptive parents. The number of people seeking to adopt, race, age, educational status, income, and marital status are highlighted.

Placing Children for Adoption

Author(s):	National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (HHS)
Availability:	View Publication Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:	2000 - 4 pages

Statistics from a variety of sources are analyzed for this factsheet about the characteristics of women who place their child for adoption and the demographic factors that affect adoption trends. Age and educational status of birth mothers are highlighted, as well as the effects of changes in social attitudes toward unwed motherhood and declining pregnancy rates.

Statistics on Adoption in the United States
This article from The Future of Children provides an overview of adoption data.

Adopted Children and Stepchildren: 2000, Census Report (PDF 535 KB)
First time report on adopted children from the Census Bureau. Presents information on the characteristics of 2.1 million adopted children and 4.4 million stepchildren, as estimated from the Census 2000 sample that collected data from approximately 1 out of every 6 households.

Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System
National statistics on the number of children adopted from the U.S. foster care system.

Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data
A partnership of Chapin Hall and the American Public Human Services Association, the Center will provide subscribing State child welfare agencies with a national database to assess the impact of their program initiatives over time.

Children and the Households They Live In: 2000 (PDF 952 KB)
Describes the social and economic characteristics of people under 18 living in U.S. households in 2000, those of their parents, their householders, and their relationship to the householder.

Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2002 (PDF 521 KB)
Provides information on several characteristics of U.S. children, including the presence of "coresident" grandparents.

Factsheets on AFCARS
Children's Bureau Express article on factsheets that offer answers to frequently asked questions regarding AFCARS (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System) Reviews from the National Resource Center for Information Technology in Child Welfare.

Foster Care National Statistics

Author(s):	National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information (HHS)
Availability:	View Publication Printable Version (PDF - 235 KB) Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:	2003 - 7 pages

This fact sheet reports foster care statistics collected by the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) for Federal Fiscal Year 2001. Data from FY 1998 also is included to compare trends over time. Placement statistics include information regarding children in, entering, and exiting foster care, placement types, permanency goals, outcomes, and length of stay. Descriptive information is provided about age, race and ethnicity, and gender. Other information is provided about re-entries, abuse and neglect by foster parents, and cost of out-of-home care.

Immigrant Visas Issued to Orphans Coming to the United States
This charts outlines the number of immigrant visas issued to orphans coming to the U.S for Fiscal Years 1989-2003.

International Adoption: Trends and Issues (PDF 129 KB)
This Child Welfare League of America issue brief illustrates the increasing number of intercountry adoptions and compares the characteristics of children adopted from other countries and children adopted from the U.S. public child welfare system.

U.S. Children Placed for Adoption With Non-U.S. Citizens

Author(s):	National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
Availability:	View Publication
Year Published:	2004 - 1 pages

NAIC occasionally hears that there is a increasing group of private adoption agencies and attorneys who are placing children mostly infants with families in Canada and Europe. While there are no solid and reliable studies or data to support this, this fact sheet provides some information that may be useful in learning more about this phenomenon.

Adoption by Lesbians and Gays: A National Survey of Adoption Agency Policies, Practices, and Attitudes
Research on the willingness of adoption agencies to work with homosexuals, as well as the extent to which agencies are placing children with parents they know to be lesbian or gay.

Adoption Dynamics: Comparative Results for Subpopulations
Paper examines whether certain subpopulations of children experienced changes in the conditional probability of adoption that stand apart from those observed for the population as a whole.

The Adoption History Project
This project is devoted to making adoption history accessible and interesting.

Child Welfare: A Congressional Report on Workforce Issues (PDF 451 KB)
Presents key findings from the March 2003 U.S. General Accounting Office report, "HHS Could Play a Greater Role in Helping Child Welfare Agencies Recruit and Retain Staff."

Children in Kinship Care (Urban Institute)
Numbers of children in kinship care by type of care.

Children, Families, and Foster Care
Issue of The Future of Children, a publication of The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Includes an article on the evolution of kinship care policy and practice.

Disruption and Dissolution

Author(s):	National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (HHS)
Availability:	View Publication Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:	2000 - 2 pages

This factsheet reports statistics about adoption disruption (before finalization of the placement) and dissolution (after legal finalization). Differences in disruption rates by age of the child and placement history are noted.

Fostering the Future: Safety, Permanence and Well-Being for Children in Foster Care (PDF 264 KB)
This May, 2004 report from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care recommends changes to the U.S. foster care system.

Gay and Lesbian Families in the Census: Couples with Children
Illustrates the percent of all U.S. counties with at least one same-sex couple with children under 18 in the household, according to the 2000 Census.

HHS Could Play a Greater Role in Helping Child Welfare Agencies Recruit and Retain Staff (PDF 723 KB)
This General Accounting Office report from March 2003 outlines workforce practices that public and private child welfare agencies have implemented to successfully confront recruitment and retention challenges and recommending that the Secretary of Health and Human Services take actions that may help child welfare agencies address these challenges.

Increasing Numbers of Children Receive Interstate Adoption Assistance
Children's Bureau Express article highlights findings from the Report on the Interstate Movement of Children Receiving Adoption Assistance.

Institutions vs. Foster Homes: The Empirical Basis for the Second Century of Debate
Examines the benefits for children offered by institutional care versus family foster care.

Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project
The only nationwide longitudinal research project which focuses on the consequences of variations in openness in adoption for all members of the adoption triad: birthmothers, adoptive parents, and adopted children, and for the relationships within these family systems.

Research Needed to Improve the Prospects of Children in Out of Home Placements
Identifies five research priorities needed to improve the prospects for children in out-of-home placements.

Results of a National Survey of Voters
Survey gauged voters' opinions of and attitudes toward the foster care system, and tried to determine what, if any, changes voters believe must be made to the foster care system.

View From the Bench: Obstacles to Safety and Permanency for Children in Foster Care (PDF 54 KB)
Presents key findings from a national survey of U.S. judges who hear child abuse and neglect cases.