Healthy Pregnancy - Adoption and Foster Care

Adoption and Foster Care

Publications

Adoption Options: A Factsheet for Families - This fact sheet provides basic information about adoption options. It focuses on the choices between domestic and intercountry adoption, domestic infant or foster care adoption, and licensed private agencies, independent adoption, or facilitated/unlicensed agencies. A description of how the placement process will vary for each type of adoption is provided, as is a list of resources.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_adoptoption.cfm

Adoption: Where Do I Start? - This fact sheet is a "gateway" to the many possible paths to building a family through adoption. It attempts to provide an understanding of the basic steps in any adoption process and a guide to resources at each step. A list of additional resources is provided about general adoption, domestic adoption, foster care adoption, intercountry adoption, kinship adoption, and special circumstances adoption.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_start.cfm

AdoptUSKids.org - AdoptUSKids.org is a national photo listing service for children awaiting adoption across the United States.

http://www.adoptuskids.org/

Are You Pregnant and Thinking About Adoption? - Written for pregnant women who are considering placing their child for adoption, this fact sheet provides practical information about adoption alternatives. It describes the benefits of counseling and reviews the different types of confidential and open adoption arrangements. Tips for working with adoption agencies, independent attorneys, and adoptive parents are included. Special considerations for babies of color also are discussed.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_pregna/

Foster Parents Considering Adoption: A Fact Sheet for Families - This factsheet is written for foster parents who are considering adopting a child in their care. It provides information on the differences between foster care and adoption, and explores some of the things for foster parents to consider when making the decision about whether to adopt a child in their care. Additional topics discussed include: trends in foster parent adoption, benefits of foster parent adoption for all involved, characteristics of foster families who successfully adopt children in their care, and characteristics of foster families whose adoptions failed.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_fospar.cfm

Impact of Adoption on Birth Parents: A Factsheet for Families - This factsheet discusses some of the emotional issues that parents face after making the decision to place an infant for adoption, in surrendering the child and in handling the feelings that often persist afterwards. In addition, it addresses some of the emotional issues of parents whose children are permanently removed from them and whose parental rights are terminated. This factsheet may be a helpful resource for birth parents, as well as family members, friends, and others who want to support birth parents.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_impact/index.cfm

Intercountry Adoption - More and more Americans are creating families by adopting children from foreign countries. In 2000, U.S. families adopted 18,477 foreign-born children. Overall, China was the greatest source for intercountry adoptions, followed in descending order by Russia, South Korea, Guatemala, Romania, Vietnam, Ukraine, India, and Cambodia. This factsheet provides an overview of the process of adopting children from another country, from selecting an adoption agency to complying with immigration requirements.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_inter/index.cfm

International Adoptions - This section of the CDC's Yellow Book provides information on some of the health concerns in internationally adopted children. It discusses medical exams in the child's native country and the importance of an thorough check-up after arriving in the United States.

http://www2.ncid.cdc.gov/travel/yb/utils/ybGet.asp?section=children&obj=adoption.htm&cssNav=browseo...

National Foster Care & Adoption Directory Search - This site includes State-by-State contact information for a variety of adoption-related organizations and services including public and licensed private adoption agencies, support groups, State reunion registries, and more.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/nfcad/index.cfm?event=viewSearchForm

Foster Care (Copyright © AACAP) - This publication contains information on foster care, the issues facing children who are in foster care, reasons for foster care placement, and the issues facing foster parents.

http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=Foster+Care&section=Facts+for+Families

Medical Issues in Adoption (Copyright © The Nemours Foundation) - This publication contains information on adoption, including finding information before you adopt, easing your child's transition, health care, and some problems that you might face.

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/medical_problems/medical_adopt.html...

Parenthood Options: Women (Copyright © Fertile Hope) - The fact sheet contains general information about options women undergoing cancer treatment can pursue to ensure future ability to become mothers. The fact sheet has information on surrogacy, adoption, donor eggs, donor embryos, ovarian tissue freezing, egg (Oocyte) freezing, GnRH analog treatment, and embryo freezing.

http://www.fertilehope.org/learn-more/cancer-and-fertility-info/parenthood-options-women.cfm...

Organizations

= Indicates Federal Resources

Financial Assistance and Health Insurance

Publications

Adoption Assistance for Children Adopted from Foster Care: A Factsheet for Families - In every State there are children with special needs waiting in foster care for adoptive families. The most recent data estimate that 126,000 children are available to be adopted from foster care. In the past, the costs of care and services were major obstacles to parents who would otherwise adopt and love these children, and most were not placed for adoption. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 provided the first Federal subsidies to encourage the adoption of children from the nation's foster care system.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_subsid.cfm

Costs of Adopting: A Factsheet for Families - This fact sheet provides cost estimates for domestic and intercountry adoptions. Agency fees, legal fees, home study expenses, and foreign country expenses are considered. The fact sheet also includes information about adoption benefits, such as Federal tax credits, state tax credits, subsidies, and adoption loans and grants. A brief list of additional resources is provided.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/s_cost/index.cfm

Employer-Provided Adoption Benefits - This fact sheet explains the types of employee and tax benefits that are available to adoptive parents, from financial assistance and parental leave to tax credits for adoption expenses. Eligibility for such benefits is briefly discussed, and resources about employers offering adoption benefits are provided.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_benefi.cfm

State Regulation of Adoption Expenses - Nearly all States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories have enacted statutes that provide some regulation of the fees and expenses that adoptive parents are expected to pay when arranging an adoptive placement. Some of the fees and expenses that are typically addressed in the statutes are placement costs, such as agency fees; legal and attorney expenses for adoptive and birth parents; and some of the expenses of the birth mother during pregnancy. This briefing provides general information on birth parent expenses, agency fees and costs, use of an intermediary, and reporting adoption-related expenses to the court.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/expenses.cfm

Organizations

= Indicates Federal Resources

Current as of March 2007

Adoption and Foster Care: Fact Sheets and Resources

Adoption and Foster Care

Publications

Organizations

Financial Assistance and Health Insurance

Publications

Organizations