Today's National Adoption Month post is aimed at foster youth. Although adoption is often presented as being about the best interests of the child, in reality the child or youth in foster care has very little say or input about their own permanency planning. Social workers, Guardian ad litems or CASA workers, judges and foster [...]
On Sunday, November 4th over 400 families participated in the Circus of the Heart, a joint effort of the MN Department of Human Services and the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network. According to the Star Tribune, the event was created to celebrate the adoption of 540 children from foster care in 2011. Commissioner Lucinda Jesson opened [...]
It's National Adoption Month time again. Since President Clinton expanded National Adoption Week to National Adoption Month in 1995, National Adoption Month has been an effort to bring attention to the children and youth in foster care in need of adoption. Throughout this month we will be highlighting stories about foster care adoption and bring [...]
A same-sex couple in Alabama lost an appeal to allow the non-biological parent to adopt her partner's child last Friday. The couple, who were married in California in 2008, currently lives in Alabama which does not recognize same-sex marriage and does not allow the adoption because, according to the court, the woman "is not the [...]
The Children's Bureau just released their 2012 Centennial Adoption Excellence Awards. The report is available here. Awardees include agencies, organizations and individuals that have contributed to the adoption of children and youth from foster care. The program goes back to the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. The awards were presented on october 10 [...]
A current University of Minnesota student wrote a first-person account of her experience as a Korean adoptee. Student Leah Lancaster describes her experience as being in "No man's land" for the Minnesota Daily. "What is distinctive about being an adoptee is that you are virtually thrown into a cultural No Man's Land," writes Lancaster. "Supposedly, [...]
A recently published article in Adoption Quarterly by April Chatham-Carpenter explored the narratives that adoptive parents of internationally adopted Chinese children construct about the circumstances around their child's abandonment or relinquishment. The study was conducted to explore the story narratives that adoptive parents use, and what is included and left out in these stories. In [...]
This Thursday, October 4, 2012, a webinar will be held to discuss the Adoption Tax Credit. From the webinar description: In this webinar you will gain an understanding about the goals of our advocacy efforts, as well as the history of this credits existence, an overview of the legislative changes, the difference between a refundable [...]