Minnesota Statute 257.0725 requires the Department of Human Services to make available annually a report on child maltreatment and children in out-of-home placement. This report for the year 2012 is now available online. Federal Safety Measures In terms of Federal Safety Measures, Minnesota did better than the national standard for: absence of repeat maltreatmenttime to [...]
Ra'Shede Hageman, defensive tackle for the University of Minnesota Gophers football team, knows about strength and resilience - and not just on the football field. After being removed from his mother, Ra'Shede and his brother were placed in foster care. After twelve foster homes, Ra'Shede had a natural distrust for people. [Photo by Jerry Holt] [...]
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adopioin has announced its list of the 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in the U.S. This is the seventh annual list. Among the criteria the foundation uses to detrmine its ranking includes adoption benefits (the amount of financial reimbursement and paid leave for families that adopt), company programs that encourage and [...]
Last week the Donaldson Adoption Institute released its newest policy perspective titled, "A Need To Know: Enhancing Adoption Competency Among Mental Health Professionals. The report highlights the difficulty that adoptive families face when seeking clinical therapeutic services in finding practitioners who have a deep level understanding and training in permanency and adoption. While many therapists [...]
With the start of a new school year, there are many times when adopted children may be faced with challenges. These challenges may be everything from dealing with assignments such as creating a family tree, or bringing in a baby picture to class, or science projects that involve assumed biological-relatedness (see here for an example). [...]
According to a study by researcher Alice Home, from the University of Ottawa School of Social Work, the major challenges for Canadian adoptive parents are finding and accessing post-adoption support and services, and getting a diagnosis and then understanding what that means for a child with special needs. Particularly challenging for parents who adopt internationally [...]
Camp To Belong is a special summer camp. Along with swimming, hiking, and other fun summer activities, the children who attend get to participate in something many of us take for granted - they get to do these activities with their brothers and sisters who live in other foster or adoptive homes. Camp To Belong [...]
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, otherwise known as the Baby Veronica case. The U.S. Supreme Court had been asked to decide what constitutes a "parent" under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), specifically if the definition includes an unwed biological father who had not complied [...]
