It is common for adoptive families to need support and services after adoption. Postadoption services can help families with a wide range of issues. They are available for everything from learning how to explain adoption to a preschooler, to helping a child who experienced early childhood abuse, to supporting an adopted teens search for identity. Experience with adoptive families has shown that all family members can benefit from some type of postadoption support. Families of children who have experienced trauma, neglect, abuse, out-of-home care, or institutionalisation may require more intensive services. This book serves as a guide to postadoption assistance.

About 14 percent of the more than 400,000 children in foster care nationwide lived in congregate care at the end of fiscal year 2013, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. This book examines how selected states have reduced their use of congregate care; and some challenges with reducing congregate care placements, and efforts HHS has taken to help states reduce congregate care.

In nearly all States, adoption records are sealed and withheld from public inspection after an adoption is finalised. This book discusses state laws that provide for access to both nonidentifying and identifying information from an adoption record by adoptive parents and adult adopted persons, while still protecting the interests of all parties. Furthermore, the book discusses postadoption contact agreements, which are are arrangements that allow contact between a childs adoptive family and members of the childs birth family or other persons with whom the child has an established relationship, such as a foster parent, after the childs adoption has been finalized. These arrangements, sometimes referred to as cooperative adoption or open adoption agreements, can range from informal, mutual understandings between the birth and adoptive families to written, formal contracts.

Parents have the legal responsibility to protect and care for their children. However, recent media reports have illuminated a practice involving unregulated custody transfers of adopted children. Commonly referred to as "rehoming," this practice involves parents who turn to the internet or other unregulated networks to find a new home for their child. These media reports found instances in which adopted children were placed in dangerous situations where they were harmed by the adults who received them. This book examines the reasons adoptive families consider unregulated child custody transfers, and services that exist to support these families before they take such an action; what is known about the prevalence of these transfers; and actions selected states and federal agencies have taken to address such transfers.

Many families want to adopt, but do not have the large amount of money it takes to complete a private domestic or international adoption. Some quickly give up the idea of adopting and are left feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and discouraged. Those who choose to proceed often take out large loans or borrow from family and friends which adds to the financial pressure on the family. Author Julie Gumm shares proven strategies from her own experience as well as from others that include applying for grants, creative budgeting, and fundraising that prospective adoptive parents can use to prepare for and avoid those high costs associated with adoption.

Each year, approximately 25,000 youth exit the foster care system before being reunified with their family of origin, being adopted, or achieving another permanent living arrangement. These youth often have limited resources with which to secure safe and stable housing, which leaves them at heightened risk of experiencing homelessness. This book documents a series of research activities designed to address knowledge gaps related to the housing options available to youth who have aged out of foster care. Furthermore, this book describes the extent to which -- and how -- communities are using Family Unification Program (FUP) to support youth; reviews the characteristics of the young people, their risk of homelessness, and the barriers they face in securing stable housing, along with relevant federal and, to a lesser extent, state policies; and describes a wide range of housing programs for young people aging out of foster care, present a program typology, and conclude with the identification of a small group of innovative housing programs that may warrant closer exploration.

Title IV-E of the Social Security Act provides federal support for foster care and adoption assistance programs. Since 2008, 5 tribes have been approved to operate their own title IV-E foster care programs, although more than 80 tribes initially expressed an interest in doing so. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides development grants and technical assistance to tribes interested in establishing a title IV-E program. This book examines obstacles facing tribes interested in directly operating a title IV-E program; and the assistance HHS has provided. Under title IV-E, states are entitled to open-ended reimbursement for the cost of providing foster care, adoption assistance, and (in states that choose to provide it) kinship guardianship assistance. Additional mandatory funding is available, on a capped basis, for services to youth who "age out" of foster care, or are expected to, and for Tribal Title IV-E plan development and technical assistance. The conclusion of this title provides information on child welfare proposals under the Title IV-E program.

Children leaving out-of-home care for adoption or other family permanency require preparation and support to help them understand the past events in their lives and to process feelings connected to their experiences of abuse and neglect, separation, loss, rejection, and abandonment. Child welfare, foster care, and adoption agencies often assume that permanent families will provide the healing environment for these children and youth, and these agencies spend considerable resources to recruit, train, and support foster and adoptive parents to provide legal permanency and well-being for these children. While a high percentage of these adoptions are successful -- in that they are not legally dissolved -- both children and families often struggle or suffer from stress that might have been mitigated by better preparation practices for all parties. This book discusses services for children and youth to address their readiness and preparation for permanent relationships. It also explores research, intervention strategies, and resources to assist professionals in preserving connections among siblings; provides a factsheet for child welfare professionals who work with families interested in adoption and/or who are about to receive a referral or foster or adoptive placement; discusses ways to help professionals guide birth and adoptive families who are contemplating open adoption or who are already having postadoption contact; and is intended to support adoption professionals in addressing the needs for postadoption services and meeting common challenges in their delivery.

From understanding what adoption is, through to step by step guidance on the entire process and the challenges that come up along the way, this is the only book you will need to read on adoption. Written by an author who was adopted herself, who has looked after over twenty children and who works with a fostering and adoption agency that deals specifically with breakdowns, this book will teach you how to confidently navigate the system and build a strong and lasting relationship with your child. Whilst very much being the unvarnished truth, this is an empowering guide that will ensure you feel in control and know where to turn to for help no matter what: With a positive attitude and the right tools, adopting a child can be very rewarding - don't try to overthink it, don't try to love, just do right by them and as you learn about each other the love, kindness and acceptance will grow.

While most young people have access to emotional and financial support systems throughout their early adult years, older youth in foster care and those who are emancipated from care often face obstacles to developing independent living skills and building supports that ease the transition to adulthood. Older foster youth who return to their parents or guardians may continue to experience poor family dynamics or a lack of emotional and financial supports, and studies have shown that recently emancipated foster youth fare poorly relative to their counterparts in the general population on several outcome measures. The federal government recognises that older youth in foster care and those aging out are vulnerable to negative outcomes and may ultimately return to the care of the state as adults, either through the public welfare, criminal justice, or other systems. This book provides background on young people in and exiting from foster care, and the federal support that is available to these youth as they transition to adulthood.

Approximately 400,000 children were living in foster care in fiscal year 2012, according to the most recent data available. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is an omnibus child welfare bill designed to ensure greater permanence and improve the well-being of children served by public child welfare agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees states' implementation of federal child welfare requirements. This book examines steps states have taken to implement selected provisions of the act and challenges they have faced, and the extent to which HHS has monitored states' efforts.

Lisa A. Mazzeo, LCSW, BCD is a veteran social worker who brings to life for readers her 30 years of working with children and youth in the foster care system. She takes readers on a journey inside of the system and shows us the children and families that the system touches. The outcomes of youth that leave foster care without a family are abysmal - many end up homeless, in jail, unemployed, and suffering from mental illness. Lisa shows us how we can change outcomes through the curative power of love, kindness and nurturing parenting. As she "catches the moon" for these youth, she leaves readers with a sense of hope and inspires them to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable youth everywhere. www.whocancatchthemoon.com "This book is not just for people in the profession, the general population needs to read these heartfelt accounts in order to understand the most neglected in this country: our children. Who Can Catch the Moon? so brilliantly shows that it takes all of us together to make a difference in the lives of children." Maria C. Castillo, LCSW Contributing author in "Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing Power of Past-Life Memories" by Brian L. Weiss, MD and Amy Weiss, MSW "Share the tears and laughter of adopted and foster kids and their caring, creative, life-changing therapist. Don't miss this riveting look inside the world of human resilience and healing." Elizabeth Murdoch, LCSW Director of Behavioral Health, Family and Children's Agency "With joy, humor and real understanding, Lisa Mazzeo generously shares her memories and lessons with us in Who Can Catch the Moon?. She is a dedicated and honest social worker - and now author. Lisa presents this collection of stories as a gift, to help us to connect with her, with her experience, hopes and challenges as a social worker and, most importantly, with the children she has loved and cared for for so many years. We are so grateful." Meghan Lowney, MSW Former Executive Director, Operation Hope of Fairfield, Inc. Founder, Ripple Effect Consulting

The Ugly One in the Middle is Alex Stan Campbell's story of the fifty-year search for two people; His birth mother, and the angelic, sensual woman of his dreams. Kind of romantic, right? But, wait. There's humor, mystery and intrigue. Just before Stan's sixteenth birthday, his Aunt Patsy let it slip that his mom and pop did not conceive him. Quel horror His adoptive mom knew something dark, but she wasn't talking. It didn't matter much...then.Stan's top priorities of the day were drowning his bashfulness in wine and rubbing alcohol. That didn't work. He threw up and fell down a lot.

On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case "Adoptive Couple vs. Baby Girl," which pitted adoptive parents Matt and Melanie Capobianco against baby Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Veronica's biological mother had relinquished her for adoption to the Capobiancos without Brown's consent. Although Brown regained custody of his daughter using the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Capobiancos, rejecting the purpose of the ICWA and ignoring the long history of removing Indigenous children from their families. In "A Generation Removed," a powerful blend of history and family stories, award-winning historian Margaret D. Jacobs examines how government authorities in the post-World War II era removed thousands of American Indian children from their families and placed them in non-Indian foster or adoptive families. By the late 1960s an estimated 25 to 35 percent of Indian children had been separated from their families. Jacobs also reveals the global dimensions of the phenomenon: These practices undermined Indigenous families and their communities in Canada and Australia as well. Jacobs recounts both the trauma and resilience of Indigenous families as they struggled to reclaim the care of their children, leading to the ICWA in the United States and to national investigations, landmark apologies, and redress in Australia and Canada.

Gary Diamond, an American-trained developmental paediatrician, has along with professional colleagues over the past 15 years counselled and travelled to orphanages around the world in the service of adoptive parents, interested in evaluating the child pre-adoption in his/her native setting, often being in foster care or orphanages in a variety of countries in Eastern Europe and Central America. The book is a collection of 25 true accounts of adoption, post adoption and adolescent and adult experiences with adoption, and presents a unique chronicle of the life cycle of the adoptive family and the adopted individual, with the added dimension of actual accounts of orphanage life. The book, and the stories within, are a chronicle of an individual's search for identity, which is a universal theme. The book originates in Israel, where adoptive families actually send physicians, trained in child development, to countries to examine children offered for adoption, enabling adoption professionals to acquire long-standing and intimate insights, into the process of adoption, from its very early stages, when institutionalised children are first exposed to visiting professionals and prospective adoptive parents.