Without avoiding the grim statistics, this book reveals the real hope that hurting children can be healed through adoptive and foster parents, social workers, and others who care. Includes information on foreign adoptions.

This volume reports the results of a large-scale survey of families who adopted children with special needs: older children, minority children, handicapped children, or sibling groups. In contrast to much of the current literature which focuses on adoption disruption, this study shifts the focus of inquiry to intact families. It assesses perceptions of social work services, parent-child relationships, family functioning, child behavior, school performance, and other aspects of adoptive family life. Rosenthal and Groze compare outcomes for different types of adoptions, including adoptions of children of different ages, adoptions by minority families, transracial adoptions, single-parent adoptions, adoptions by less educated and less wealthy families, adoptions by foster parents, adoptions of children with handicaps, and sibling group adoptions. The authors offer solid advice, based on their sample of 800 respondents, regarding various aspects of practice in the field of adoption, including selection of families, preparation of families and children, and useful follow-up services. Special-Needs Adoption is an invaluable tool for agencies developing adoption programs, and practitioners seeking the latest information regarding adoptive family dynamics.

Based on personal experiences, research, and interviews, the author presents "practical tips, advice, and real-life stories for anyone who is adopting, or hopes to adopt, an older child."--Cover.

With the new federal mandate to double, by the year 2002, the number of children in foster care who are to be adopted or placed in permanent legal guardianships, it is essential for adoption agency staff and prospective families to learn which factors contribute to successful and unsuccessful placements. Dr. Ruth McRoy's informative guide, Special Needs Adoptions: Practice Issues outlines what formulates a successful match between adoptable children with special needs and their prospective parents, and how the current placements can be improved. Dr. McRoy recognizes the challenges of building families through adoptions and offers specific training suggestions for special needs adoptive families and agency workers in order to improve adoption outcomes for children. The book is based on a research project designed to identify special needs adoptions practice issues that contributed to intact, disruptive and dissolved adoptions by collecting data from adoption supervisors, post-adoption service providers, and actual case records of adoption placements. Based on the findings, the characteristics of children needing adoptive placement are described, practice issues such as matching children and parents are addressed, and transition planning is discussed. Further, controversial placement issues including foster parent adoptions, single parent adoptions, sibling placement and transracial adoptions are dealt with. Special Needs Adoptions is a rich, resourceful guide for all of the parties involved in a special need adoption: state and private adoption agency staff, post-adoption service providers, child welfare policy makers and researchers. Special Needs Adoptions is also a wonderful resource for adoptive parents or prospective parents considering special needs adoptions.

This edited volume contains contributions from leading researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and advocates in adoption policy and practice. Topics covered include adoption advocacy, race and adoption, placement of older and disabled children, adoption disruption, adoptive parent recruitment, and policy related to federal adoption subsidy support. This collection brings together leading researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and advocates in the area of adoption policy and practice. All chapter contributors are nationally recognized leaders in their particular fields of expertise. Several have been instrumental in shaping public policy and legislation on behalf of special needs children and their families. Chapters cover the following topics: advocacy on behalf of special needs children, racial issues in the placement and adoption of special needs children, issues involved in the adoption of older and disabled children, adoption disruption, recruitment of adoptive parents for special needs children, and federal and state policy related to adoption subsidy support. The volume covers the key issues related to both practice and policy in child welfare. As such it is essential reading for professionals and policy makers in social/human services and child welfare. Scholars and other researchers in the field will also find the collection invaluable.

This classic text is a comprehensive guide for prospective and actual adoptive parents on how to understand and care for their adopted child and promote healthy attachment. It explains what attachment is and provides parenting techniques matched to children's emotional needs and stages to enhance children's happiness and emotional health.

A powerful memoir about the joys and pains of making a family--with a new epilogue! In 2008, Ann and Dan made the life-altering decision to start a family. In their mid-forties and inspired by various stories that they had heard, the couple decided to adopt special needs children through foster care. Not wanting to separate siblings, Ann and Dan’s family eventually grows to seven, first with the adoption of Jimmy and Ruby, and then Jason, Susie, and Anthony. But, the transition was not without its challenges. The children, aged five to ten years old, had been neglected, abused, and diagnosed with behavioral, cognitive, medical, and psychiatric conditions, none of which could be treated medically. Their first months in their new home were intense, overwhelming, and on occasion, violent. With numerous outbursts and incidents, Ann and Dan’s patience and resolve were constantly tested. But slowly, when surrounded with stability, warmth, compassion, and love, the children settled in and became a family.