- Home
- » Adoption
- » Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
- » Bringing Children and Families Together
Bringing Children and Families Together
Research suggests that careful attention to matching childrens individual needs with prospective adoptive families strengths can contribute to more successful outcomes and help prevent adoption disruption and dissolution. Find resources to help bring children and families together for adoptive placement, including State and local examples.
Answering the Call: Finding a Fit That Will Last a Lifetime: A Guide to Connecting Adopting Families With Waiting Children (PDF - 375 KB)
AdoptUsKids (2006)
Focuses on best practices in matching waiting children in foster care with adoptive families by capturing what families, youth, caseworkers, and research have learned to be the most effective ways of bringing waiting children and families together.
Decision Making and Placement Selection in Adoption
National Resource Center for Adoption
In Adoption Competency Curriculum: Trainer's Guide
Includes trainer preparation materials for a module that builds participants' skills for deciding whether a family is appropriate to adopt a specific child, using teams in decision making, and engaging children, youth, and families in the decision making process. Also available: Participant's Handbook
Adoption Exchange or Matching Services | |
Series Title: | Related Organizations Lists |
Author(s): | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
Availability: | View Download (PDF - 0KB) |
Year Published: | 2011 - 3 pages |
This resource listing provides the contact information of national organizations that offer adoption exchange or matching services. Each entry includes a brief description of the function of the organization and e-mail and web addresses. |
AdoptUSKids
Operates the only national photolisting of children waiting in foster care for adoptive families, raises awareness about the need for permanent families for children in the public child welfare system, and assists States, Territories and Tribes with foster and adoptive family recruitment and retention.
Innovative Practice Approaches to Matching in Adoption
Hanna &McRoy
Journal of Public Child Welfare, 5(1), 2011
View Abstract
Provides an overview of seven assessment tools to aid in the process of matching children and families and discusses the potential for their use as part of an innovative approach to adoption practice using a public health model of prevention.
Matching Children's Needs to Family Strengths: Training Materials
NetLink Training (2005)
Provides strategies and tools to identify a child's key needs and an adoptive family's strengths.
Placement of Children With Relatives | |
Series Title: | State Statutes |
Author(s): | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
Availability: | View Download (PDF - 350KB) |
Year Published: | 2010 - 55 pages |
This publication summarizes State laws and statutes regarding placement of children with relatives when they are removed from their home and enter foster care. In order for States to receive Federal payments for foster care and adoption assistance, Federal law requires that they "consider giving preference to an adult relative over a nonrelated caregiver when determining placement for a child, provided that the relative caregiver meets all relevant State child protection standards." Most States give preference or priority to relative placements in their statutes. This publication discusses definitions of "relative," financial support for relative placement, and adoption by relatives. Summaries ... |
State Adoption Photolisting Services Websites | |
Series Title: | Related Organizations Lists |
Author(s): | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
Availability: | View Download (PDF - 0KB) |
Year Published: | 2011 - 4 pages |
Photolisting services provide pictures and brief descriptions of the children in the State's foster care system who are available for adoption and waiting for families. This resource list provides website addresses for State photolisting services. |
What's Working for Children: A Policy Study of Adoption Stability and Termination (PDF 381 KB)
Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (2004)
Analyzes factors that contribute to adoption stability and adoption termination and identifies best practice and systemic changes to help prevent adoption disruption and dissolution, including improvements that can be made in matching waiting children in foster care with adoptive families.
State and local examples
2003 Adoptive Placements for Children in Foster Care Grantee Cluster: Synthesis of Evaluation Findings (Word – 892 KB)
Children's Bureau (2010)
Summarizes the activities and results of eight State human services agencies that received Federal grants designed to promote the elimination of administrative, court-related, and service barriers to the adoption of special-needs children.
Collaborative Adoption Project: CAP
Phillips (2005)
View Abstract and Document
Describes the activities and outcomes of the federally funded Collaborative Adoption Project (CAP), a partnership of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and Texas Can! (a statewide network of 13 private foster and adoptive placement agencies). The match and selection strategies implemented in CAP were intended to expedite the permanency process of children and increase the shared decision-making of the private and public sectors.
A Social Worker's Guide to MARE Programs & Services: Working Together to Achieve Our Common Goals (PDF - 88 KB)
Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) (2007)
Explains the mission of MAREto place foster care children into adoptive familiesand reviews State requirements for registering children with MARE. The guide includes MARE procedures for matching children and families.
Related Information Gateway Topics
Adoption: Preplacement adoption casework practice - Recruiting and retaining foster/adoptive parents
Adoption: Preplacement adoption casework practice - Culturally appropriate casework practice: Preparing Adoptive Families
Adoption: Preplacement adoption casework practice - Preparing children and youth for permanency