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Special Issue Introduction: Finding, Supporting, and Maintaining Adoptive Families for Children in Foster Care

According to most recent 2015 estimates released by the U.S. Children’s Bureau, nationally, there were 111,820 children waiting to be adopted and more than half—62,378—have had their parental rights terminated (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). The number of children waiting to be adopted has increased by about 10,000 since 2012. While about 53,549 children were adopted from care in 2015, another 20,789 emancipated from the foster care system with no permanent adoptive family. Despite the significant gains that have been made to recruit and retain prospective adoptive families, it is essential that we continue to identify new strategies to find permanency for children in care. In addition, we must also find ways to provide preand post-adoption supports and services to foster, kinship, and unrelated families who have chosen to adopt from care, as these supports are critical to the long-term success of these placements. For this reason, this special issue is designed to specifically focus on finding, supporting, and maintaining adoptive families for children in foster care. The guest editors for this issue are Elissa E. Madden, PhD, Assistant Professor, Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University and Ruth G. McRoy, PhD, Donahue and DiFelice Professor of Social Work, Boston College School of Social Work. When planning this special issue, we sought articles that addressed such questions as: How do agencies find families for children needing placement, and what are the experiences of these families and children before and after the adoption? What are the most effective recruitment, preparation, and retention strategies for families seeking to adopt from foster care? What kinds of barriers do families experience and how can they overcome these barriers? Does photolisting increase the likelihood of finding families for children and children for waiting families? Does the way photolisting descriptions are constructed impact the likelihood of placement? What are the outcomes of various forms of adoptions such as kinship adoptions, foster parent adoptions, and adoptions by lesbian and gay parents? And finally, what kinds of innovative post-adoption services have been developed to provide support for these children and families?