Home > General Information About Adoption

Sites that offer information for parents on how to raise an adopted child and what issues they will face once that child reaches his or her teen or adolescent years.

Links

• About.com: Parenting the Adopted Teen

  Parenting the Adopted Teenager is About.com's comprehensive site for parents that discuss the identification and treatment of common issues affecting adopted adolescents, such as identity, abandonment and behavioral problems.

• Adolescent Adopted Persons

  Information for parents who adopt children in who are in their adolescent or teen years.

• Adolescent Identity and Impact on Adoptive Parents

  Paper that discusses an adoptedadolescent'sidentity issues and their impact on adoptive parents

• AdoptHelp Law Center

  AdoptHelp Law Center is the nation's #1 domestic adoption center specializing in both independent and collaborative agency adoptions.

• Adoption & School Issues

  National Adoption Information Clearinghouse article on Increasing the Adoption Sensitivity of School Personnel

• Adoption Fact Sheet

  A PDF Fact Sheet from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

• Adoption Guide

  Theres more than one way to build a family  and adopting a child into your home and your hearts is one of the most wonderful. But how do you figure out if adoption is right for you  and how do you get started? Youll find the answers to your questions here.

• Adoption Options - Factsheet for Families

  Child Welfare Information Gateway National Foster Care & Adoption Directory offers State-by-State listings of public officials, public and licensed private adoption agencies, and support groups for adoptive parents or people searching for birth relatives. This factsheet focuses on one way to think about how choices in adoption may flow from one another.

• Adoptive Families

  Adoptive Families, the award-winning national adoption magazine, is the leading adoption information source for families before, during, and after adoption.

• Adoptive Family Resources

  Adoptive Family Resources was founded by concerned parents and professionals. Through our experience we became aware of the need for support and counsel for families who raise children that have experienced significant abuse and neglect. Many of these children are in adoptive homes. Often when an adoption is finalized, there are few services available to help with the continuing needs that adoptive families may have.

• Center for Adoption Support & Education

  C.A.S.E. is a private, non-profit adoptive family support center. Its programs focus on helping children from a variety of foster care and adoptive backgrounds to receive understanding and support which will enable them to grow into successful, productive adults.

• Discussing Adoption with your Adolescent

  Discussing Adoption with your Adolescent provides and overview of different methods of communication available to adoptive parents when discussing adoption with an adolescent adoptee.

• Focus Adolescent Services

  Focus Adolescent Service's site dedicated to Parenting the Adopted Adolescent including issues such as identity, abandonment, and behavioral problems.

• Helping Adopted Children Deal with Grief and Loss

  This Adoption Learning Partners online course is designed to help adoptive families understand the feelings that children have about adoption and learn how to help their child express and deal with their feelings.

• Impact of Adoption on Adopted Persons

  Impact of Adoption on Adopted Persons: A Factsheet for Families is offered by the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse. The factsheet contains information about issues that adoptees may face, especially during adolescence, in knowing that they are adopted.

• Intercountry Adoption

  Information from the U.S. Department of State about the adoption processes in various countries and the U.S. legal requirements to bring a child adopted abroad to the United States. The Office of Children's Issues in the Bureau of Consular Affairs provides brochures describing the adoption process in numerous countries.

• Kinship Center

  Since 1984, Kinship Center has helped create and support families for thousands of children who could no longer remain safely with their birth parents. Kinship Center was founded by community leaders from both the private and public sector when they came together to create an agency dedicated to the belief that children need permanency to heal and grow to their potential.

• Lifelong Issues in Adoption

  Lifelong Issues in Adoption Discusses how adoption is a lifelong, intergenerational process that unites the triad of birth families, adoptees, and adoptive families.

• National Adoption Information Clearinghouse

  National Adoption Information Clearinghouse is the US Department of Health and Human Services comprehensive site that provides information on all aspects of adoption, including a section for adopted parents for dealing with behavioral issues of adopted adolescents and teens.

• Parenting the Adopted Adolescent

  Parenting the Adopted Adolescent seeks to answer the question "Will being adopted make adolescence harder for the child?"

• Proactive Parenting

  Proactive Parenting: How to Recognize Issues and When to Seek Help discusses how to recognize your adopted teen or adolescent's anger, attachment, depression or axiety problem before it gets out of control.

• Statistics on the Effects of Adoption

  Statistics on the Effects of Adoption: Research and Studies on Adoptees.

• Talking with Your Adopted Teen: It's Possible

  From Talking with Your Adopted Teen: It's Possible and Important. "During adolescence...adopted teens need parental guidance, comfort, and support as much as ever, and parents must work to keep lines of communication open."

• Teens Wanted

  Time Artice "Teens Wanted: Adopt an adolescent? Yes, there are families crazy and loving enough to take that on"

• Thirty Things Adolescent Adoptees Wish They Knew

  Thirty Things Adolescent Adoptees Wish They Knew About Their Birthparents - But Often Are Afraid To Ask provides categories of information that parents should compile and be ready to share once their adopted child becomes curious about his or her origins.

• What Is An Adoption Plan?

  Sometimes couples expecting a baby arent able to care for the child. They decide to make an adoption plan to allow someone else to raise the child. This article explains the basics about adoption.

• When Parents Should Become Concerned

  When Parents Should Become Concerned is a helpful article on About.com that discusses the common warning signswhich indicate youradopted child is experiencing emotional or behavioral issues.

• You're Never Too Old

  You're Never too Old -- Teens Speak Out on Adoption. Teens share their thoughts on the best and worst parts of being adopted and offer advice to other teens in foster care considering adoption in this brochure from the Center for Child and Family Studies.