The authors of a report that has been billed as the most extensive national data ever collected on adopted children and their families in the United States have concluded that most adopted are doing pretty good.

A Nov. 30 article by Joseph Shapiro of NPR provided the following insights into the report:

The vast majority of adopted children are in good health and fare well on measures of social and emotional well being. Eighty-five percent of them are reported by their parents to be in excellent or very good health. And 88 percent of adopted children age 6 and older show positive social behaviors.

That's contrary to the "negative stories that capture media attention," about adoption, says the study's co-author, Sharon Vandivere, a researcher for Child Trends, a nonpartisan Washington research group.

Called "Adoption USA," the report was written by researchers at Child Trends and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was based on questions in the first-ever National Survey of Adoptive Parents, a federal survey of 2,000 families that had adopted children through foster care, private domestic adoption or international adoption.

Labels: research, welfare, health

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J. K. Mittal, a New Delhi social worker, has been named Chairman of the country's Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA).

"CARA is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, working as the central authority in matters of inter-country adoption. Mittal said that in view of some unfortunate incidents in the recent past, the protection and welfare of children has become important."

Mittal is reviewing current adoption procedures for New Delhi and hopes to make some much-needed changes. Read more online.

Labels: international, welfare, adoption_procedures

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Central Florida may soon have a new organization managing its child-welfare system. State officials put management of the system up for bid, hoping to attract organizations that were both effective and fiscally responsible.

“The two finalists are Family Services of Metro Orlando, the nonprofit that has had the contract for Orange and Osceola for the past six years, and Community Based Care of Seminole, the nonprofit that has had the contract for Seminole County for the past five years. Both agencies were created when DCF [Department of Children and Families] privatized its child-welfare system county by county earlier this decade.” [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

The contract winner will manage foster care, adoptions, and child abuse and neglect cases in both counties. State and county officials plan to make their final decision by September 28th. The winning nonprofit will be awarded a four-and-a-half year contract.

Labels: foster care, adoption_agencies, welfare

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments