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Transition and Postplacement Support

Children and youth need support while being placed with potentially permanent families and after placement to solidify and stabilize the new or reconstituted family. Resources include State and local examples

Helping Your Foster Child Transition to Your Adopted Child Series Title: Factsheet for Families Author(s): Child Welfare Information Gateway Availability: View Publication Printable Version (PDF - 255 KB) Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart) Year Published: 2005 - 6 pages There are a number of ways to help foster children make the emotional transition from being "a ward of the State or the Court" to being "a son or daughter" of foster/adoptive parents. This fact sheet describes specific things families can say and do to help foster children transition, including: talking with children about the changes, engaging in activities to help children understand their own history and background and the reasons why they cannot live with their birth family, helping children adjust to these losses, and helping children transfer their attachments to the foster/adoptive family. Additionally, families will need to ... Disruption Support Is Crucial North American Council on Adoptable Children Ongoing support during and after placing a child.

Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens: Case Studies and Treatment Considerations for Therapists and Parents
Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc. (2005)
View Abstract
Explores the feelings and difficulties faced by adopted adolescents and offers suggestions for therapeutic intervention.

Families for Teens: A Toolkit for Focusing, Educating and Motivating Staff
Heffernan & Lewis (2004)
View Abstract
Helps young adults in any setting find good models for creating their own relationships within families, among friends, and in the workplace after adoption.

How Professionals Think About Contact Between Children and Their Birth Parents
Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(2), 2002
View Abstract
Nine guardians ad litem, child therapists, and judges were interviewed to examine how professionals' beliefs about postadoption contact influenced their assessment and recommendations for contact between birth parents and adopted children.

National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
Child Welfare Information Gateway
State-by-State contact information for a variety of adoption-related organizations and services. Support Groups for Those Involved in the Search Process includes groups that offer support and information to adopted adults, birth parents, and relatives involved in a search for birth family members.

Staying Connected: How Foster Parents Can Help Smooth Adoption Transitions
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Tips and advice on how to help children transition from foster care to adoption.

Talking to Children about Adoption Assistance
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Tips and advice on how to talk to youth about adoption assistance contracts.

Talking with Your Adopted Teen: It's Possible and Important
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Tips on how to talk about adoption with teens.

Transition Guidelines
Foster Care Support Foundation (2007)
Provides guidelines for transitioning children out of foster homes and into permanent placements.

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State and local examples

The Sisters and Brothers Together Project
Northeast Ohio Adoption Services (2001)
View Abstract
Works to identify obstacles to the group placement of siblings and implement policies that would promote sibling placements, conducts family and child assessments, plans pre-and postadoption services, and facilitates sibling visits.

Supporting the Transition of Infants With Prenatal Substance Exposure From Foster to Adoptive Homes (PDF - 482 KB)
Marcellus
The Source: Newsletter of the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center, 13(2), 2004
Reviews components of the collaborative, interdisciplinary foster-to-adoptive home transition process developed by the Safe Babies project in British Columbia, Canada, specifically for infants and young toddlers with prenatal substance exposure.

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	Related Information Gateway Topics Adoption: Postadoption services Achieving & Maintaining Permanency: Postpermanency services

Updated on December 7, 2007