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Home > How Many Children Were Adopted in 2000 and 2001? > How Many Children Were Adopted in 2000 and 2001?: 2. Findings: Data Sources
How Many Children Were Adopted in 2000 and 2001?
Numbers and Trends
2. Findings: Data Sources There is no single source for the total number of children adopted in the United States, and there is currently no straightforward way of determining the total number of adoptions, even when multiple sources of data are used. The increased national interest in adoption in the past decade and the efforts of many dedicated individuals and agencies have failed to provide a consistent, reliable source of adoption data. One of the difficulties is that there is no one agency charged with compiling information on all adoptions in the United States. Agencies that do have access to some types of adoption information have no mandate or other incentives to compile that information so that it can be integrated with information from other sources. This section contains a brief history of adoption data collection and a description of the strengths and limitations of potential adoption data sources. 2.1 History of Data SourcesAdoption data have been collected by a variety of sources during the last 60 years. The Children's Bureau and National Center for Social Statistics collected information on adoptions from 1944 through 1975 (Maza, 2001). The estimated number of adoptions in 1944 was 50,000, and the highest number of adoptions, 175,000, took place in 1970 (Stolley, 1993). Beginning in 1983, the Children's Bureau funded the American Public Human Services Association (at the time called the American Public Welfare Association) to collect national data on adoption. Their Voluntary Cooperative Information System (VCIS) collected data only on children who were in, or passed through, the public child welfare system (Tatara, 1992). The National Council for Adoption (formerly, the National Committee for Adoption) collected State-by-State data on adoption for the years 1982, 1986, and 1997 (published 1985, 1989; Pierce & Marshner, 1999). In 1986, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) conducted a study to determine the feasibility of collecting adoption data from courts and bureaus of vital records as well as from social service agencies. Their report, The Flow of Adoption Information from the States (Flango & Flango, 1994), includes an adoption profile for each State illustrating the sources of adoption information, the data elements reported, and the steps necessary to fully implement an adoption reporting system. Actual adoption data were collected for specified years in the 1980s, with the last collection (until now) completed on adoptions for 1992 (Flango & Flango, 1990, 1993, 1995). Starting in 1995, States were mandated by Federal statute and regulation to report adoptions conducted through public child welfare agencies to the Federal Children's Bureau. The State adoption data are entered in to the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). The AFCARS data, together with other measures, are used to monitor State progress toward achieving goals established by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. 2.2 Potential Data SourcesState Courts NCSC's Court Statistics Project is closest to providing a single data source, because all adoptions of U.S.-born children and many intercountry adoptions are finalized in courts in the United States. Courts track adoption filings and dispositions, and the dispositions are probably the best source for the number of total adoptions by State. However, NCSC cannot provide an accurate count of total adoptions for several reasons:
Every other potential source of adoption information is less useful than court data for total number of adoptions. No one source can provide a total number of adoptions, and combining data from multiple sources is likely to result in overcounts. The other potential sources of adoption data, including their strengths and limitations, are described below. State Child Welfare Agencies (AFCARS) The total number of public agency adoptions in this report is based solely on AFCARS data. State child welfare agencies are mandated to report information semi-annually on public agency adoptions to the federally operated AFCARS. Federal legislation and regulations established AFCARS to collect uniform, reliable information on children "who are under the responsibility of the State Title IV-B/ IV-E agency for placement and care."7 State child welfare agencies are required to report case-specific information on each child in foster care, each child adopted from the public child welfare system, and each adoption in which there has been public agency involvement, such as for a child who was never in foster care but for whom adoption assistance payments are made. AFCARS also collects information on the characteristics of those adoptions.8 State agencies may voluntarily report adoptions made under the auspices of private adoption agencies or individually arranged adoptions completed without any agency involvement, but most States have not done so. It is important to note that of all of the potential data sources, only AFCARS contains information on the characteristics of children being adopted as well as on the birth and adoptive families. Private Agencies It is not possible to obtain totals from private adoption agencies, as most private adoption agencies do not report data on the number of children adopted through their agencies or the characteristics of the children, their adoptive parents, and their birth parents. Some private agencies assume that these data are captured by public agencies, who in turn are often under the impression that private agencies keep comprehensive information on their own adoptions. Bureaus of Vital Records Bureaus of vital records (or vital statistics) are potential sources of adoption information because a family who adopts often, but not always, requests a new birth certificate. For example, sometimes for an older child a family does not request a new birth certificate. Therefore, the bureaus of vital records' figures are expected to show fewer than the actual number of adoptions. This report uses the vital records figures only for States that were not able to provide numbers of court dispositions. State Department and Department of Homeland Security The State Department's Office of Children's Issues and the Office of Immigration Statistics within the Department of Homeland Security provide information on the number of children issued immigrant orphan visas in order to come to the United States for purposes of adoption. Some of these adoptive families may choose to re-adopt in the United States, even if the adoption from a foreign country is recognized by their State, as an added protection of the adopted child's legal status. Other families choose not to re-adopt. There is no way of knowing the percentage of intercountry adoptions processed by courts in the United States. Tribal Courts Some adoptions by Native American tribes go through tribal courts, some go through State courts, and some children simply reside with relatives without any formal legal arrangements. Consequently, it is likely that the number of tribal adoptions is undercounted. Special Studies Some States conducted their own inventories of adoptive placements, in order to provide a number of total adoptions to NCSC. Special studies, however, tend to be costly and are not consistent from State to State. 6 For more information, see the Information Gateway document Court Jurisdiction and Venue for Adoption Petitions. back
This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway. |
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