Celebrate National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month. Data indicate that in 2011 there were 56,138 children in foster care in California. Though the percentage of children who are adopted within four years of entry into the foster care system in California has increased since 1998, most children are reunited with their family. Data also indicate adoption takes time; according to 2011 data, 66% of foster care youth in California who were eventually adopted waited over two years until they were placed into a permanent residence. And oftentimes, that stay in foster care is marked by instability; 2011 data show that 15.6% of California children in foster care for less than one year experienced three or more placements.

For a perspective on helping adopted children overcome adversity, please see our October 2011 guest blog post. You also can help raise awareness this month about youth in foster care using more data from kidsdata.org. Finally, spread the word about National Adoption Month through Child Welfare Information Gateway’s social media initiative.

Posted by Lindsey Nguyen

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2012 at 10:29 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.