National Adoption Month
National Adoption Month is an initiative of the Children's Bureau that seeks to increase national awareness of adoption issues, bring attention to the need for adoptive families for teens in the U.S. foster care system, and emphasize the value of youth engagement. The initiative began as National Adoption Week in 1984, as proclaimed by President Reagan. President Clinton then proclaimed the first National Adoption Month in 1995.
The theme for 2024 National Adoption Month is Honoring Youth: Strengthening Pathways for Lasting Bonds
National Adoption Month also includes National Adoption Day which is observed on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This year it falls on Saturday, November 18th, providing an ideal opportunity for communities and families to come together to celebrate adoption and finalize adoptions for children in foster care. World Adoption Day is also celebrated on November 9, and is a global awareness day for this important cause.
Language matters so using positive adoption language reflects the true nature of adoption. (Adoption Families, 2014). Check out the recommendations below:
Did You Know?
In 1851, the Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act became the first adoption law to protect the interest of children.
The first cross racial adoption of a Black child by white parents took place in Minnesota in 1948.
40% of all adopted children are a separate race or ethnicity than their adoptive family. Minority parents are the largest growing demographic of adoptive families nationwide.
The number of adoptions peaked in 1970 with 175,000 annual adoptions.
Adoptions of LGBT individuals and same sex couples was legal in all fifty states in 2017.
Of same-sex couples raising children, 19% have at least one adopted child.
1 in 35 children in the United States is adopted.
Approximately 150,000 children are adopted in the U.S. each year, with about a third coming through the foster care system.
An estimated 100,000 children are adopted through all adoption types every year.
There are more adoption agencies in the U.S. than any other country, and Americans adopt the most children globally. American families adopt more children than all other countries combined.
In 2020, Americans adopted the highest number of children from Ukraine (211), followed by China (202), South Korea (188), Columbia (137), India (103), Bulgaria (99), and Haiti (96).
In 2021, over 391,000 children are living in the U.S. foster care system and the number has been rising. Over 113,000 of these children are eligible for adoption and they will wait, on average, almost three years for an adoptive family.
53% of the children and youth who left foster care were reunited with their families or living with a relative; 25% were adopted.