General | Directories | Foster Care | Private | Advocacy | Medical Issues | Transracial | International | Mental health

General information on adoption and support groups

• The Evan B. Donaldson Institute is a private foundation with excellent publications. You can subscribe free to their e-newsletter and search archives for well written material on adoption.
  www.adoptioninstitute.org
   
• The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a foundation established by the creator of the fast food chain Wendy’s. Look at the section titled “A Child Is Waiting: A Beginner’s Guide to Adoption” for a good overview.
  www.DaveThomasFoundationforAdoption.org
   
• The Child Welfare Information Gateway is located on the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau:
  www.childwelfare.gov/adoption
  
  
• Information on the Wednesday’s Child adoption program for waiting U.S. children, run by the Freddie Mac Foundation, has a rich list of links to other reputable, well researched sites.
  http://www.freddiemacfoundation.org/ourwork/adopt_res.html
  
  
• The Adoption Institute’s policy brief on gay and lesbian adoption can be found at http://www.adoptioninstitute.org.
  
  
• Yahoo! Groups includes groups for people interested in adoption in general, and for people interested in international adoption. The link for groups focusing on adoption in general:
  http://dir.groups .yahoo.com/dir/Family___Home/Parenting/Adoption
  Groups focusing on international adoption:
  http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/ Family___Home/Parenting/Adoption/International_Adoptions.
  
  
• The Adoption Agency Research group on Yahoo has sponsored very frank discussions about adoption agencies, primarily international. It is open only to parents, or consumers; the list moderators are vigilant about not offering membership to agency workers or representatives.
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adoption_Agency_Research

Adoption agency directories and information

• The National Adoption Directory. The Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services maintains this list, but warns that the listing doesn’t mean that the Bureau endorses or has investigated every agency. There are also links to your state’s adoption licensing officials.
  www.childwelfare.gov/nad/index.cfm.
  
  
• Council on Accreditation (COA) standards. The latest edition of Council on Accreditation Standards for both public agencies and private organizations are on the organization’s website. The U.S. Department of State has designated COA as the sole national independent organization to accredit agencies providing inter-country adoption services in the United States that work with sending countries that have ratified the Hague Treaty.
  www.coastandards.org
  
  
• “Ten things your adoption agency won’t tell you,” an article from Smart Money magazine, has a succinct list of 10 items to consider when you’re looking for an agency.
  www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=april2004.

Adoption from foster care

• The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC)’s online guide gives information about how to adopt from the U.S. foster care system. It also includes a list of publishers of adoption-related books, and a list of recommended books. Scroll down through the steps and you’ll find hot links to searchable databases of adoption agencies and parent support groups, as well as questions to ask yourself about adoption.
  www.nacac.org/howtoadopt.html
  
  
• Adopt US Kids, a program to promote adoption of waiting children in the United States, keeps a national photo listing of children at www.AdoptUSKids.org.
  
  
• The website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides statistics and research on foster care and adoption in the United States. A link to research is at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/
  afcars/trends.htm#description
  A link to statistics is at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/
  afcars/tar/report11.htm
  
  

Private adoption

• Families for Private Adoption, a volunteer organization, promotes private adoption and provides information for families.
  www.ffpa.org
  
  
• American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. The AAAA is a national group of attorneys who practice adoption law and who subscribe to the academy’s code of ethics. The academy promotes adoption law reform and puts out information on ethical adoption practice.
  www.adoptionattorneys.org
  
  

Adoption advocacy

• Ethica is a nonprofit group which advocates for ethical adoptions. Their excellent paper, “Why adoptive parents should care about ethics and fraud,” is available at their website.
  www.ethicanet.org.
  
  
• The National Council for Adoption is a nonprofit agency that often provides testimony to Congress on adoption. Their website has useful links to information and statistics. The organization is opposed to abortion and the site reflects that stance.
  www.adoptioncouncil.org
  
  

Medical issues in adoption

• A site run by Jane Aronson, M.D., director of International Children’s Health Services in New York City. The “Medical Resources” tab is especially helpful.
  www.orphandoctor.com
  
  
• University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic. Click on “Downloads” for articles on the health of internationally adopted children.
  http://www.med.umn.edu/peds/iac/
  
  
• American Academy of Pediatrics. Enter “adoption”in the search box, and you will get a listing of adoption specialists by state.
  http://www.aap.org
  
  
• An excellent website for peer-reviewed medical information written for lay readers, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine.
  www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
  
  

Transracial adoption

• Website for a training group specializing in transracial adoption.
  www.bridgecommunications.org
  
  
• This site, run by an adoptive mom, adoption advocate, and adoptee, has excellent articles on international and transracial adoption, as well as links to agencies and waiting children.
  www.rainbowkids.com

International adoption

• The U.S. Department of State provides information on international adoption http://www.travel.state.gov/family/
  adoption/adoption_485.html
  
  
• The State Department also has an excellent booklet online. It covers all U.S. federal laws related to international adoptions and is written in easy-to-understand language. It’s a general overview of international adoption and not specific to any country. The State Department’s booklet also has sections on different countries; click on a country, and within the country booklet, click on the embassy web site. www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/notices/notices_473.html
  
  
• For specific country information, go to the U.S. embassy web site for the country. For example, you can review all licensed agencies in Vietnam and provinces they work in and stay abreast of updates and changes to the adoption laws at:
  www.hanoi.usembassy.gov/orphan_visas.html
  
  
• Hague Convention: www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/convention/convention
  _2290.html.

Mental health

• The website of the New York University School of Medicine’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry includes excellent, evidence-based information on attachment, reactive attachment disorder, and other issues.
  www.aboutourkids.org.
  
  
• This website of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry includes “Practice Parameters” are written by committees of experts on major issues in child psychiatry, including reactive attachment disorder, ADHD, and others. You can download the PDF files free.
  www.aacap.org/page.ww?section=Practice+Parameters&name=Practice+Parameters
  
  
• The American Psychological Association’s site includes a searchable index of common mental health issues, including ADHD, attachment concerns, and others.
  www.apa.org
  
  
• ATTACh, the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children, is a nonprofit group promoting parent-child attachment. Their list of books for parents is excellent:
  http://www.attach.org/resourceparenting.htm