National Council for Adoption (NCFA)

In a recent flurry of articles, the National Council for Adoption asserts that the State Department is responsible for the plummeting number of intercountry adoptions. They are wrong. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Work is underway to test a national foster and adoptive parent training model that will be free for systems to use by 2022. The National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) announced last month that seven states have been selected to participate in a pilot project to test its new training curriculum.

Last month, the State Department announced that eight of the remaining estimated 160 international adoption providers had halted work, some by choice and others because of failure to complete renewal of their accreditation with the government.

Birth fathers contesting adoptions are rare, but a few high-profile cases in recent years have drawn more attention to the legal process of ensuring that fathers of unborn or newborn children who a mother has chosen to relinquish have been notified.

A new report from the National Council for Adoption highlights American adoption trends, including for infant adoptions, intercountry adoptions and adoptions from foster care. The report, Adoption: By the Numbers, covers findings from the seventh edition of the National Adoption Data study.

The current State Department has developed policies that have been disastrous for children languishing in institutions abroad. There are many millions of such children, some of them orphaned, some abandoned by or removed from their birth parents.

It’s that time of year again. A trio of months from October through December, containing a rash of celebrations that I begrudgingly participate in. Every year, I spend Columbus Day in afforded leisure, attire myself ridiculously on Halloween, and nonchalantly prepare for the excitement of Christmas.

On November 21st, our country celebrated National Adoption Day. Every year, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, courts across the country finalize the adoptions of children from foster care. Since this tradition began in 2000, 54,000 children have been adopted from foster care on National Adoption Day.