November 2010Vol. 11, No. 9Siblings on the AdoptUsKids Website

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 includes a number of provisions to help children and youth maintain family connections, which offer them increased opportunities for adoption and permanency. For instance, Fostering Connections provides States with the option to use title IV-E funds for guardianship assistance; however, the legislation requires relative guardians to meet State foster care licensing requirements, although States may waive nonsafety standards on a case-by-case basis.

As part of this year’s national campaign to promote adoption of sibling groups from foster care, AdoptUsKids recently released a report by its Evaluation Team that analyzed data on the sibling groups that have been listed on the AdoptUsKids national photolisting. Special Report: Characteristics of Sibling Groups Registered on the AdoptUsKids Website looks at data on children who were adopted, children awaiting adoption, and families awaiting a child or children. Data were current as of August 1, 2010.

Among the 13,396 children from the AdoptUsKids photolisting who have been placed with families, 6,529 were siblings (49 percent), and they included 2,747 sibling groups. The average size of these sibling groups was 2.5 children, but they were as large as 8 siblings!

The report includes data about the gender, age, race, and geographic location of these children, as well as the children currently awaiting families. Of the 4,542 children currently listed on the website and awaiting families, 25 percent are part of sibling groups who need to be placed together.

The good news is that the majority of families (83 percent of the 4,636 families waiting to adopt) are willing to adopt more than one child. While most prefer to adopt 2 or 3 children, there are families who are willing to adopt up to 12 children.

The report was prepared for AdoptUsKids by Sunju Sohn, Jina Jun, and Lauren Alper and submitted by Ruth McRoy, who is the Principal Evaluator for the AdoptUsKids Evaluation Team. Read the report on the AdoptUsKids website:

www.adoptuskids.org/images/resourceCenter/AUK-special-report-characteristics-of-sibling-groups-registered-on-AdoptUsKids.pdf (240 KB)

Factsheets on Sibling Adoption

AdoptUsKids has developed the following two new factsheets on sibling adoption. The easy-to-use factsheets provide quick information for adoption workers and parents.

• Practice Principles for the Recruitment and Retention of Kinship, Foster and Adoptive Families for Siblings notes the importance of keeping siblings together and gives 10 ways to apply these principles to practice. Guidance on sibling placements that stems from the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is also included, and seven steps to placement are detailed.
  www.adoptuskids.org/images/resourceCenter/practice-principles-and-seven-step-process-for-sibling-recruitment.pdf (375 KB)
• Ten Myths and Realities of Sibling Adoption debunks some of the widely held but incorrect beliefs that have kept siblings apart in adoption placements. Information from the Fostering Connections Act is also included.
  www.adoptuskids.org/images/resourceCenter/ten-myths-and-realities-of-sibling-adoptions.pdf (401 KB)