Special Needs Adoptions

Practice Issues

Ruth G. McRoy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138004306
• eBook ISBN: 9781317713920
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

With the new federal mandate to double, by the year 2002, the number of children in foster care who are to be adopted or placed in permanent legal guardianships, it is essential for adoption agency staff and prospective families to learn which factors contribute to successful and unsuccessful placements. Dr. Ruth McRoy's informative guide, Special Needs Adoptions: Practice Issues outlines what formulates a successful match between adoptable children with special needs and their prospective parents, and how the current placements can be improved. Dr. McRoy recognizes the challenges of building families through adoptions and offers specific training suggestions for special needs adoptive families and agency workers in order to improve adoption outcomes for children. The book is based on a research project designed to identify special needs adoptions practice issues that contributed to intact, disruptive and dissolved adoptions by collecting data from adoption supervisors, post-adoption service providers, and actual case records of adoption placements. Based on the findings, the characteristics of children needing adoptive placement are described, practice issues such as matching children and parents are addressed, and transition planning is discussed. Further, controversial placement issues including foster parent adoptions, single parent adoptions, sibling placement and transracial adoptions are dealt with. Special Needs Adoptions is a rich, resourceful guide for all of the parties involved in a special need adoption: state and private adoption agency staff, post-adoption service providers, child welfare policy makers and researchers. Special Needs Adoptions is also a wonderful resource for adoptive parents or prospective parents considering special needs adoptions.

1 Overview of the Study

2 Research Design

DOI: 10.4324/9781315784243-2

For the purposes of improving service delivery and positive adoption outcomes for special needs children, the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS) initiated an evaluation study of the state agency adoption services program. Specifically, state agency staff sought to identify child, family, and agency factors that influenced adoptions with the following outcomes: intact, disrupted, and dissolved. Intact adoptions refer to placements that have been consummated (legally finalized) and in which the placed child is still in the adoptive home. Disrupted adoptions are placements in which the child has been removed from a pre-adoptive home before his or her adoption has been finalized (Groze, 1986). Dissolved adoptions are placements that break down after consummation. This chapter provides a description of the methodology and data collection procedures used in the research.

Unlike research studies that use an ideal elaborate stratified random sampling design, this research was dependent on two agency factors that limited the sample selection process: the availability of sufficient data in the state agency computer system to be able to identify a sample of cases that fit the criteria; and the subsequent availability of complete documentation on cases that met the criteria. Since this book utilizes public agency practice issues in special needs adoption as a major context in which to examine outcomes, the following discussion is provided not only to identify initial research design issues that are endemic to this type of investigation, but also to improve understanding about the context within which services were provided.

Initially, the researchers contracted to complete case readings on a randomly selected group of 40 intact and 40 dissolved placements. Specifically, the design called for a sample that could control for intervening variables, yet was comparable to samples identified in the literature review. For the purposes of this study, an ideal sample would include a randomly selected sample of cases in which: (1) the child was 3 years or older at time of placement; (2) the adoption was consummated between 1989 and 1990 (due to state legislation mandating disclosure of all case materials to prospective adoptive families, all families having access to the same type of adoption preparation Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting [MAPP] and the availability of post-adoption counseling to all families); (3) the adoption dissolved no sooner than two years after consummation; (4) all adoptions were subsidized; (5) all adoptive parents were trained using MAPP; (6) the child had not experienced previous disruptions; and (7) there were no foster parent adoptions. The sample selection process for this type of research ideally would involve the selection of dissolved cases first, then matching with intact cases.

When this “ideal” sampling plan was presented to agency staff, the following concerns were raised: (1) full disclosure of background information to adoptive parents did not happen consistently until September 1989, and MAPP training was not implemented throughout Texas until 1991; (2) staff felt they might not be able to provide enough cases that fit all of the desired criteria, and/or have enough to choose a random sample; (3) as there have been dissolutions of infant placements, the staff requested that we also include younger children in the sample; and (4) the intact case list was the most readily accessible and would be available before the dissolved list; thus, due to time constraints, it was necessary to begin with the intact sample.

Intact Cases

A computerized list of closed cases drawn from the subsidy eligibility list was used to begin sample selection. All cases of currently intact adoptions that were consummated after 1989 were selected for inclusion in the original sample. To be included, all adoptions should have been consummated for at least one year. In the case of sibling placements where all siblings met the criteria for inclusion, the oldest child with complete case record information was selected as the “target child.” The oldest child was selected so that the age range of the “target children” in the dissolved/disrupted sample most closely matched that of the intact sample.

Sixty-five cases of intact placements were selected that met the criteria, and staff requested that regional offices duplicate copies of the entire case records and forward them to the state office for review. Case records were to be drawn from all 12 regions of the state. Some delays were experienced in getting cases available for review and securing complete case records. Incomplete case records were eliminated from the sample. A total of 40 case records comprised the final sample of intact adoptions.

Dissolved/Disrupted Cases

A sample of 50 cases identified as being dissolved, which met all of the eligibility criteria, was selected from a computer-generated list of 111 closed subsidy cases. (The closed subsidies indicate that the “target child” is no longer living with the adoptive parents.)

All 50 cases were to be ordered simultaneously; however, only the first 40 cases with complete case records that arrived in the state office were intended to be used in the sample. Upon closer examination of this sample of closed subsidy cases, several issues arose. Subsidy cases can be closed for a variety of reasons, such as: a consummated adoption has legally dissolved because the adoptive parents ask that the child be returned or because the state terminates the parental rights of the adoptive parents; an adoptive placement has disrupted; or the child has run away from home for an extended period of time or is living with friends or relatives of the adoptive family.

Several problems with sample eligibility for cases quickly emerged when the 50 cases arrived in the state office: (1) some of the records were of disrupted cases rather than dissolved; (2) in some cases, adoptions dissolved while the child and family were in another state, so complete records were not available; (3) recent dissolutions often had incomplete dictation because workers have 45 days to complete case record dictation; (4) many of the placements in the dissolved sample occurred before 1989; and (5) some of the identified cases were sibling groups placed in ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Table Of Contents
• Special Needs Adoptions
• 1Overview of the Study
• 2Placement Outcomes
• 3Adoption Service Delivery Issues
• 4Implications for Training and Practice
• References
• Index