Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics; No. 181 (1/5/90)

Adoption has long provided a mechanism for the care of children whose biological parents are unable to provide for them and an alternative means of creating a family for couples unable to have biolo~”cal children. During most of the 1970’s and 1980’s, when legal abortion and the dmdopment of new reproductive technologies created additional alternatives to unwanted pregnancy and infertility, there has been a need for information on adoption trends, on the characteristics of children placed for adoption, on the characteristics of adoptive families and persons seeking adoption, and on the outcomes for children, biological parents, and adcsptive parents. This information is necessary for formulation of adoption policies at the Federal IeveI as well as ~or State and local public child welfare agencies, Three major developments in recent years have heightened the need for information: (1) the emphasis on finding permanent homes for children in the foster care system; (2) the belief that all waiting children are “adoptable”; and (3) the belief that