Truer Statistics About US Foster Care Failed Adoptions See the Light

Ohio– twenty percent of 6,300 cases came from failed adoptions.

Florida– two hundred adoptions dissolved in 2008-2009. “There were 3,777 total adoptions that same year. However, most of the dissolved adoptions each year are actually adoptions that took place in previous years.”

Pennsylvania– sixty of two hundred cases came from failed adoptions.

Oklahoma–fifty percent of boys in group home (seven of fourteen) came from failed adoptions.

The article discusses the case of Florida couple, the Carlsons. “Deb and Doug Carlsons’ adopted sons have trashed bedrooms, stolen credit cards and threatened to kill them. One drew a disturbing picture of beheading the southwest Florida couple and throwing a party.

When the Carlsons adopted the now teenage boys from foster care in 2007, they were handed a slim file with few details except that the two suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. No one told the empty nesters the boys had severe mental health issues and had bounced between foster homes. Now teenagers, the boys are living in separate therapeutic group homes.

Therapists say one son needs to be in a supervised residential facility, which the state will no longer pay for, unless the Carlsons turn back custody to the state.”

“Their complaints come amid a nationwide push to find homes for older foster care children and those with serious behavioral and mental health problems, which can emotionally and financially drain adoptive families. Most states focus money on recruiting parents but once a child is adopted few funds are directed to supporting the new families, some experts say. About 50,000 foster children are adopted annually in the U.S., almost double the number in the 1990s.

“We place them in an adoptive home and we don’t support or train the parents … we sometimes set families up to fail and then those children are placed back in the system,” said Rita Soronen, president of The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The Ohio nonprofit estimates more than 20 percent of the nearly 6,300 foster children it has served came from a failed adoption.

But there’s no national data to show how many adoptions fail or track how many children need additional help, and states aren’t required to track or report the figures.”

Yet the states want praise for all the placements (and keep in mind that they get a lot of Federal $$$$ for each placement. ) All taxpaying citizens need to start holding their states accountable!! 

Experts push disclosure of failed foster adoptions
[Associated Press 8/22/11 by Kelli Kennedy]

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