There are 428,000 youth in the U.S. foster care system, 112,000 of whom are waiting to be adopted. AdoptUSKids’ maintains a national photo listing service for all of those children. Since the project launched in 2002, more than 26,000 children who were once photolisted on adoptuskids.org have been adopted and nearly 39,000 families have registered to adopt through the website.
Adoption is real, it’s raw, and it’s emotional. There are many forms of adoption: infants, adopting out of the country, within the family, and from foster care. Each one is special and important because all children deserve to be loved and cared for by a family that will cherish them for who they are. Unfortunately, the kids who are awaiting adoption from the foster care system tend to be last in line, especially those who are older: tweens and teens.
Why Older Youth?
- All of us—including older youth in foster care who are waiting to be adopted—need and want families throughout life to support us and to share important life events. Learning to drive a car, applying for higher education, and birthday and holiday celebrations are just a few examples of times in life that are best shared with a supportive, loving family.
- Older youth generally wait longer to be adopted and have lower overall adoption rates.
- On org, roughly 43 percent of the children and youth actively photolisted are between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. But only 17% of children who get adopted are in that age group. (Most recent stats as of September 30, 2016)
- Families that adopt older youth are providing them with the support and stability of a family during a critical period of normal adolescent concerns and additional self-identity issues.
For more information about adoption, or about becoming an adoptive parent to a child from foster care, please visit adoptuskids.org or visit the campaign’s communities on Facebook and Twitter.
