Relationships & Marriage: Adoption and Foster Care

Health topic guide from the National Library of Medicine.

This site includes resources on all aspects of domestic and inter-country adoption, including adoption from foster care. Includes information for prospective and adoptive parents; information about searching for birth relatives; and resources for professionals on recruiting adoptive families, preparing children and youth, supporting birth parents, and providing post-adoption services.

This site was created and is maintained by Ellen Herman in the Department of History at the University of Oregon. It was based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0094318. The Adoption History Project is devoted to making adoption history accessible and interesting to visitors who may not be aware that adoption has a history at all. This site introduces the history of child adoption in the United States by profiling people, organizations, topics, and studies that shaped adoption during the twentieth century.

Foster Care Month originated in 1988 when the National Foster Parent Association persuaded then Senator Strom Thurmond to introduce a resolution to proclaim May as National Foster Care Month. President George H.W. Bush issued an annual proclamation during each year of his presidency, providing an impetus for state, county and city proclamations. The main focus of these early efforts was appreciation and recognition of the tremendous contributions of foster parents across the nation.

The Pennsylvania State Foster Parent Association is now officially the Pennsylvania State Resource Family Association (PSRFA). When the Pennsylvania State Foster Parent Association (PSFPA) was founded in 1974 it began as an organization that served only foster families and foster children. Several years ago, in an effort to serve the broader range of families who serve foster children, we expanded our families served to include adoptive and kinship families.

The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care was established in May 2003 to develop recommendations to improve outcomes for children in the foster care system. Of primary importance were: expediting the movement of such children from foster care into safe, permanent, nurturing families, and preventing unnecessary placements in foster care… Although Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care concluded its work in 2006, its resource materials remain available here for reference through December 2009.

Broad-based cooperative effort and a centralized information and facilitation service funded and overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.