Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child: A Guide for Parents and Professionals

(Paperback)

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Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child bridges the gap between the desire to help a waiting child and the reality of America's special needs adoption system. It is designed to be used by adoption professionals and adoptive parents, to help them get started, keep going, and locate whatever additional information and support they need. The authors are adoption professionals, long-time support volunteers, child advocates, and mothers of a total of 21 children, 13 of them adopted children with special needs. Tens of thousands of children in the United States alone are waiting in foster care for parents, and many Americans, single and married, want to open their hearts and homes to these children who wait. A landmark 1980 federal law made adopting and raising special needs children affordable even for people of limited means. What could be easier than matching these kids to these families The reality is that many prospective adopters never complete the adoption process because of red tape, regulations, and institutional lethargy. Among the adults who complete a homestudy or placement, lack of support services and advocacy training sometimes leads to heartbreak and adoption failurenot a happy ending. Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child bridges the gap between the desire to help a waiting child and the reality of America's special needs adoption system. It is designed to be used by adoption professionals and adoptive parents, to help them get started, keep going, and locate whatever additional information and support they need. The authors are adoption professionals, long-time support volunteers, child advocates, and mothers of a total of 23 children, 14 of them adopted children with special needs.

Reviews

Completely frank and remarkably compassionate, this detailed, comprehensive guide to the issues, participants, process, and outcomes involved in adopting children who will require special support is an important, sorely needed addition to the current informational literature on adoption. Babb and Laws bring professional and personal experience to the task of demystifying special needs adoption, and they cover such key topics as how to find a child, prepare for adoptive parenthood, anticipate early placement experiences, manage finances, advocate within the educational system, and cope when things go wrong. Tables, checklists, and frequent references to additional resources add value to their informed advice to prospective adoptive parents. * Booklist *
A wealth of practical advice on getting started, becoming a family, facing realities (finances, education, transracial adoption), and coping when things go wrong, plus an extensive appendix full of valuable resources. A nice addition to any adoption collection. * Library Journal *
A strong overview of issues, beginning with making the decision to adopt a child with special needs right through to launching such a child into adulthood. . . . There are few, if any, topics related to adopting special needs children that are not at least brought up here, and resources direct readers to more in-depth materials on nearly all topics raised. . . . An essential addition to a basic adoption library. * Adoption Quarterly *

Author Bio

L. Anne Babb is Executive Director of a nonprofit adoption advocacy center, the Family Tree Adoption and Counseling Center in Norman, Oklahoma. Rita Laws is Director of the Oklahoma Chapter of Adopt a Special Kid (AASK) and representative to the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC). Both authors received their M.S. degrees and PhDs in psychology.