Special Needs Adoption: Characteristics of Children Who Wait
Abstract
Children who have been removed from their birth parent(s)' care,
due to abuse, neglect, or other maltreatment are g:enerally placed in
one of several out-of home placement arrangements. The birth parents
of many of these children subsequently have their parental rights
terminated, and these children then become wards of the State. For
this thesis, case records of seventy children who are wards of the
State of Minnesota receiving services from the Hennepin County
Children and Family Services Department Adoption Program, were
reviewed for the purpose of gathering descriptive information about
this population. This study found that, number of placements, length
of time waiting for an adoptive resource, and numbers of diagnoses,
labels. and services were greater for the older children in this
population. The findings suggest a need for minimizing the number of
placement transitions which children must make, as well as a need for
targeted, specialized recruitment of potential adoptive parents.