Explore data about state approaches, children in care, and how money is invested in foster care vs. preventive and permanency services.

Their parents are generally well-educated and affluent. They receive more time and educational resources from those parents than the average child gets from theirs. Yet they get into more conflicts with their classmates at school, display relative little interest and enthusiasm about learning tasks, and register only middling academic performance. About whom are we talking? Adopted children. This is the paradox of adoption in America.

A recent Institute for Family Studies research brief called “The Paradox of Adoption” reported that adopted children had relatively high rates of behavior and learning problems in kindergarten and first grade, despite having home environments that were well above average in terms of family income and parent education levels. This follow-up report provides supplementary information on the prevalence of disabilities among adopted children, and on how adoptees fare in late elementary and middle school.

ASPE RESEARCH BRIEF Children Adopted from Foster Care: Child and Family Characteristics, Adoption Motivation, and Well-Being May 2011

The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects case-level information on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement.