failed adoptions

There is a major blind spot in national data when it comes to the child welfare continuum, and it is on the back end. The federal government has never established a systematic way to collect information from states about the number of finalized adoptions of foster youths that “disrupted,” ending with a youth heading back to foster care.

The Dave Thomas Foundation (DTFA) has established that its flagship program is effective in getting older youths adopted; nearly twice as effective as the business-as-usual approach to permanency for those youths.