Here is a short, hope-affirming story about the adoption of teenagers in Minnesota. Some of the metrics have improved a lot in the state, perhaps brought about by these changes:
Some of the state’s progress has to do with its diversion programs, which keep families intact and children out of foster care. But state officials believe the adoption process is quicker and more aggressive as well. In two years, the state has halved the number of kids seeking adoptions who reach age 18 without parents. And over the past decade, the state has reduced the time it takes to move children from state guardianships to finalized adoptions from 24 months to 16 months.
County workers now ask older foster children about influential relatives, teachers or other adults in their past and follow up with those adults to see if they’d consider adoption. Private agencies, hired by the state, assist counties in finding matches for adoptive children, and recruiting families even if they had stopped pursuing adoption. Pre-adoption classes emphasize the needs of teens and dispel myths that they don’t benefit from adoption as much.
The article highlights one adoptive family, headed by a widowed mother of a younger teenager.
I almost can’t imagine the difficulty of welcoming an older child with a troubled, loss-filled past into my family. The article left me wanting to know more about the families who are making it work, and the ones who are struggling, in my state. And it left me wondering about the outcomes — those that can be measured and counted, and those that can’t — for adults who were adopted as teens.
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