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On-line Resources for Parents
General information on adoption and support groups Adoption agency directories and information- The National Adoption Directory. The Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services maintains this list, but warns that the listing doesn’t mean that the Bureau endorses or has investigated every agency. There are also links to your state’s adoption licensing officials.
www.childwelfare.gov/nad/index.cfm.
- Council on Accreditation (COA) standards. The latest edition of Council on Accreditation Standards for both public agencies and private organizations are on the organization’s website. The U.S. Department of State has designated COA as the sole national independent organization to accredit agencies providing inter-country adoption services in the United States that work with sending countries that have ratified the Hague Treaty.
www.coastandards.org
- “Ten things your adoption agency won’t tell you,” an article from Smart Money magazine, has a succinct list of 10 items to consider when you’re looking for an agency.
www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=april2004.
Adoption from foster care Private adoption - Families for Private Adoption, a volunteer organization, promotes private adoption and provides information for families.
www.ffpa.org
- American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. The AAAA is a national group of attorneys who practice adoption law and who subscribe to the academy’s code of ethics. The academy promotes adoption law reform and puts out information on ethical adoption practice.
www.adoptionattorneys.org
Adoption advocacy - Ethica is a nonprofit group which advocates for ethical adoptions. Their excellent paper, “Why adoptive parents should care about ethics and fraud,” is available at their website.
www.ethicanet.org.
- The National Council for Adoption is a nonprofit agency that often provides testimony to Congress on adoption. Their website has useful links to information and statistics. They also provide parent training, and publish an excellent series of adoption fact books.
www.adoptioncouncil.org
Medical issues in adoption - A site run by Jane Aronson, M.D., director of International Children’s Health Services in New York City. The “Medical Resources” tab is especially helpful.
www.orphandoctor.com
- University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic. Click on “Downloads” for articles on the health of internationally adopted children.
http://www.med.umn.edu/peds/iac/
- American Academy of Pediatrics. Enter “adoption”in the search box, and you will get a listing of adoption specialists by state.
http://www.aap.org
- An excellent website for peer-reviewed medical information written for lay readers, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine.
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
Transracial adoption - Website for a training group specializing in transracial adoption.
www.bridgecommunications.org
- This site, run by an adoptive mom, adoption advocate, and adoptee, has excellent articles on international and transracial adoption, as well as links to agencies and waiting children.
www.rainbowkids.com
International adoption Mental health - The website of the New York University School of Medicine’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry includes excellent, evidence-based information on attachment, reactive attachment disorder, and other issues.
www.aboutourkids.org.
- This website of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry includes “Practice Parameters” are written by committees of experts on major issues in child psychiatry, including reactive attachment disorder, ADHD, and others. You can download the PDF files free.
www.aacap.org/page.ww?section=Practice+Parameters&name=Practice+Parameters
- The American Psychological Association’s site includes a searchable index of common mental health issues, including ADHD, attachment concerns, and others.
www.apa.org
- ATTACh, the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children, is a nonprofit group promoting parent-child attachment. Their list of books for parents is excellent:
http://www.attach.org/resourceparenting.htm
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