Q & A on Special Needs Adoption

Adopting a Child With Special Needs

Topics

• What does "special needs" mean?
• Who may adopt a child with special needs?
• Could I parent a child with special needs successfully?

What does "special needs" mean?

For many people the term "special needs" means a child who receives or needs special education or who has a disability of some sort. In adoption, the term is defined differently and may include the factors listed below. Guidelines for classifying a child as "special needs" vary by state. Children with special needs range in age from infants to 21 years. In general, children with special needs are those who:

• Have physical or health problems
• Are older
• Are members of ethnic or racial minorities
• Have a history of abuse or neglect
• Have emotional problems
• Have siblings and need to be adopted as a group
• Test positive for HIV
• Have documented conditions that may lead to future problems
• Had prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol

Almost all children who meet the special needs guidelines and who are available for adoption are currently in the public foster care system. Some have moved through several different foster placements.

Who may adopt a child with special needs?

Almost any prospective adoptive parent who has the commitment, skills, and preparation to parent may adopt a child. Agencies differ in their specific requirements for adoptive parents. Requirements for adopting a child with special needs tend to be less restrictive than requirements for adopting a healthy infant. Agencies will consider both single and married applicants, ranging in age from 18 to 50 or sometimes even older. The consideration of an adoptive parent's age many times depends upon on the age of the child, if the state has age restrictions, or the individual's situation. Most agencies require couples to be married a minimum of 1 to 3 years. Divorce, physical challenges, or a history of personal counseling do not necessarily disqualify an applicant from adopting. Applicants need not be wealthy or own a home.

Could I parent a child with special needs successfully?

Parents who adopt children with special needs will need to take the time to decide if they have the emotional, physical, mental, and financial resources to be a successful parent. It will be helpful to make a self-assessment before deciding to adopt. Consider such questions as:

• How many children can I take?
• How much contact with the birth relatives would I be comfortable with?
• Do I have enough support from family and friends to help me when I need it?
• Is my lifestyle flexible enough to handle a child with special needs?
• What disabilities, or mental, emotional, physical, behavioral challenges can I handle?

Some parents who adopt children with special needs already have large families with many biological children and/or other adopted or foster children. They see themselves as having the special skills necessary to handle the special needs of a child. These adoptive families also tend to have had previous experience with health care professionals, school systems, and administrators that help them to navigate systems to advocate on behalf of their children. The parents know from their personal experience that every child is different and that all children have at least one difficulty -- some are just more serious than others. The motivation shifts for these families from wanting to adopt infants to form a family to providing for the quality of life for additional family members.

Although you may not be just like the families described above, the odds are in your favor. The great majority of special needs adoptions create lasting families. Between 10 and 20 percent of all types of adoptions end in "disruption or dissolution" in which the child returns to agency custody to live in foster care or institutional care. That means that 80 to 90 percent of all special needs adoptions are successful. A disruption is less likely to occur, however, when a family and child receive support services when they need them. Work with adoption professionals to ensure that you adopt a child that you can care for successfully and to ensure that you will be able to secure the services that your child needs. This fact sheet will tell you more about pre-adoption and post-adoption assistance and services available to families adopting a child with special needs.

Updated September, 2000

The information on this page is used with the permission of the Child Welfare Information Gateway. http://www.childwelfare.gov