Adoption Issues/long term foster care

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Rating(1-10)	Knowledgeability = 10	Clarity of Response = 10	Politeness = 10
Comment	Thank you for your answer. After I asked I did find child welfare statistics on the Internet- notably AFCARS American Foster Care Analysis and Reports US Health and Human Service which does the definitive report yearly and it did reflect roughly the numbers you stated up through 2009--- 500,00 and the sad 19,000 and they seem to be CONSTANTS.(The slightly NON constant and encouraging numbers are a small uptick in adoptions and shortening of release for adoption times.) The 19,000 age out as you say but they are replenished by the newly released for adoption over age 7 or 8 who join the sad ranks because of their age. AFCARS figures show few adoptions of the over age 5. So the sad number will never go down. Actually 19,000 seems to be an exit number. 124,000 according to AFCARS of "waiting chdn" is a typical number for any given year. And of that number roughly 60,000 have been in care either for 36 to 59 months or for over 60 months --half and half. As you say adoptions are often by foster parents. 61% says AFCAR. The foster parents of the 19,000 apparently continued to care for them but have said no to adoption-- maybe even to subsidized adoption. How does a child perceive this? To me all the statistics should gather round this one. It shouldn't have to be teased out of all the trends and analysis. Neglected children we will always have with us -it is a fact of life--and reunification strategies or push to adoption is the optimim response. But for this constant group (the 19,000 or the 124,000)-- for whom these things may never come to pass- a unique responsibility lies. They are truly the children of the state and should have a way more front and center visibility to planners and statisticians than they do now. Thanks very much for reading this long thought.



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Adoption STAR

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Questions related to domestic and international adoption.

Experience

22 years in the adoption field. Michele Fried is the founder and chair of Adoption STAR. Her foremost responsibilities are the implementation of strategic plans and agency growth/expansion, financial management, board partnerships and supervision of the staff. Michele has her hands full with these responsibilities as well as initiating marketing and public relation campaigns and executing and implementing policies developed by the Board of Directors.

Organizations
CAFFA, JCICS, NACAC

Education/Credentials
Before starting Adoption STAR. Michele worked as an educator in Pennsylvania and then after she and her husband adopted their first child, she entered the field of adoption. In 1989 she founded an adoption agency licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Michele’s own family began to grow and they chose to return home to Western New York. Michele began working locally as an Inclusion Coordinator for individuals with developmental disabilities. As the years went by, Michele was inspired by the great need for a passionate, advocacy based, non-profit child-welfare agency in this area and so Adoption STAR was born in March of 2000! Michele is very proud of the work Adoption STAR has done and continues to do, and states she is touched by the incredible birth mothers that work with the agency.

Awards and Honors
The community-at-large has also noticed Michele and her agency. In 2003 Michele received a Business First 40 Under Forty Award and in 2004 WKBW-TV honored Michele by selecting her to be one of the community’s Everyday Heroes. The YWCA also honored Michele in 2005 by selecting her as one of twenty-six women making a difference in Western New York. In 2009 Michele was the recipient of a Business First Women of Influence Entrepreneur Award. On May 1, 2010 during the Dazzling Decade ~ A Night of Star’s 10th Birthday Gala, Michele’s own agency presented her with the First Michele Fried Founder’s Award. In the future, this award will be given annually to an individual whose contributions, expertise, and dedication to adoption mirror Michele’s.

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