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An Eye on Recruitment:
Who are Ohio’s Adoptive Families?
September 2005
Developed for:
Adoption Services Section
Office for Children and Families
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
By:
Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc.
Purpose
To assist ODJFS and PCSAs to identify where they
may need to focus their recruitment and retention
efforts for prospective adoptive parents.
Two ways analysis of families can assist:
1. identify the characteristics of those who actually adopt as
a guide to identifying families who are likely to adopt in
the future, and
2. identify characteristics of families who are
underrepresented in the pool of prospective parents and
may therefore represent an untapped resource.
Exploratory Questions
What are the characteristics of the families who adopted children in FFY
2004?
Do the foster families who adopt differ from non-foster families who adopt?
Do the families adopting through the larger PCSAs differ from those in the
rest of the state?
How do the families actually adopting differ from those waiting for children?
What are the characteristics of the children adopted in 2004?
What are the characteristics of the children waiting at the end of the year?
Are there differences between the characteristics of the children adopted by
foster parents and those adopted by non-foster parents?
Outline
Ohio’s Prospective and Adoptive Families
Ohio’s Children and Who Adopts Them
Conclusions and Recommendations
Ohio’s Prospective &
Adoptive Families
Adoptive Families: Age
Adopting parents come largely from a 30-year age range (30-60)
Comparing adoptive and prospective parents:
– There are substantially more parents waiting to adopt who are in their 30s
compared to those who adopted.
Within the adopting parents:
– The group who provided foster care to the child prior to adopting is slightly
older on average compared with the non-fostering adoptive parents.
Age of Adoptive (foster and non-foster) and
Prospective Parents in FFY 2004
100% 8% 8% 5%
14%
80% 23% 17% 60 +
36% 50-59
60% 37%
38% 40-49
40%
30-39
31% 39%
20% 28% 20-29
0% 3% 8% 7%
Foster Non-foster Prospective
Adoptive Families: Race
More than 2/3 of adoptive and waiting parents are white.
As with age, waiting parents look more like non-foster adoptive
parents than those parents who fostered the child prior to
adopting.
Race of Adoptive (foster and non-foster) and
Prospective Parents in FFY 2004
100% 0% 1% 1%
90% 25%
32% 30%
80%
70%
60% Other
50% African American
40% 74% White
68% 69%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Foster Non-foster Prospective
Adoptive Families: Race
While the previous slide shows that more than 2/3 of adoptive
parents are white, the racial breakdowns between the largest
8 PCSAs and the smaller 80 are quite different.
– Nearly all resource families in the smaller PCSAs are white.
– In the large PCSAs, white families still comprise the greatest
proportions, but African American families make up around 45%
of all resources.
Adoptive and Prospective Parents by Race in FFY 2004
Foster Adoptive Parents Non-foster Adoptive Parents Prospective Parents
Smaller Smaller Large Smaller
Large PCSAs PCSAs Large PCSAs PCSAs PCSAs PCSAs
White 59% 96% 52% 95% 57% 94%
African American 41% 4% 46% 4% 43% 6%
Other 0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0%
Adoptive Families: Family
Structure
Married couples are by far the largest family structure group
(nearly 3 of every 4 adoptive families)
Statewide, 1 in 5 non-foster parents are single females, while more
than 1 in 4 foster adoptive families are headed by single females.
– Waiting single female parents look more like foster adoptive parents
than non-foster (at least in the large PCSAs), indicating that more
single females are recruited as adoptive parents than are moving to
become adoptive parents.
Adoptive and Prospective Parents by Family Structure in FFY 2004
Foster Adoptive Parents Non-foster Adoptive Parents Prospective Parents
Smaller Smaller Large Smaller
Large PCSAs PCSAs Large PCSAs PCSAs PCSAs PCSAs
Married Couple 64% 92% 65% 87% 59% 85%
Single Female 33% 7% 29% 8% 35% 11%
Other 3% 1% 6% 6% 6% 4%
Adoptive Families: Family
Structure cont…
When family structure and race are
correlated,
– A large majority of single female resource
families are African American.
– There are more African American single
females than African American married
couples among the pool of families.
Adopting Families:
Education
Between half and two-thirds of the resource
family records in FACSIS have no
educational information about the primary
caregiver.
Summary of what information does exist:
– Most adoptive parents’ highest level of
educational attainment is high school.
– Non-foster adoptive parents are slightly more
likely to have a college degree.
– Waiting parents are more likely than either
group of adoptive parents to have a college
degree.
Ohio’s Children and Who
Adopts Them
Ohio’s Children and Who
Adopts Them
This section of the analysis used
FACSIS data to:
– compare characteristics (age, race &
special needs) of adopted children with
those of children still waiting
and
– determine which types of parents adopt
which children with certain demographic
characteristics.
Types of Families
Foster – provided foster care to the child prior to
adoption and are not related to the child
Kinship – adoptive parents who are related to the
child and who did not provide foster care prior to
adoption
Foster/Kinship – adoptive parents who are related
to the child and who provided foster care prior to
adoption
Unrelated – parents unknown to the child, that is,
parents who were not foster care providers and are
not related (“stranger adoptions”)
Age of Children
Age of Children Adopted in FFY 2004
Adoptions:
9% 15% – ½ occur among
18% 0-1 children age 5 or
2-5
6-9
under
10-13 – ¾ are under age 10
37% 14-17
21%
Age of Children Waiting at End of FFY 2004
Waiting:
23%
8% – Fewer than 1/3 are
0-1 5 or under
22%
– ½ are 10+ yrs old
2-5
6-9
10-13
14-17
27%
20%
Who Tends to Adopt Children
in Different Age Groups?
Foster parents are the:
– Most likely to adopt very young children (<5)
– Least likely to adopt older children (10+)
Implications
– Foster parents account for ½ of all adoptions in FFY
2004.
Yet, only 23% of those adoptions were of children age 10+.
– Keep in mind that 50% of the waiting children are age 10+.
Around 32% of adoptions by relatives (including
foster/kinship) and strangers are older children.
Race of Children
Adopted:
– 54% white
– 44% African American
Waiting:
– 48% white
– 51% African American
Who Tends to Adopt Children in
Different Racial Groups?
Relatives are more likely to adopt African American children.
Foster and “stranger” parents are more likely to adopt white
children.
– This has implications for African American children because foster and
“stranger” parents make up 88% of all parents who adopt.
Race of Children Adopted by Type of Family
100%
80%
White
60%
African American
40%
Other
20%
0%
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Older, African American
Children
As we know, children over age 10 are less
likely to be adopted, as are African
American children.
– Over ½ of the waiting children are African
American.
Over ½ of the African American children waiting
are age 10 or older.
Older, African American
Children
Among the 4 types of families who adopt:
– Foster parents, who make the largest proportion of adoptions
(½), are the least likely to adopt older children and fall far short
of relatives in terms of adopting African American children.
– Unrelated adoptive parents are the least likely to adopt African
American children and are just as likely as relatives to adopt
older children.
– Relatives are more likely to adopt African American children, but
are no more likely to adopt older children than “stranger”
adoptive parents.
This group also represents the smallest number of adoptive parents
overall (264 vs 1059 foster parents who adopted and 826 non-
relatives).
Implications:
– The older, African American child may not meet any group’s
preferences.
Special Needs
Adopted children:
– 80% showed 1 or more special needs in FACSIS.
Waiting children:
– FACSIS shows special needs for only 20% of
waiting children.
Many PCSAs do not record special needs until the child
is adopted, resulting in a substantial understatement of
special needs.
Assuming special needs are equally under-reported,
the most frequent needs are:
– Age
– Minority status
– Siblings
– Medical needs
Who Tends to Adopt Children
with Special Needs?
Non-foster parents are more likely than
foster parents to adopt children with two
special needs:
– Age
– Siblings
Foster parents are more likely to adopt
children who:
– Are minority
– Have medical needs
Conclusions &
Recommendations
Conclusions
There is a diverse pool of families
being approved to become adoptive
parents.
However, many of these families do
not adopt the children who are
available.
Recommendations
Focus recruitment efforts on those types of parents who
more frequently adopt those children who are over-
represented in the pool of waiting children.
– For African American children, who comprise the majority of the
waiting children, this will mean more effective efforts at recruiting
African American adoptive parents and, most particularly, the relatives
of the waiting African American children. This is obviously not
accomplished through broad recruiting efforts but rather through child
specific recruitment.
– Broad recruitment efforts for non-foster adoptive parents appear more
likely to lead to success for older children.
Child specific recruitment of relatives may be in order for older , African
American children.
For white, older children the better odds appear to be with unrelated
non-foster parents.
Recommendations cont.
Increase efforts to match existing prospective
parents to the children who are actually waiting.
– Emphasis should be placed on providing additional supports to
encourage younger, white families to adopt children who are
available.
If efforts are unsuccessful these parents should be “counseled
out” of the pool of waiting families.
– Part of the matching effort with existing families should also
focus on the parents who do adopt but who tend to adopt
children who are more likely to be adopted in any event.
To View the Full Report
http://jfs.ohio.gov/ocf/
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