Waiting Children (Encyclopedia)

Dreaming of Home: Waiting Children

In domestic adoption, waiting children are those currently in the public child welfare system who cannot return to their birth homes and are waiting for permanent families. In international adoption, the term is used to describe special needs children - older children, sibling groups, and those with special medical needs.

The most recent estimates indicate that of the 520,000 children in foster care in the United States, 117,000 are waiting children. The number of children in foster care has increased steadily for the past years, but the proportion freed for adoption remains constant, at about 20 percent. Of those who were adopted, the vast majority (48 percent) were under the age of five years. Most (65 percent) of the children were adopted by their former foster parents. The other children were adopted by relatives, by people unrelated to them and by stepparents. 86 percent of the families adopting children from foster care received adoption subsidies. Two thirds of the waiting children were adopted by married couples, the rest by single parents.

Most (61 percent) of the domestic waiting children were removed from their homes before the age of five. The length of time the children are in foster care before being adopted varies widely and depends on a number of factors, but the vast majority (90 percent) are in care for at least a year.

Technically, all children available for international adoption are "waiting" children, but the term is usually used to describe those who have conditions that place them beyond the "healthy infant" most families request. Each country administers its waiting children lists differently, making it difficult to make generalizations.

As an example, China maintains lists of waiting children, complete with photos, discussion of any medical problems, and details of the child's current living conditions (foster care, orphanage, etc). Lists are divided, with each section going to a different adoption agency. An agency has three months to place the children. At the end of three months, the agency must return the files of those children not yet placed. Returned files usually are sent to another agency. The agencies receive the lists in staggered fashion - for example, in September some agencies receive new lists, in October more lists go to other agencies, etc.

In many cases, restrictions on single parents are lifted for waiting children, in the hope that this will help children find their forever families as quickly as possible.