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Amazon donating $1 million to Trump inaugural fund, to air event on Prime Video; Retired USAF colonel urges White House to stop gaslight NJ residents over mysterious drones; Support available for MI youths aging out of foster care; NM designates 250 miles as Outstanding National Resource Waters; One size fits all? Not so, says OSHA for construction protection gear.

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Biden carries out the largest ever single-day act of clemency, voting rights advocates raise alarm over Trump's pick to lead Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and election denier Kari Lake is tapped to lead Voice of America.

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Conservative voters surprised pundits by casting election votes for Trump but also against school vouchers, Pennsylvania's Black mayors work to unite their communities, and America's mental health providers try new techniques.

Remembering older kids in foster care on National Adoption Day

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Tuesday, November 19, 2024   

This coming Saturday is National Adoption Day and it is a good time to think about children who are older or have special needs and face more difficulty in finding adoptive parents.

More than 113,000 children in foster care across the U.S. are eligible for adoption, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In South Dakota, More than 1,600 kids were in foster care in 2021 and 30% of them were between ages 11 and 20, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Saara McEachnie, director of domestic adoption programs for the Barker Adoption Foundation, runs the "Project Wait No Longer" program, focused on finding adoptive homes for older children, groups of siblings and those with other special needs.

"Families that are seeking to adopt are most often feeling most comfortable, and most equipped or prepared, to be able to adopt a younger child," McEachnie explained. "That leaves fewer options for our older kiddos that are very much in need of family, and we have few families that are stepping forward."

McEachnie pointed out children sometimes struggle with attachment or bonding after being removed from their birth families and placed with strangers. She emphasized it is important to educate people who want to become adoptive parents, to better prepare them to adopt older kids.

McEachnie noted potential adoptive families can learn to make their homes what she calls "more attachment friendly," including understanding the attachment difficulties that may come from a child's complex trauma. She added it helps to create networks of fellow adoptive families in order to build a like-minded community for the child.

"Building an attachment-friendly home first has to come from a place of understanding, empathy, flexibility, willingness to seek and access resources, willingness to continue to understand the population," McEachnie outlined.

Children of color are disproportionately more likely to be in foster care. In 2021, 62% of South Dakota children in foster care were American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.


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