Melanie McCormick and Alycia West implore educators to engage in thoughtful conversations about transnational adoption in "Seen but not Seen: Supporting Transracial and Transnational Adoptees in the Classroom." The authors draw on their stories of growing up as transracial and transnational adoptees as well as their research on…

The opioid epidemic and related substance abuse reaches far and wide, with many newborns across the country left to endure the consequences. What follows is a unique, first-person account of a "Story From the Field" that highlights the experiences of one mother as she watched her adopted daughter suffer the effects of neonatal abstinence…

A healthy self-identity is vitally important to a child's well-being and consequent ability to learn at an optimal level. As educators and other service providers seek to ensure that the children with whom they work have the best chances to succeed, they are recognizing the need for innovative ways to support children as they build those healthy…

Early childhood education is a time when children and their parents are learning about their roles in a school. This makes early childhood education a crucial time for developing strong parent-school relationships with diverse families including LGBTQ [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer] parents, adoptive families, and multiracial…

Our commentary highlights the authors' conceptual and empirical contributions for understanding the incidence and dynamics of varying types of adoption breakdowns and their impact on adopted youth and their families. Important distinctions are made between legal, residential, and psychological/relational permanence for children. To date, most…

This article considers how adoption may develop as viable option for permanency planning for children in care in Ireland following the Constitutional Referendum in 2012 on Children's Rights. In order to be prepared to consider how adoption can be developed as a viable alternative to long term care, we need to focus on the specific context of…

In the United States, transracial adoptions make up 85% of international adoptions and 40% of all domestic adoptions, and most consist of White parents and adoptees of color. This article describes transracial adoptee population trends, provides a transracial adoptee student case illustration, and outlines suggestions for school counselors working…

Parents adopting traumatized children from foster care or from other settings have unique needs for post adoption support. This paper seeks to present those needs from the unique viewpoint of an adoptive physician mother. Circles of care around the child include the family, the community and wider systems of support.

As illustrated by the articles in this special issue, the research into ethnic identity in adoption is making significant progress. At the same time, it faces new challenges in the definition of concepts, the use of appropriate methods of study, and the consideration of implications for professional interventions. This commentary offers additional…

John Dewey visited Hawai'i on three separate occasions. Of all three trips, by far the most important, as far as Dewey's influence on education in Hawai'i is concerned, was in 1899 when he came with his wife, Alice Chipman Dewey, to help launch the University Extension program in Honolulu. The Deweys' second trip was a very brief one--twenty years…

The youngest children in foster care suffer disproportionately. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) attempted to provide greater safeguards for children, which led courts to push for earlier reunifications between foster children and their biological families. Although no one wants young children to languish in the foster care system, early…

By implementing strategies described here, educators can be prepared to create an adoption-friendly environment for students and their families.

Children who are adopted at an older age through foster care and those adopted from overseas orphanages are at high risk for behavioral and emotional distress. This important manual presents a structured, evidence-based protocol for providing mental health treatment to families adopting vulnerable children. Drawing on their extensive clinical…

Children in the foster care system and those experiencing international adoption face a host of risk factors that result in academic, behavioral, and emotional challenges. The purpose of this special issue is to provide school psychologists with the knowledge regarding current intervention strategies and programming to provide effective supports…

On November 8, 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act, otherwise known as ICWA, became law. Congress enacted this groundbreaking legislation, the impact of which has been arguably more profound than any other piece of federal Indian law in the modern era. While recent national attention has highlighted the law's role in child custody and adoption…