Christie Administration Recognizes National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, and many New Jersey counties will be holding adoption events for recently finalized adoptive families throughout the month.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) and New Jersey Courts will celebrate National Adoption Month this November, co-hosting numerous events to honor adoptive families and finalizing the adoptions of approximately 220 children currently in foster care. Approximately 6 children are in Cape May County.
While this is a time to celebrate the establishment of “forever families,” states across the country are facing shortages of foster parents. New Jersey’s story, on the other hand, is quite different thanks to successful foster home recruitment and adoption practice advancements. Since 2006, DCF’s Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) has recruited an impressive number of foster and adoptive homes, and other states and jurisdictions are looking to New Jersey as a model to replicate. The number and diversity of available foster home placements helps to ensure that a child’s first placement is the best and final placement. In fact, approximately 90 percent of the children who are adopted in New Jersey are adopted by their foster parents. Potential foster and adoptive families go through the same resource family licensing process. Therefore, it can be a seamless transition from fostering to adopting.
The majority of this month’s events, stretching from Cape May County to Essex County, will be held over a week, culminating on Saturday, November 20, with the State’s largest National Adoption Day celebration held annually in Newark. Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and DCF Commissioner Allison Blake are scheduled attend.
This year’s celebrations include adoption finalizations for adolescents in foster care, as well as sibling groups being adopted together, and children being adopted by relatives and kin.