My last topic under the letter "P" in my Transracial Adoption ABCs is post-placement reports.

Post-Placement Reports - Post-placement reports are an important part of the ongoing paperwork that you must accomplish after your child is placed with you, whether through domestic adoption or through international adoption.

In the first few months that your child is home, one or more post-placement reports will be required. The number and timing of the reports will depend on the requirements of the program/country you adopted from, the adoption agency that you used and that state that you live in.

Most post-placement reports require a social worker to visit the home, much like they do for the homestudy visit. The social worker will want to see how the child is adjusting and how the family is adjusting since the placement. They do not expect things to be perfect, and in fact it is good to share difficulties that you have had and how you have handled them.

The report is a brief summary of how the child is adjusting, how the family is adjusting, the health of the child, the development of the child, the emotional state of the child, the child's education, etc. Pictures are required to accompany the report, usually several of the child with and without the rest of the family.

In one of the post-placment reports (again, depending on the requirements) the social worker will recommend (or not) that the adoption be finalized, if it is in the best interest of the child. At that point, the family can have the adoption finalized in court, or complete the "readoption" if necessary.

Some adoption programs require post-placement reports (completed by a social worker or agency) for several years after the child is home. Many adoption programs require adoptive parents to write their own post-placement reports annually until the child reaches a certain age (usually 18). These are often called "annual reports" or "family reports".

For international adoptions, these post-placement reports are often sent back to the country of the child. Sometimes they are filed with the government, sometimes they are filed with the orphanage and sometimes they are shared with the child's remaining family members. These reports are an important way for adoptive parents to show the people of the country that they adopted from that their child is loved, well cared for and thriving in their new homes and country. It is a way for parents to show how they are providing love, safety, health care, education, etc. for their child and how the family has incorporated and is honoring the child's culture and birth country. Since it is common for people in other countries to be skeptical of the motives of adoptive parents (when many in the world "want" to take in children for labor or even worse) these reports are an important way for adoptive parents to show what adoption is all about.

Many adoption programs have been jeopardized and even halted after a large number of families failed to turn in their post-placement reports. Almost all international adoption programs have a required form in the dossier that adoptive parents sign, promising to complete the required post-placement reports. While there is little that adoption agencies can do to really enforce that and ensure that the reports are done, it is very important for the future of adoptions for adoptive parents to be committed to getting their reports done.

See my next post on how to get your post-placement reports, annual reports or family reports done on time.