Disruption Prevention: Trends and a Path Forward
Adoption disruptions are the most challenging aspect of working in adoption. As professionals, we try to ensure that families know how challenging adopting a child from foster care will be. We also know the responsibility we have to ensure that they’ve received the training and support needed in order to be successful. Families do all that is required of them and are ready and eager to welcome this child into their home and begin parenting through a trauma lens. However, envisioning how something will be and living it are two very different things.
All adoptions are different and there is never one reason why all disruptions occur however, there are trends and characteristics that we must acknowledge and be aware of when planning for permanency. One of the best ways we can work to better prepare families is to share information on what we do know regarding how patterns in placement can lead to adoption disruption so that we can change course before that occurs.
Child- Specific Factors
It’s not surprising that the child’s age at the time of placement, the number of placements the child has been in, and the more severe the child’s behaviors are, the higher risk of an adoption disruption.
It may be surprising to learn that most of the time, the adoption is not disrupting because the child begins to display new behaviors that the family was not made aware of. While this can be the case, especially in instances when a child waits to discloses past sexual abuse until they’ve formed a healthy attachment with a trusted caregiver, most of the time the family has been fully informed of the anticipated behaviors and needs of the child. However, once they are in the position to live with those needs and consistently address them, it can start to feel impossible. “This is NOT what I signed up for” may become a common thought pattern. This further confirms that the concept of parenting a child with special behavioral or emotional needs is very different than living it.
Family Factors
Adaptability, emotional support for the parents and nurturing, resilience, and patience are considered key characteristics of successful foster and adoptive parents. The family and agency both work together during the training and home study process to assess Characteristics of Successful Foster and Adoptive Parents, as outlined by the NTDC pre-service training.
Several studies have found that the higher the education level of the adoptive mother, the higher the risk that the adoption will disrupt. This is likely not related to the education itself but more the traits of a highly educated mother, the higher the likelihood is that she has a more demanding career that may be threatened when unexpected challenges with the child arise.
However, the biggest family risk for disruption is the family’s unmet expectations. Families considering adopting from foster care will naturally have an idea of what the experience will be like. They know it will be hard and feel ready for the challenge. Often, after the family has gone through their honeymoon phase, the reality sets in that this is going to be much harder than they imagined. When this happens, the adoptive parent(s) make an unconscious choice: to fall into despair and uncertainty because their expectations are not being met OR to reframe and adjust their expectations. If they can acknowledge grief surrounding unmet expectations, talk through their experiences and adjust their expectations, they are much more likely to be successful.
Phases of Pre-Adoption Finalization
Every family’s journey is unique but it’s helpful to be aware of these general phases that families experience from placement to finalization. The most important reason for this is so that they and their support team can recognize when they are in a particular phase so that they can navigate through it. Families are most likely to disrupt an adoption when in the “Ambivalence” phase. This is a normal and expected part of the adjustment process when the child begins to test limits and relationships. As the child begins to settle in with the family, they will feel the need to test the relationship with the family. Remember, that this is a survival tactic- the child has learned that adults who say they love them give up on them and leave. A child will exhaust themselves, and the family, trying to push you away before you reject him or her. Adoptive parents must be prepared to stick it out with that child. The key to working through the ambivalence phase is a healthy attachment figure with whom the child can begin to feel secure.
Our Response
Spending time analyzing this information and learning from other professionals who are working to maintain difficult adoptive placements has been incredibly helpful in shaping how we want to care for and support our clients. We have decided to implement the following changes to our Waiting Child program to better serve our families and prepare and empower them to successfully adopt from foster care:
· Improvement in pre-service training- providing opportunities for information to be delivered in smaller time windows and opportunities to discuss, reflect upon and apply the information
· Development of a Waiting Child Acknowledgements and Policies document which clearly outlines agency policies and expectations regarding Waiting Child placements.
· Development of a sibling assessment addendum as part of the home study, so that we are doing further assessment and preparation of a family who is hoping to adopt a sibling set.
· Implementation of pre-placement services to include a detailed pre-placement binder with the child’s placement timeline, projected behaviors and intervention plan, a plan for solid support during placement and a lot of other helpful information to have prior to placement
· Training for families on setting expectations and on the phases of pre-finalization and how to identify and navigate each one
· Ongoing access to 24/7 emergency support available to families and offering touch points with the supervisor or director if requested by the family for additional support
We are hopeful and excited about how we can best learn from our experiences and work together with families to set them up for success.
Sources:
Johnson, C., Hamilton, K., & Hanlon, R. (2020, June 3). When Adoptions Fail. NCFA Adoption Advocate. https://adoptioncouncil.org/blog/when-adoptions-fail/
Sloan, H., & Hall, R. (2026, June 26). Examining Trends in Crisis and Dissolution [NCFA Adoption Conference 2026 Arlington, VA].
Smigel, J. (2026, June 25). Equipping Adoptive Families for Challenging Placements: Practical Tools and Strategies [NCFA Adoption Conference 2026 Arlington, VA].
(2022, June 1). National Training and Development Curriculum Implementation Manuel. NTDC Training. Retrieved July 30, 2026, from https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/General-Child-Welfare-and-Intercounty-Private-Domestic-Adotpion-Implementation-Manual-June-2022-Updated.pdf