Several years ago, when a magazine editor assigned me an article on a new Internet service called the World Wide Web, or WWW, I had to groan. I didn't want to learn a new way of doing things. I had just mastered a type of computer-to-computer exchange called FTP, which had similar characteristics. Why did we need this web thing? But by the time I finished writing the article, I was hooked. Even in the beginning, the Web had a great deal of information. My editor thought I was brash when I joined others who predicted that the Web would someday be the most important and most popular part of the Internet.

Today, I can't manage without it. And the process of adoption has become dependent upon it, as well. Waiting children in the US foster care system and waiting children abroad are matched to adoptive families on the Web every single day. Adoption web sites offer resources, information, encouragement, and research.

One of my favorite aspects of the Web is the richness of adoption law, legal research, and case law that can be found just by clicking the mouse. I have helped families advocate for adoption subsidies, find state adoption code and policies, prepare for fair hearings, find lawyers to help with an appeal, and even locate adoption-related Supreme Court case law. Tim O'Hanlon and L. Anne Babb, whose web sites are included here, directed me to many of these web sites. I compiled this list for an upcoming book Tim and I are writing for the Greenwood Publishing Group of Westport, Connecticut. Due out in 1999, it is designed to empower families who have adopted special needs children and who are having trouble negotiating financial subsidies for those children. The working title is Adoption Assistance: Tools for Navigating the Bureaucracy.

This list is in no way complete. But each of these sites will link you to many other wonderful sites. And search engines (see sidebar) will help you find the policies and rules of individual states. For example, to locate the Adoption Code for New Jersey, you could type in search keyword phrases such as "New Jersey Adoption Code" or "New Jersey Bar Association" or "New Jersey Child Welfare Services."

Here are a few of my favorite web sites for people who are interested in adoption and who are advocating for their adopted children:

1. Adoption Policy Resource Center, maintained by Dr. Tim O'Hanlon of Adoption Advocates
   Adoption Advocates provides:
   • direct advocacy for individual adoptive families;
     
   • systemic advocacy for adoption organizations and coalitions;
     
   • technical assistance, including case law, to legislators, administrators at all levels of government and lawyers representing the interests of adoptive families;
     
   • policy research and analysis, disseminated through the Adoption Advocates newsletter, Issues in Adoption Advocacy;
     
   • the online Adoption Policy Resource Center, which offers access to a variety of useful information resources on adoption to a wide audience.

     Established by Steven Humerickhouse and Timothy O'Hanlon in 1995, this site supports adoption through direct advocacy for individual adoptive families and provides technical assistance to organizations and professionals.

2. Adoption Information, Laws and Reforms
   Many helpful links from the Adoption Ring. The Adoption Ring is a public service ring dedicated to the best interests of adoption triad members. It is an ever expanding group of over 300 pages designed to allow web surfers to navigate educational adoption sites just by clicking the "Back" and "Next" buttons found on each page.
3. Adoptive Families of America
   Adoptive Families of America (AFA), the publisher of ADOPTIVE FAMILIES, is a private, non-profit membership organization of families and individuals. AFA provides problem-solving assistance and information about the challenges of adoption to members of adoptive and prospective adoptive families. AFA seeks to create opportunities for successful adoptive placement and promotes the health and welfare of children without permanent families.
4. Faces of Adoption and AdoptNet
   Faces of Adoption: America's Waiting Children; a computerized photolisting of special needs children and adoption - related information on the Internet.
   
   Maintained by the National Adoption Center (NAC) and Children Awaiting Parents (CAP Book). A waiting child matching resource (find your new son or daughter with online photolistings!), and AdoptNet, NAC's adoption support online resource with chat, message boards, articles, a mailing list, and more.
5. Findlaw
   FindLaw is dedicated to making legal information such as state laws and adoption laws on the Internet easy to find. Maintained by Martin Roscheisen, Tim Stanley and Stacy Stern. Features include:
   
   • The FindLaw Guide to Internet legal resources. This comprehensive guide includes links to resources in over 30 practice areas, case law and codes, legal associations, law schools, law reviews,and more!
   • The LawCrawler - an innovative search tool powered by the AltaVista search engine and database that provides precision by enabling searches to be focused on sites with legal information and within specific domains.
   • Cases & Codes - search our growing library of case law, including Supreme Court Decisions, and selected state codes.
   • Law Review Search & Services from FindLaw you can search law reviews with full text articles online, and this is just the beginning.
6. Homes For Kids
   Lots of legal and advocacy information and articles. Includes a useful PIQ word search index.
   Statement of Purpose
   To advocate first for the best interests of children without permanent families, next, for the best interests of birth and adoptive parents and families. Based on these, we will advocate for ethical, compassionate adoption practices.
   Our Goal
   The goal of Homes for Children is to offer information and advocacy support to all who work to provide permanence, safety, and love to the world's waiting children, children who go to bed at night with no one to call "Mom" or "Dad." This site is dedicated to those children.
   Founded and run by Dr. L. Anne Babb and maintained with Rita Laws and Jody Swarbrick.
7. North American Council on Adoptable Children
   NACAC is not a placement agency, but a national nonprofit that researches adoption issues, educates members of the adoption community and the general public about adoption, and advocates for every child's right to a permanent family. Over the past two decades NACAC has supported over 600 adoptive parent groups, published significant research findings, and provided expert testimony to federal and state governments, universities, major foundations, and media representatives. NACAC provides technical consulting to answer parents' and adoption workers' questions about state and federal adoption programs.
8. National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
   The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse is a comprehensive resource on all aspects of adoption, including infant, inter-country, and special needs adoption. Established in 1987, NAIC is a service of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Department of Health and Human Services. This is THE place to order free copies of state and federal adoption laws!
9. The Children's Bureau and PIQs
   The oldest federal agency for children, the Children's Bureau (CB) is located within the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. It is responsible for assisting States in the delivery of child welfare services - services designed to protect children and strengthen families. The agency provides grants to States, Tribes and communities to operate a range of child welfare services including child protective services (child abuse and neglect) family preservation and support, foster care, adoption and independent living. In addition, the agency makes major investments in staff training, technology and innovative programs. PIQ Search from ACF Web Server Search If you have trouble locating a certain PIQ, you can go directly to the entire list of available documents and click the one you want. Scroll the entire list to find all of the PIQs available click here.
10. Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
    In the Spirit of Thomas Jefferson, a service of the US Congress through its library.

    Acting under the directive of the leadership of the 104th Congress to make Federal legislative information freely available to the Internet public, a Library of Congress team brought the THOMAS World Wide Web system online in January 1995, at the inception of the 104th Congress. Searching capabilities in THOMAS were built on the InQuery information retrieval system, developed by the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval based at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and now available commercially from Sovereign Hill Software.

    • The above list is taken from the book, Adoption Assistance: Tools for Navigating the Bureaucracy (1999, Bergin & Garvey) by Rita Laws, Ph.D., and Tim O'Hanlon, Ph.D.
    • Rita is a state NACAC Representative, an adoptive mom, and the co-author of Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child (1997, Bergin & Garvey)
    • Both titles are available through the AFA bookstore
      copyright (c) 1999 by Rita Laws