encyclopedia of adoption

National Adoption Week

Celebrated on the Sunday preceding Thanksgiving to the Saturday following the holiday. According to the NORTH AMERICAN COUNCIL ON ADOPTABLE CHILDREN (NACAC), National Adoption Week was first proclaimed in Massachusetts in May of 1976. President Ford proclaimed the first federal National Adoption Week later that year. In recent years, adoption groups have celebrated the entire month of November as "Adoption Month."

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Each year, increasing numbers of adoptive parent support groups, adoption experts and other proponents have worked to promote adoption during National Adoption Week. The adoption of children with SPECIAL NEEDS who wait for parents to adopt them is especially promoted at this time.

Adoptive parent support groups and state social services departments celebrate National Adoption Week in different ways: holding adoption seminars, picnics or fairs with information about special needs adoption available to the general public; coordinating letter campaigns to encourage adopted children to write about how they feel about adoption.

The NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR ADOPTION distributes a press kit that stresses the full range of adoption options: healthy infants, children from other countries, children with special needs, as well as information on pregnant women's needs.

Celebrants of National Adoption Week do their best to obtain media coverage, although coverage is spotty, perhaps because of the time of year during which it occurs.

Find more information on National Adoption Week