The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has received many inquiries about "open adoption" and post-adoption contact agreements. The requests for information have fallen into two major categories: questions about the research that has been done on openness in adoption and questions about how states have approached the issue of post-adoption contact agreements in their statutes.

This booklet provides information on both issues. Part I identifies and annotates the major empirical research that has been undertaken in the area of openness in adoption. The research is organized topically: open adoption outcomes [for infants, older children, and adoptive and birth parents with a special section on New York State Studies]; attitudes toward and trends in post-placement contact; and literature and criticism. Part II provides information on current state statutes that address Post-Adoption contact. It first reviews the laws of states that have enacted fairly comprehensive frameworks for post-adoption contact agreements and then reviews the provisions in the laws of states which have addressed post-adoption contact in more limited ways. This information is current as of December 1999.

For information on how to purchase this and other publications from the Adoption Institute click here.

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POLICY AND PRACTICE

openness in adoption | cooperative adoption statutes