Child Welfare Information Gateway

Children’s Bureau/ACYF

1250 Maryland Avenue, SW

Eighth Floor

Washington, DC 20024

800.394.3366

Email: info@childwelfare.gov

https://www.childwelfare.gov

Preparing Children 

and Youth for 

Adoption or Other 

Family Permanency

BULLETIN FOR 

PROFESSIONALS

October 2013

Use your smartphone to 

access this bulletin online.

What’s Inside:

• Evolution of preparation for 

permanency

• Promising practices for preparing 

children and youth for permanency

• Promising programs

• Conclusion

• References Children leaving out-of-home care for adoption or 

other family permanency require preparation and 

support to help them understand the past events 

in their lives and to process feelings connected to 

their experiences of abuse and neglect, separation, 

loss, rejection, and abandonment. Child welfare, 

foster care, and adoption agencies often assume 

that permanent families will provide the healing 

environment for these children and youth, and these 

agencies spend considerable resources to recruit, 

train, and support foster and adoptive parents 

to provide legal permanency and well-being for 

these children. While a high percentage of these 

adoptions are successful—in that they are not legally 
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

2 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

dissolved—both children and families often 

struggle or suffer from stress that might 

have been mitigated by better preparation 

practices for all parties. 

This bulletin discusses services for children 

and youth to address their readiness and 

preparation for permanent relationships. 

While adoption is not the first or preferred 

permanency goal for children and youth 

in foster care, this bulletin focuses on 

preparing those children whose goal is 

adoption; however, much of the information 

on preparation is also applicable to children 

and youth with other permanency goals. We 

look at what has previously been considered 

adequate preparation as well as current 

practices and those in development to 

more effectively ensure that children and 

youth are better prepared for permanent 

family relationships, including both legal 

and relational permanency (permanent 

relationships with caring adults). 

 Several States currently permit the 

reinstatement of parental rights after 

termination. These new laws were 

developed in response to the number 

of youth leaving foster care with no 

permanent family. To find out more, visit 

the webpage developed by the National 

Resource Center for Permanency and 

Family Connections: http://www.hunter.

cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/info_services/

reinstatement-of-parental-rights.html 

REINSTATEMENT OF PARENTAL 

RIGHTS

Evolution of Preparation 

for Permanency

From the time that children and youth are 

removed from family care, they face numerous 

emotional stressors as they adjust to their 

ever-changing status: for example, foster child, 

dependent child, former adopted person, 

delinquent, and various diagnostic labels, 

among others. They are challenged by new 

surroundings and must come to some level 

of understanding of what happened to them, 

as well as affirm their own identity and allow 

themselves to create new relationships and 

redefine existing ones without protective adult 

relationships to support and guide them. 

Achieving permanency is not just an outcome

for these children and youth; it is a process. 

Whatever their legal status may be, at all 

ages, they are most interested in the relational 

permanency that they can find, create, 

maintain, or develop in the safety of a parentchild relationship. Ensuring that children and 

youth are ready for relational and/or legal 

permanency, in what has proven to them to 

be a world that offers little stability, is a critical 

step.

Traditional Preparation Practices 

No specific practice modality has been 

established across the child welfare delivery 

system to prepare children and youth for 

adoption. Rather, approaches to this work 

have been agency and individually based, 

with some similar components and services. 

Traditionally, services to prepare children 

and youth have focused on getting children 

ready for the adoptive family, helping them to 

understand the legal process, and obtaining 

their consent for such a move—although 

the specifics of what this entailed could 
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

3 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

• A shorter timeframe to termination of 

parental rights

• Change in emphasis in public agencies to a 

focus on time-specific goals to permanency, 

specifically, risk and safety assurances

• Shift in caseworker roles to case 

management functions

• More specialized work with children and 

youth, based on assessments and mental 

health treatment services

While the goal since ASFA has remained 

permanency for children and youth, service 

delivery has shifted toward a behavioral 

health perspective for treating the behaviors 

of children and youth. These behaviors 

are often viewed from a perspective of 

pathologies related to the trauma of abuse 

and neglect or the trauma that may have 

resulted from long-term foster care, group 

care, and impermanence in relationships. 

Thus, caseworkers and other important adults 

in the lives of children and youth may rely on 

therapists or behavioral specialists to prepare 

children for permanency. The focus often 

is on correcting behavior—to the exclusion 

of helping the child heal past hurts, resolve 

issues with past relationships, and prepare for 

relational permanency with the birth family, 

relatives, or adoptive parents. 

Only a few models of preparation of children 

and youth have been developed. Hanna 

(2005) outlined the evolution of these models 

in the following table (used with permission 

from M. D. Hanna’s 2005 Ph.D. dissertation, 

Preparing School Age Children for Special 

Needs Adoption: Perspectives of Successful 

Adoptive Parents and Caseworkers, University 

of Texas at Austin):

vary widely (Hanna, 2007). This remains the 

practice in many agencies. Assessment of 

children’s readiness for a new permanent 

family generally focuses on their behavior 

in foster care, with input from social workers 

and mental health professionals. Decisions 

are based on the assumption that children 

will accept new homes and families once they 

understand that it is unsafe for them to live 

at home. Actual preparation activities may 

consist of several conversations with the child 

or youth to talk about the family who wants 

them and then to plan for the placement. The 

emphasis is on where the child is going, with 

limited mention of biological parents and 

possibly siblings. 

Numerous States and private adoption and 

foster care programs use established curricula 

to provide content and materials to train 

and approve potential parents, generally in 

compliance with Federal and State policies.1

In fact, much of the preparation work is 

done with the prospective family, who, after 

reviewing the background of the child, 

meeting him or her, and having preplacement 

visits, determines that they want the child 

and can manage the behaviors of the child. 

In cases where a child is already living with 

a foster family and becomes legally free for 

adoption by that family, the change in legal 

status often occurs with little preparation for 

either the family or the child regarding other 

aspects of permanency. 

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 

(ASFA) brought about a number of changes in 

adoption: 

• Elimination of long-term foster care as a 

permanency goal 

1	 Examples of established adoptive parent training programs

include MAPP, PRIDE, PATH, SAFE, and the Family Assessment

and Preparation Curriculum from the National Resource Center

on Adoption.
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

4 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Summary of Models of Child Preparation for Adoption

Author Model’s Key Components 

Chestang & 

Heymann (1976)

• Consider child’s relationship to biological parents

• Help child to understand they are not in foster care because they were “bad”

• Do not vilify biological parents

• Relieve child of guilt for placement

• Assure child of his or her right to caring and nurturing parents

• Help child understand foster care is temporary and adoption is permanent

• Worker should have consistent contact with the child – at least once a week

• Worker should explore type of family the child wants and seriously consider the 

child’s wishes

• Child’s participation may vary with age

Jones (1979) Four stage process –

1. Help child to understand legal termination of parental rights

2. Help child understand difference between foster care and adoption

3. Completion of the life story book

4. Preplacement visits with adoptive family

Kagan (1980) Strategic therapy approach to be used after adoptive placement prior to finalization. 

Assumes child is resistant to placement and has problem behaviors. 

Child has five tasks to resolve to successfully adjust to placement:

1. Adjustment to current placement; learning the rules, expectations, roles, and 

norms

2. Grieving the loss of parents and other significant individuals

3. Expressing feelings of anger, fear, and sadness, preferably to new parents

4. Developing a positive identity and self-image separate from previous parental 

figures

5. Reattaching and forming primary bonds with the new adoptive parents

McInturf (1986) Five-stage process using the lifebook as the primary tool of preparation.

1. The facts

2. The whys

3. The feelings

4. The goodbyes

5. The plan for the future
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

5 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Summary of Models of Child Preparation for Adoption

Author Model’s Key Components 

Fahlberg (1991) Identifies 14 tasks to be accomplished in transitioning child from foster care to 

adoption:

1. Introduce adoption to the child

2. Arrange first meetings

3. Provide “homework” for child and family

4. Share information

5. Get commitment to proceed

6. Plan subsequent preplacement visits

7. Discuss name changes

8. Initiate the grief process

9. Discuss the “worst of the worst”

10. Obtain permission for the child to go and do well

11. Facilitate goodbyes with foster family and other people important to the child

12. Provide ideas for welcoming ritual

13. Facilitate postplacement contacts

14. Arrange postplacement follow-up

Henry (2005) The 3-5-7 Model – Three-step model with focus on involving the child in the process.

Step 1 – Help child integrate past and present

1. Clarification of past and life events

2. Integration of all family roles and memberships

3. Actualization of being a member of the new family

Step 2 – Help child answer five questions

1. What happened to me?

2. Who am I?

3. Where am I going?

4. How will I get there?

5. When will I know I belong?

Step 3 – Critical elements of involving the child in the adoption process

1. Engage the child in the process

2. Listen to the child’s words

3. When you speak, tell the truth

4. Validate the child and the child’s life story

5. Create a safe space for the child as he/she does this work

6. It is never too late to go back in time

7. Pain is part of the process
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

6 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Where the Field Is Going 

There is a growing recognition of the need 

to develop better practice models that guide 

children and youth toward permanency in 

relationships and connections. In response, 

many public and private foster care and 

adoption agencies, residential treatment 

facilities, and therapeutic treatment agencies 

have begun to offer adoption and permanency 

services for children focused on issues related 

to the trauma caused by abuse and neglect. 

These services often provide excellent 

support for children but may be fragmented 

when it comes to addressing all of the 

relationships within the child’s social network. 

Better preparation addresses all of the 

relationships—past and present—in children’s 

lives, supports their grieving, and helps them 

identify new permanency sources. The type of 

support that children need for this work is not 

exclusive to therapists but can and should also 

be provided by other important adults in their 

lives. Agencies must develop and cultivate 

the skill and understanding needed by birth, 

foster, and prospective adoptive families to do 

this important work. 

Promising Practices for 

Preparing Children and 

Youth for Permanency 

Working with children and youth to guide 

them toward permanency in relationships 

should include both steps to address past 

traumas of loss and abuse and opportunities 

to give meaning to existing and future 

relationships.

Addressing Past Experiences in 

Preparation for Permanency 

Those working with children and youth 

who have been in out-of-home care and 

are preparing for permanency need a basic 

understanding of the child’s point of view, 

including these common experiences: 

• Loss and grief. Children and youth who 

are placed in the child welfare system often 

have a long history of losses and unresolved 

grief. They may have losses directly related 

to the circumstances that brought them 

into care (abuse, neglect), and they may 

experience additional losses when they are 

removed from their family and caregivers. 

Each move can bring more losses of friends, 

siblings, supportive adults, classmates, 

pets, familiar surroundings, and more. 

• Confusion and anger. Many children are 

left to wonder what really happened that 

brought them into care, why their families 

may not be able to continue caring for 

them, and who will be there to take care 

of them and protect them. A child may 

experience anger, sadness, and even 

depression. Many children struggle with 

their changed role within the family system 

or sibling status when they are removed 

from their birth family. Unresolved grief, 

effects of feeling unwanted and unloved, 

and confusion about who they are and 

where they will live have been shown to 

lead to behavioral issues, psychological 

confusion, emotional stress, and difficulty in 

forming new relationships. 

• Divided loyalties. Many children, 

particularly adolescents, have conflicting 

feelings about being a permanent member 

of a new family. These children may have 

difficulty with their sense of identity, 

may lose connections to immediate and 
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

7 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

extended family, and may have very little 

information about their own personal 

history. 

Caseworkers who understand the child’s 

experiences from the child’s point of view 

will be better able to help the child or 

youth address past issues and explore the 

possibilities of new relationships. 

Foundational Principles 

of Preparation

A number of foundational principles can 

help agencies shape an overall approach to 

support and guide children and youth as they 

identify and establish permanent relationships:

• All children and youth deserve relational 

permanency.

• Just as adoptive parents and guardians 

need preparation for the new relationships 

they are entering, so do children and youth.

• Readiness practices are needed regardless 

of the permanency goal or outcome.

• Permanency is a process for a child, 

not just an outcome. It starts with birth 

family relationships and continues with 

reunification, adoption, or other permanent 

familial relationships. Establishing or 

maintaining connections to the birth family 

or important people from a child’s past may 

help to mitigate loyalty issues, whatever the 

permanency outcome.

• Permanency work with children requires 

time, consistency, and honesty from social 

workers. 

• Work with children and youth should not be 

considered only in the context of therapy. 

Although behavioral health services may 

be appropriate for any individual child, 

engaging the child in activities, tasks, 

and conversations to prepare him or 

her for permanency can be the work of 

caseworkers, caregivers, social workers, 

family members, court personnel, and 

others. In some cases, birth parents or 

other birth relatives may be able to help 

the permanency process by giving their 

children “permission” to move on to a new 

family.

Work with children and youth is a process 

that begins before placement and can 

extend past final adoption. (Unfortunately, 

many efforts do not start until the child has 

been freed for adoption when termination 

of parental rights has occurred, and many 

agencies provide only limited supports and 

services after adoption finalization.)

Engaging children and youth in readiness 

activities must be developmentally 

appropriate. The cognitive and 

emotional abilities of the child or youth 

must determine the types of activities 

(e.g., lifebooks) and resources used in 

permanency preparation work.

Permanency planning (the legal process) is 

distinct from permanency preparation work 

(the relational process). Children and youth 

can be empowered by their participation 

in the planning process, including their 

involvement in recruitment and family 

finding activities. Although these activities 

may engage them in some of the emotional 

tasks of preparing for permanency, a more 

comprehensive preparation program may 

help them explore their feelings about 

life events and support their readiness for 

permanency.

The work of the child or youth is to grieve 

old relationships in order to move toward 

new ones. The work of the caseworker and 

other adults is to prepare and support the 

child through the entire process.

•

•

•

•
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

8 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Agency policies and caseworker practices 

that take a holistic view of permanency 

preparation work, considering it from the 

perspective of the child and encompassing 

the resolution of past issues and readiness for 

new relationships, will be better able to help 

children and youth bring their own meaning to 

permanency.

Permanency Preparation Practices

Most models of child preparation follow three 

basic stages (Hanna, 2007), and these general 

steps provide a good organizational structure 

and sequence for agencies and caseworkers 

responsible for preparing children and youth.

1. Help the child to understand the facts of 

his or her removal.

2. Help the child explore feelings of 

loss, anger, and confusion. 

3. Empower the child to be part of the plans 

for the future.

Henry’s (2005) 3-5-7 Model© takes the threestep process even further by specifying three 

tasks, five questions, and seven skill elements. 

The model offers a guided approach for 

workers and other adults helping children and 

youth explore and understand permanency 

in relationships. It focuses on the tasks of (1) 

clarification of life events, (2) integration of 

the experiences and meanings of relationships 

in different families, and (3) actualization of 

memberships in their identified network of 

families. The child or youth works on these 

tasks by exploring five conceptual questions, 

each of which addresses a specific issue. A 

2011 article (Henry & Manning) suggests 

activities to support the child’s work with 

the three tasks and issues related to the five 

questions. 

1. What happened to me? (issue: loss) 

(activity: create a loss line2

)

2. Who am I? (issue: identity) (activity: 

make a life map or life path3

)

3. Where am I going? (issue: attachment) 

(activity: review pictures and memories)

4. How will I get there? (issue: relationships) 

(activity: create a collage)

5. When will I know I belong? (issue: 

claiming/safety) (activity: take a family 

photo together)

Creating a lifebook is essential to this work. 

Lifebooks help children remember and 

maintain connections from their past as well 

as integrate their past experiences into their 

current lives. Permanency/adoption practice 

models agree that children and youth need to 

process loss and grieve the losses related to 

their removal from birth families to help them 

develop healthy attachments to new adoptive 

families and permanent connections. At least 

one State (North Carolina) requires foster 

parents to be trained in making lifebooks 

before they can be licensed (Lifebooks, 

2013). A number of resources exist to help 

workers, biological family members, foster and 

adoptive parents, and other important adults 

work with children and youth on creating and 

maintaining this record of their lives (see, 

for example, https://www.childwelfare.gov/

adoption/postplacement/lifebooks.cfm).

The final component of Henry’s 3-5-7 Model©, 

the seven skill elements, may vary slightly 

2	 A loss line is a timeline of losses that the child or youth can

document. See, for example, p. 36 in AdoptUSKids’ Lasting 

Impressions: A Guide for Photolisting Children, available at

http://adoptuskids.org/_assets/files/NRCRRFAP/resources/

lasting-impressions.pdf

3	 This activity involves stepping stones (e.g., sticky notes) in a

path that represent major life events for the child (see Fahlberg,

1991, p. 363).
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

9 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

according to the age of the child. The 

elements identify the necessary philosophies 

and skills of those working with children and 

youth. Henry and Manning (2011) note that 

the seven elements are just a few of the many 

skills that adults need as they support youth 

through their grieving and preparing for new 

relationships:

1. Use engagement activities that encourage 

expression of feelings and thoughts about 

life experiences.

2. Create a safe space for expressing 

feelings.

3. Recognize that behaviors are based in pain 

and trauma.

4. Respond briefly to the child or youth’s 

comments in order to provide space to 

grieve.

5. Listen.

6. Affirm their stories.

7. Be present as they do the work of grieving.

While the guided approach outlined by the 

3-5-7 Model© can be woven into other child 

welfare practices, the application of the 

concepts requires training, leadership, and 

effective communication skills. It also requires 

a time commitment by the caseworker so that 

the child or youth has continuity throughout 

the process. The worker and youth should 

meet at least once every 2 weeks, with interim 

phone calls (Henry & Manning, 2011).

In a recent guide to help agencies find families 

for older children, AdoptUSKids provides a 

number of strategies that workers can use 

with older youth who may present barriers 

to adoption (AdoptUSKids, 2012; see http://

adoptuskids.org/_assets/files/NRCRRFAP/

resources/going-beyond-recruitment-for14-to-16-year-olds.pdf). Youth’s common 

concerns as listed in the guide include:

• Not understanding what adoption means

• Not believing that anyone would want to 

adopt them

• A worry that adoption would prevent them 

from ever having any contact with their 

birth family, including siblings

• Feelings of disloyalty to their birth family

• Worry about changing their name

• Worry about moving far away

The guide outlines a number of strategies to 

counter these concerns, most of which revolve 

around providing factual information in a 

candid and sensitive manner. 

Youth engagement and empowerment is an 

important part of permanency preparation 

work, especially for older youth who may have 

experienced greater disappointments and 

have more reluctance to seek out a new family. 

In one study, the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids 

(WWK) program interviewed 74 youth about 

strategies that workers had used to help the 

youth overcome their lack of hope and their 

distrust about achieving permanency (Ellis, 

2011). Youth identified the following worker 

strategies as successful:

• Emphasize the advantages of adoption

• Seek relatives and other connections to 

adopt

• Be open and honest about the adoption 

process and possible outcomes

• Empower youth throughout the adoption 

process

• Address questions and concerns

• Build a relationship with the youth
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

10 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Promising Programs

Many child welfare agencies recognize that 

children and youth in care need opportunities 

that will prepare them for permanency. The 

following list spotlights jurisdictions that 

have incorporated a significant preparation 

component for children—not just families—

into their permanency efforts.

Description of Programs 

1. The National Institute for Permanent 

Family Connectedness (NIPFC) 

(http://www.familyfinding.org/), at 

Seneca Family of Agencies, Oakland, CA, 

provides comprehensive, collaborative 

partnerships with child welfare agencies 

throughout the nation to build capacity to 

find and engage families that can become 

permanency resources for youth living 

away from their birth families. Instruction 

is available to families to encourage their 

attention to loss and grief work with 

youth. Specialized training is provided on 

the Family Finding model, developed by 

Kevin Campbell. The technique of Mobility 

Mapping is used to identify connectedness 

of relationships, and information on 

families is collected through a discovery 

phase. These components are then 

coordinated for youth in a Blended 

Perspectives meeting with family members 

interested in building relationships with 

youth. Lifetime support networks are 

developed to secure permanency for 

youth. NIPFC provides training, coaching, 

and technical assistance to many State and 

regional programs, in addition to Federal 

grant programs. A Facilitator’s Guide is 

available to deliver a curriculum for the 

implementation and integration of the 

process of Family Finding.

2. Wendy’s Wonderful Kids (WWK)

(http://www.davethomasfoundation.

org/what-we-do/wendys-wonderfulkids), at the Dave Thomas Foundation, 

has established an effective program 

for the recruitment of adoptive families 

wherein recruiters practice child-focused 

recruitment. Their strategy is to focus 

exhaustively on an individual child’s history, 

experiences, and needs in order to find 

an appropriate adoptive family. Child 

preparation teams consist of child welfare 

caseworkers, adoption workers, and 

therapists. Elements for the preparation 

of children are identified and, generally, 

provided through individual workers who 

engage in monthly contact with children. 

Determinations of preparedness for 

adoption and whether the child has needs 

that should be addressed before moving 

toward the adoption process are the 

objective of these activities. An evaluation 

study of outcomes over 5 years at 21 

grantee agencies showed that children 

served by WWK were 1.7 times more likely 

than children not receiving WWK services 

to be adopted (Child Trends, 2011). The 

program currently has more than 100 

recruiters in all 50 States and Canada.

3. Extreme Recruitment is a program of the 

Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition of St. 

Louis, MO (http://www.foster-adopt.org/

carleen-goddard-mazur-training-institute/

extreme-recruitment/). Funded by the 

Children’s Bureau, Extreme Recruitment is 

a 4-year trial that models the practice of 

diligent recruitment to reconnect youth (10 

to 18 years) to kin through child-specific 

recruitment, intensive family-finding, 

and support services. The preparation 
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

11 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

component involves examining the youth’s 

life for factors that impact readiness for 

permanency and addressing mental 

behavioral and physical health needs, peer 

and adult relationships, and educational 

needs. Preparing resource parents for 

permanency is also included.

4. With a focus on the concurrent 

preparation of both children and their 

prospective adoptive families, Family 

Focus Adoption Services of Queens, 

NY, promotes a carefully paced transition 

phase in adoption placement (http://

familyfocusadoption.org/adoptionguides.

html). The agency believes that much 

of the preparation work is best done 

by the children themselves, at their 

own pace and to their own level of 

satisfaction. Adult protection is provided 

throughout the process and is intended 

to help build children’s self-confidence. A 

trained and well-supervised adult guides 

each child from placement through the 

child’s decision about adoption. Using a 

graduated visiting schedule and taking the 

child through a series of adoption levels 

that are marked by six cards collected 

by the child over 5 months, children can 

become more and more certain that being 

adopted by the particular family they are 

with is the right decision for them. 

5. Robert G. Lewis, of Wooster, MA, trains 

and supports agencies and States in 

preparing youth for permanency in a 

program called Family Bound 

(http://www.rglewis.com/RGLewis%20

Site/index.html). His curriculum, Family 

Bound Program: A Toolkit for Preparing 

Teens for Permanent Family Connections, 

provides the philosophy and activities to 

engage youth in this work. Youth attend 

group or individual sessions to discuss 

nine topics (e.g., the Real Truth About 

Families, Loss Is a Part of Living, etc.). It 

is a therapeutic, educational process that 

teaches concrete skills and provides teens 

with the opportunity to open up avenues 

for personal growth through healing 

relationships. The lessons are reinforced 

by opportunities to practice on family 

weekend visits. Currently, he has created 

a video project for use with teens to tell 

their stories about their lives, hopes, and 

dreams to explore meanings of potential 

permanent relationships.

6. A number of jurisdictions use the 3-5-7 

Model© to support permanency work for 

children and youth, including California, 

Delaware, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, 

and Wisconsin (Henry & Manning, 2011). 

As described above, the 3-5-7 Model©

provides a guided approach to help 

children, youth, and families do their 

work of grieving losses and rebuilding 

relationships, working toward the goals of 

well-being, safety, and permanency. The 

model is a strengths-based approach that 

empowers children and youth to engage 

in grieving and integrating significant 

relationships. In several programs, the 

model is woven into family-finding 

activities and Family Group Decision 

Making conferences. Practice applications 

are made both at intake and throughout 

ongoing case management services, 

including protective and placement 

services that can also support kinship, 

foster, and adoptive family placements. 

The 3-5-7 Model© provides tools (e.g., 

lifebooks, loss history chart) to support 

work around issues of separation and 

loss, identity formation, attachment, and 

building relationships, and it also supports 

deeper therapeutic work around abuse, 

abandonment, and neglect experiences. 
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

12 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Tools and Resources

There are a number of tools that workers may 

find useful in their permanency work with 

children and youth.

• The Annie E. Casey Foundation developed 

a Permanency Case Planning Tool to help 

caseworkers and supervisors working 

on permanency cases understand the 

case factors that are potential barriers 

and/or facilitators to permanency 

teaming and outcomes. http://www.

aecf.org/KnowledgeCenter/Publications.

aspx?pubguid={28123D47-0363-46B4-

A592-974FCCB07FA7}

• The Children’s Bureau’s National Resource 

Center on Adoption (NRCA) provides 

consultation and technical assistance to 

States to enhance their capacity to provide 

services to ensure that all children and 

youth have permanent families. The NRCA 

developed an Adoption Competency 

Curriculum that includes seven modules, 

one of which is Child/Youth Assessment 

and Preparation. The NRCA offers training 

to States on the curriculum; also, the 

handouts for the child/youth assessment 

and preparation include a number of tools, 

worksheets, and recommendations and are 

available online. http://www.nrcadoption.

org/wp-content/uploads/TG-ChildAssessment-Preparation-4-111.pdf

• The Center for Adoption Support and 

Education offers a number of resources for 

children, teens, and adults, including book 

lists and other resources. The website offers 

information about the seven core issues 

in adoption that apply to all members of 

adoption circle: loss, rejection, guilt/shame, 

grief, identity, intimacy & relationships, and 

control/gains. http://www.adoptionsupport.

org/res/index.php

• Wisconsin’s Coalition for Children, Youth 

& Families has produced Touchpoints: 

Preparing Children for Transitions to help 

caseworkers prepare children. The guide 

breaks down key discussion times, points 

to discuss, and who should be involved and 

provides helpful materials to use for each 

step (books, videos, guides, and activities). 

http://wiadopt.org/ToolsforWorkers/

TouchpointsTool.aspx

• The Center for Advanced Studies in Child 

Welfare at the University of Minnesota, 

in partnership with Anu Family Services, 

developed the Youth Connections Scale to 

help child welfare agencies better work with 

youth to strengthen and build relationships. 

The scale measures the strength of 

relationships between youth and adults: 

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ssw/cascw/

attributes/PDF/YCS/YCSImplementation.

pdf 

The Children’s Bureau has funded several 

grant clusters that focus, in whole or in part, 

on improving permanency outcomes: 

• Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children 

in Foster Care: http://www.adoptuskids.org/

about-us/diligent-recruitment-grantees

• Permanency Innovations Initiative: 

https://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.

cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=12

3§ionid=19&articleid=3087

• Family Connection Grants: http://www.

nrcpfc.org/grantees.html

• Youth Permanency Cluster: http://www.

nrcadoption.org/resources/ypc/home/ 
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

13 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare 

Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/preparing_youth.cfm

Conclusion

Helping children, youth, and families served 

within the child welfare system to prepare 

for permanent relationships offers greater 

opportunities for their improved well-being. 

Children and families often have both the 

strength and resilience to overcome hurtful 

life experiences and move toward resolution 

of past losses. Models of intervention that 

establish these practices are beginning to 

demonstrate a practical and viable method to 

support successful outcomes with families. 

References

AdoptUSKids. (2012). Increasing your agency’s 

capacity to respond to prospective parents 

and prepare older youth for adoption: 

Going beyond recruitment for 14 to 16 year 

olds. Retrieved from http://adoptuskids.

org/_assets/files/NRCRRFAP/resources/

going-beyond-recruitment-for-14-to-16-

year-olds.pdf

Chestang, L. W., & Heymann, I. (1976). 

Preparing older children for adoption. 

Public Welfare, Winter, 35–40.

Child Trends. (2011). A national evaluation of 

the impact of child-focused recruitment on 

foster care adoption: A five-year evaluation 

of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids executive 

summary. Retrieved from the Dave 

Thomas Foundation website: http://www.

davethomasfoundation.org/wp-content/

uploads/2011/10/Executive_Summary.pdf

Ellis, R. (2011). What helps and hinders me 

from being adopted: Voices of youth in 

foster care from the Wendy’s Wonderful 

Kids evaluation. Washington, DC: Child 

Trends. Retrieved from http://childtrends.

org/?publications=what-helps-and-hindersme-from-being-adopted-voices-of-youthin-foster-care-from-the-wendys-wonderfulkids-evaluation

Fahlberg, V. I. (1991). A child’s journey through 

placement. Indianapolis, IN: Perspectives 

Press.

Hanna, M. D. (2005). Preparing school-age 

children for special needs adoption: 

Perspectives of successful adoptive parents 

and caseworkers. Dissertation: University of 

Texas at Austin School of Social Work.

Hanna, M. D. (2007). Preparing school 

age children for adoption: Perspectives 

of successful adoptive parents and 

caseworkers. Adoption Quarterly 10(2), 

1–32.

Henry, D. L. (2005). The 3-5-7 Model: 

Preparing children for permanency. 

Children and Youth Services Review, 27, 

197–212.

Henry, D. L., & Manning, G. (2011). Integrating 

child welfare and mental health practices: 

Actualizing youth permanency using the 

3-5-7 Model. Protecting Children, 26(1), 

30–48.

Jones, M. L. (1979). Preparing the school-aged 

child for adoption. Child Welfare, 58(1), 

27–34.
Preparing Children and Youth for Adoption or Other Family Permanency https://www.childwelfare.gov

Kagan, R. M. (1980). Using redefinition and 

paradox with children in placement who 

provoke rejection. Child Welfare, 59(9), 

551–559.

Lifebooks: A great way to support child wellbeing. (2013, June). Training Matters. 

Retrieved from 

http://www.trainingmatters-nc.org/tm_

v14n3/TM_14n3.pdf

McInturf, J. W. (1986). Preparing special-needs 

children for adoption through use of a life 

book. Child Welfare, 65(4), 373–386.

Acknowledgment: 

This bulletin was developed by Child Welfare 

Information Gateway in partnership with Darla 

Henry, Ph.D. This document is made possible 

by the Children’s Bureau, Administration on 

Children, Youth and Families, Administration 

for Children and Families, U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services. The conclusions 

discussed here are solely the responsibility of 

the authors and do not represent the official 

views or policies of the funding agency. 

Suggested Citation: 

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). 

Preparing children and youth for adoption 

or other family permanency. Washington, 

DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services, Children’s Bureau.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families

Administration on Children, Youth and Families

Children’s Bureau