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Adoption is a topic of crucial importance both to those directly involved and to society. Yet, at this writing, the federal government collects no comprehensive national statistics on adoption. The purpose of this article is to address what we do know, what we do not know, and what we need to know about the statistics on adoption. The article provides an overview of adoption and describes data available regarding adoption arrangements and the characteristics of parents who relinquish children, of children who are adopted or in substitute care, and of adults who seek to adopt. Recommendations for future data collection are offered, including the establishment of a national data collection system for adoption statistics.
Kathy Shepherd Stolley (Fri,) studied this question.