Tackling School Issues for Adoptive Families

The month of August means it is time to soak up the last bit of summer and start preparing for the inevitable return to school. Adoptive parents need to be prepared for adoption issues that may arise in a school setting and the most recent Creating a Family Radio Show, School Issues for Adopted Kids and Families, aimed to do just that.

Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility & adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews two adoption social workers: LeAnne Carnes, Vice President of Children’s Connection Inc; and Danielle Goodman, Regional and District Supervisor with Adoptions From The Heart.

A beautiful quote on open adoption by Danielle Goodman.

Topics Discussed in the School Issues for Adopted Kids and Families Radio Show

With open adoptions as the norm, and fully open adoptions with contact becoming more common, should adoptive parents let teachers know at the beginning of the year who is who?
How best to help give teachers the preferred adoption friendly language? I heard recently of a first grade teacher asking about the child’s “real” mother when referring to his birth mother.
Why you would need to say anything about adoption to the school, especially if your child was adopted as a baby? What does it matter, and why does the school need to know?
How to handle the negative stereotypes about adoption.
How much info on your child’s history do you need to share with teachers? What if child has been sexually abused and on occasion acts overly sexual? How to balance sharing information to help your child vs. over sharing?
How to handle when children “over share” their history because they don’t feel ashamed?
Privacy vs. secrecy
Learning issues that may be due to early life experiences or prenatal exposures. Is it important for the school personnel to know the cause or just that the child struggles.
How to be proactive at the beginning of the school year with learning disabilities and IEPs? How soon to get moving on this if you child doesn’t have an IEP, but you think she might need one?
How to help your child’s school be inclusive of all types of families, including transracial families thru adoption?
Suggestions on what we can do to help make it that way without overstepping our bounds?
Checklist for adoptive parents at the beginning of the school year.
Typical school assignments that may cause problems for adoptive families and tips for handling.
- Baby picture assignments
- Family Tree assignments-family orchard
- Assignments that ask about birth stories

Additional Resources

Adoptions From The Heart’s recent blog post outlines a lot of great information on this topic as well. Providing tips on communicating with your child’s teacher, staying involved, and tackling school projects.