For nearly 30 years, federal legislation shaping adoption has remained largely unchanged, even as expectations around privacy, youth voice, and family support have significantly evolved.
To respond to this gap, the Selfless Love Foundation (in partnership with Chapin Hall and the Child Welfare League of America) hosted the National Think Tank on Adoption Policy in October 2025. The convening brought together young people with lived experience in foster care and adoption alongside child welfare system professionals and researchers from across the country. What resulted is the Driving Change in Adoption toolkit, which translates lived experience and cross-system expertise into clear, actionable action for child welfare agencies, adoption organizations, and advocates working to modernize adoption policy and practice.
At the center of this work is the belief that young people should have meaningful voice and choice throughout the adoption process. This means not only at the point of finalizing adoption, but also in decisions about how young people are represented, how their information is shared, and what supports they have access to. At the convening, participants identified key gaps in current policy and practice and developed strategies to adopt them across four areas: consent and consultation, photolisting and privacy, recruitment of families, and post-adoption support.