Scores of Michigan families will have much to be grateful for Thanksgiving Day after finalizing the adoptions of about 100 children Tuesday during Michigan’s annual Adoption Day.
Celebrated the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Adoption Day has become a Michigan tradition. Some courts in the state hosted informational events highlighting the importance of adoption and the needs of children in foster care.
Michigan Adoption Day was first celebrated in 2003.
2016 statewide celebrations were sponsored by the Michigan Supreme Court, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Supreme Court Administrative Office (SCAO) and the Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange (mare.org), an online resource for adoptive and prospective adoptive families.
They were designed to bring attention to the 12,600 children in Michigan foster care, officials said. Of those children, approximately 2,600 have birth parents whose rights have been terminated and around 300 are readily available for adoption.
Around 90 percent of children available for adoption qualify for adoption assistance, officials said. This includes the state’s Adoption Medical Subsidy Program to help offset the costs of caring for children with physical, mental and/or emotional needs. The state pays around $200 million annually to adoptive families with qualifying children.
More than 2,000 children were adopted through foster care during the fiscal year 2016, officials said.
For the full article, see Mike Martindale and Karen Bouffard, “Adoption Day celebrates growing Michigan families”, Detroit News, November 25, 2014.
Holly Fournier, “‘It meant everything to me’: Mich. does Adoption Day”, Detroit News, November 22, 2016.