ABSTRACT
Data gathering strategies had approximately 2,800 hours of intensive reviews of state agency case records from 40 intact, and telephone interviews with 22 adoption supervisors and 12 adoption service providers from all 12 service regions in the state of Texas. Children in disrupted/dissolved adoptions were older at time of removal from their birthfamilies and were more likely to be exhibiting aggressive, acting-out behaviors prior to removal than children in intact adoptions. Both legal risk adoptions and unplanned foster adoptions allow the child and family to develop a relationship before the adoption. The choice of either placing siblings together or splitting sibling groups did not seem to be the most significant factor leading either to intact or disrupted/dissolved adoptions. Sixteen of the cases involved transracial adoptions. In 1995 the Texas Family Code was amended to stipulate that any employee who denies or delays a placement in order to seek a same-race family is subject to immediate dismissal.
