Effect Of Adoption On The Child's Education

Effects Of Adoption On The Child's Education

Adopting a child often has a significant influence on their lifelong cognitive development and educational competencies. With access to greater economic resources, higher-achieving schools and support from a nurturing family who believes in the power of education, adopted children generally thrive academically. These opportunities for intellectual growth enable children to catch up to their peers in math, reading and life skills even when school performance is initially delayed. Consider these three educational benefits that fall into place when you welcome a child into your family:

Deeper Parental Involvement Strengthens Development

A child’s age at adoption plays a critical role in their educational journey. Earlier placement promotes stronger language progression, particularly if they are an only child. This success is often attributed to adoptive parents being more actively involved in their child’s early cognitive development. In many affluent homes, daily reading is considered an important bonding activity while healthy socialization skills are built through volunteering and participating in extracurricular activities.

Once formal schooling begins, adoptive parents typically immerse themselves in classroom activities, helping with nightly homework assignments and volunteering for school programs. In comparison studies, adopted children reach similar academic achievements as their peers and have indistinguishable IQ scores as their non-related siblings.

Benefitting from Special Education Interventions

Since adoption does not appear to impede success in the classroom, it is unclear why special education programs receive twice as many referral requests from adopted children. It is possible that a parental disability is passed down genetically while early abuse, lack of proper prenatal care and interruptions in attachment can slow learning growth.

However, these disproportionate numbers may result from environmental factors rather than the excessive presence of disabilities. Children who are adopted at an older age might simply need remedial classes to catch up with their peers due to missing too much school. Many students also encounter more rigorous academic expectations from their new families as well as higher school standards. Additionally, adopted children of all ages may expend more mental energy dealing with feelings of grief about their birth families. They can feel left out of family history assignments or be teased by classmates, which often affects self-confidence and engagement. These circumstances make it more difficult to stay on task and lead adults to question whether a learning disability exists.

Overall, adoptive parents are generally more aware of and willing to accept help from social support services. They also tend to be more observant of their children’s academic performance and do not assign the usual stigmas to intervention programs. As a result, they often feel empowered to become educational advocates for their children, who then go on to achieve more successes in the classroom.

College Bound

More than half of 4,600 adopted teens reported that they like school, which is comparable to the responses of nonadopted teens. Additionally, three-quarters plan to attend college, so they are motivated to do their best in school. In contrast, only 10 percent of foster care youth are college bound, which means that adoption is a significant motivator in having higher educational aspirations. This influence extends beyond the adoptee, encouraging birth mothers to complete their schooling at a higher rate than young single mothers.

Teenagers who are adopted from foster care receive financial assistance to achieve their dreams of attending college. They are eligible for special FAFSA waivers and ETV vouchers, which can cover up to $5,000 per year in tuition costs. A handful of states and private scholarship programs also financially support adoptees who want to further their career training at technical colleges, community colleges or four-year universities.