Training for Adoption Competency

Online Training

• TAC consists of 12 online modules on various aspects of adoption practice.
• Participants will need a computer with a web camera and microphone.

Cost

• The cost of this program is $250. A generous grant from Jockey International, Inc., covers the remainder of the fee.

Education and Licensure

• A minimum of a master’s degree in social work, counseling, psychology or related discipline.
• It’s preferred that participants either have a current professional license or are under clinical supervision preparing for professional licensing.

Employment

• Participants must be working in a clinical capacity with adoptive families.
• If applicants don’t meet the above criteria but interact with the adoption kinship network, they will be considered for the TAC program as space allows.

From 2016 to 2020, approximately 700 children were adopted each year in Wisconsin. In 2020, 11,303 children were in an out-of-home care placement at some point during the year. Of the children in an out-of-home placement, 32.9% were in a relative placement (i.e., kinship care).

Adoption failures or dissolutions, or adoptions in which children are returned to state care after finalization of adoption, has been estimated to be between two to 10% nationally, but there is not yet good information on the rate in Wisconsin.

According to the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE), children with traumatic experiences of abuse, neglect and abandonment, and challenging behavioral and emotional responses are at greater risk of presenting with adjustment problems within their adoptive families, which creates vulnerability and risk of family disruption.

Access to adoption-competent mental health services is a critical factor in the outcomes for these children and their adoptive families, and impacts the success of adoption.

To fill this need, CASE has developed the Training for Adoption Competency (TAC) program to increase the number of professionals who are able to provide treatment services to these individuals and families. The end goal of increased access to adoption competent mental health, adoption, and child welfare practitioners is improved well-being of adopted children and their families and a decrease in adoption dissolution.