Adoption Education in Schools and Hospitals: The AdoptED Program

By Teesta Bhola-Shah

Adoption is often misunderstood, and those misunderstandings can shape the way adoptees, professionals, and families think about it. The only way to correct these misconceptions surrounding adoption is through purposeful education. At the Gladney Center for Adoption, the AdoptED program works to do that, making sure that accurate information about adoption is taught at schools, hospitals, and more.

Gladney, founded in 1887, is one of the oldest and most influential adoption agencies in the United States. It’s been around for over 140 years, and today it focuses on modern adoption practices and lifelong support for children. Today, it also runs AdoptED, a program that brings adoption education directly into schools and hospitals.

Kerry Tobar, Gladney’s Adoption Education Manager, believes that real change starts with education. “We don’t talk about adoption enough,” she said. “It’s not about ‘giving up’ a baby. It’s about making a plan.”

Perspectives in Schools

One of the most powerful parts of AdoptED is what happens in classrooms. The program introduces high school students to adoption as a real-life option and encourages them to consider it without the stereotypes or misconceptions that often surround it.

Tobar recalled a moment that showed just how meaningful this kind of education can be. “I had a student say, ‘I used to be mad at my birth parents for making that decision. Now I see it was because they loved me and wanted the best for me.’”

That kind of shift — from anger to understanding — is what AdoptED is designed to create. Students are given the opportunity to think differently about adoption, not as abandonment, but as an act of love and planning. For Tobar, hearing stories like that reinforces why the program is so needed.

Bias in Hospitals

AdoptED also extends beyond schools, focusing on the education of nurses and hospital staff who work directly with birth parents during some of the most emotional and challenging moments of their lives.

“We want to educate professionals because sometimes their own feelings or biases can come across,” Tobar explained. In hospitals, those biases can make birth mothers feel judged or unsupported during the adoption process. That’s why AdoptED emphasizes compassion and respect, making sure healthcare workers understand that adoption is about choice and dignity.

By teaching professionals how to approach these situations with sensitivity, Gladney hopes to ensure that every birth parent feels understood, no matter what decision they make.

A Lifelong Commitment

Tobar often reminds people that adoption isn’t something that ends when a child is placed with a family. “Adoption doesn’t end at placement — it’s lifelong,” she said. AdoptED reflects that philosophy by addressing not just one moment in time, but the entire journey of adoption: before, during, and long after placement.

Through education, Tobar and her team at Gladney are making sure the next generation — students, teachers, nurses, and families — sees adoption for what it really is: a lifelong decision rooted in love.

As the student in Tobar’s classroom realized, understanding adoption can change everything. And that’s exactly why AdoptED exists.