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Adoption over Time: Change, Policy, and the Complex History

By Teesta Bhola-Shah For much of the twentieth century, adoption in America followed a familiar pattern. Agencies facilitated placements, birth records were kept private, and contact between biological and adoptive families was rare. Today, that system looks very different. Through decades of firsthand experience, Richard Pearlman has watched adoption evolve from a largely closed process…
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Indian Child Welfare Act – A Deep Dive into one of the US’s Most Interesting Pieces of Adoption Legislation

A while back, I started MyAdoptionStories to talk about adoption from a personal perspective, especially because of my adopted brother. Early on, my research included learning about the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, which is a policy that sets standards for Native American adoption. When I started researching this act, I realized there…
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October 2025 Adoption Stories – Legislative Updates

