Why do you think they stopped tracking this info?

Randy B

After digging through Canadian stats last night I was surprised to learn that it was not as simple as domestic vs international.

International adoptions are fairly easy to capture through immigration documents at the national level.

Domestic adoptions however are provincial or state jurisdiction and in our case, getting 10 provinces and 3 territories on board or in your case 50 states on board can be a daunting task. Just under the domestic adoption category my province has:

- voluntary adoptions
- catholic services adoptions
- LDS adoptions
- Misc christian adoption services
- spousal adoptions
- family adoptions/kinship care
- private direct placement adoptions
- social services adoptions

I think with all of these forms of adoption, each going through various agencies or done privately between consenting parties, it would be almost impossible to collect all of that data from each province and have it reliable. If your data is not reliable then there is no point in collecting it. You can "legally require it" all you want and regardless of your good intentions it's just not going to happen without an oversight body of some sort to ensure it happens.

In our case Stats Canada collects some of it through census but these are few and far between and the data is only as accurate as the people poled. Since they don't poll 100% of the people....

HappyMomAnna

Federal counts all come with the Census. Each state has their own counting methods and system. So the up to date numbers are up to each state to compile and report where the federal numbers about people and classes happens with the Census.

*** You would need to look at the state level for certain things and birth certificates are handled by the state not the federal government. So in order to get the correct number you would need to look at each state and then work out the math formula in oder to add everything up. The federal government doesn't know how many people are married either because the State does Marriages, divorces, birth and death records.

This is one way to seperate the powers and leaves each state and the citizens of that state to decide the laws and record keeping methods. State laws, and records are state matters and not the big federal governments. That's why things are different in every state.

SEAN M

'Cause they lost count of Brad and Angelina's adoptions! LOL. Kidding. I really do not know why they stopped counting.

BLW_KAM

The US Census Bureau collected adoption data during the 2000 census. You can find it at this link: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/002683.html

Of course the data could be off if people didn't properly acknowledge themselves or their children as being adopted.

It does seem odd that domestic adoptions aren't reported. It may have something to do with the government not being able to get a reporting foothold in the dealings of non-profit agencies or private attorneys. Foster care is government funded and international adoptions require a visa, so that data is easier to capture.

Not Adopted

Budget cuts / lack of funding for the office that collects the data (?)

TerraMere

Not really sure but maybe...

Budget cuts?
Other priorities?
Limited people to do the counting?
Not a significant need for the information from the governments point of view?
????

grand lake bum

just cuz i guess

Adam & Steve

It probably had to do with privacy issues, and maybe the governement was also realizing that keeping count didn't do anything for the government.

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