Sponsored by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, The Alliance for Children’s Rights, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, and the Children’s Action Network, National Adoption Day is a collaborative effort to increase public awareness of children in foster care awaiting adoption. In the United States, over 110,000 children are in foster care, and the average time to adoption is nearly three years. Many children never find a permanent home, with over 23,000 aging out of the foster care system each year.
Held on the Saturday immediately preceding Thanksgiving, National Adoption Day has helped nearly 65,000 children enter permanent homes since 2000. In 2016, 5,100 children were adopted on National Adoption Day thanks to the participation of 430 cities across the country.