Eastern European Adoptees and Special Education Outcomes

Introduction and Research Question

In the last fifteen to twenty years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children adopted by American families from Eastern European nations. This is particularly true of children from impoverished areas of the former Soviet Union. This paper briefly addresses the historical and social situation that resulted in increased adoptions from these areas, but most importantly examines the early research on the implications this influx has had upon education — and specifically upon special education. A point of interest is that greater educational opportunity is one of the most commonly cited reasons for international adoption decisions by parents. It is for this reason, and others, that special attention needs to be paid to the ability of schools and waiting families to help adoptive children excel within them.

The fundamental research question guiding this paper is: Are more children who spent at least one year of their lives in an adoption institution experiencing greater educational, learning, and behavioral difficulties in school? Many of the children addressed here have resided within adoption institutions for a large part of their lives.

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