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Children's
Services Child & Family Services provides a variety of programs and services designed to foster the well-being of children throughout our community.

Special Needs Adoption

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The Special Needs Adoption (SNA) Program services children in care who are legally free for adoption and are not able to be adopted by their foster parents or relatives. Program staff attempts to match these children with families who step forward from the community to adopt. The SNA Program is designed to find homes for the hardest-to-place children (older children sibling groups, physically challenged children, children in residential care) and prioritizes applicant families who can adopt them. In certain cases the children may require a higher level of services to assist them with successful integration into a family setting. Many adoptive families are part of our Therapeutic Foster Care Program.

All families entering Child & Family Services are helped to focus on the realities of parenting children in care whether it is through a fostering or adoptive role. All resource families participate in the MAPP/GPS training and in the home study process. The home study, or Adoption Portfolio, is a document that captures the strengths and needs of a family who is stepping forward to provide a permanent home to children with special needs.

When a family is certified in the SNA Program, the adoption specialist will assist with matching children who are free for adoption with the adoptive family, while assessing the child’s needs and the parents’ strengths. The SNA program provides support to adoptive families through training and support groups, as well as assisting families with adjustment and attachment issues. There are no costs to adopt children in care. However, families must be willing to commit some money to costs involved in pre-placement visitation with children and for an attorney in the court proceedings. In most cases, this money is reimbursed in full upon finalization. In addition, most adoptive families receive financial assistance in the form of a subsidy for their children until adulthood.

The benefits of helping children in care attach and grow into a permanent family can be tremendous and enriching to them as well as to the entire family. People who make the best adoptive parents are those who truly love children and accept them for who they are. Adoption is not meant to erase a child’s past. Adoptive parents need to help children with connections to their memories, sometimes even to particular people who were instrumental in their lives before they entered the adoptive home. The children may have experienced significant loss and trauma and there is a need for parents to recognize the “small” victories while the children work towards healing in a loving, safe and accepting family.

Child & Family Services Children's Services
844 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, New York 14209
Telephone: (716) 882-0555, ext. 100 (9 a.m. - 5 p.m.)
After hours, ext 103
Fax: (716) 882-1451