Adoption Websites, Like TARE
By now, you have most likely heard about the TARE (Texas Adoption Resource Exchange) website or others like it. The websites which “help match children awaiting adoption with adoptive parents.” Our staff encourages families to be cautious about adoption websites for many reasons. Our primary reason being to focus on matching options we have found to be more successful. Those increasing your chances of finding the best match.
Our Cautioning
Here is why we are cautioning you to not spend a lot of time on websites:
Levels of Care
To begin, the websites do not list what level of care the children are. With that said, it is very common for children on these websites to be of higher levels of care with much higher needs. These children with higher levels of care and higher needs are unfortunately not always a good fit for the “typical” at-home family life the majority of our families are capable of providing a home for.
Outdated Information
Often times, these websites can be outdated. The children on there may already have a placement or are unavailable. Despite this, they are still being presented on the website. This is frustrating for many families, because they see a child or sibling group they fall in love with. Then, we either don’t hear back from the workers, or when we do hear back from them, they let us know the child is matched.
More Successful Methods
We understand the temptation which comes from these websites. We know the excitement that comes along with reading about a child you feel drawn to. However, we encourage you to allow us to focus on matching you through broadcasts, rather than making TARE our priority. Remember to trust in the process and to have patience in us as an agency. Through broadcasts and match events, we have more definitive information about the child and their worker. This is where we prefer to prioritize our time as opposed to using these websites.
When we receive broadcasts for children or talk to CPS workers at match events, these are CPS workers who are actively recruiting a family for their children. Typically, a CPS worker will do a broadcast for a child, then have them attend match events. They will only register them on the TARE website if their other recruitment efforts have not been successful. This is why we caution you in utilizing these websites. We hope you understand this is not always the best approach in finding a match.
Lastly, please know we do submit families for children on websites, and you are welcome to send your Arms Wide Adoption Services worker a child to submit you for. This post is to help you have the understanding this is not our priority and should not be yours either. Both our agency and our families’ time is better spent focusing on other matching efforts as mentioned above. So while we will submit our families for children found through adoption websites, we simply don’t prioritize the strategy as a matching tool.
About The Author
As the Adoption Coordinator, Kimberly Beck, LPC works with South Texas families once they match with a placement of a child. She supports adoptive parents, supervises cases, and develops resources, including the child’s health and psychological records. She has completed her Bachelor’s in Psychology and her Master’s in Mental Health Counseling. You can read more about Kimberly here.