Growing numbers of adoptions involve some form of contact between the child's adoptive family and birth relatives. This has become especially common in domestic infant adoptions, but it is also a key consideration in adoptions from the public child welfare system, and increasingly in international adoptions. This year's "New Worlds of Adoption" conference will highlight research-based practice and policy relating to contact between a child's birth and adoptive families. 

Topics include:

• Clinical practice issues and mediation relating to contact
• Contact issues in domestic infant, child welfare, and intercountry adoptions
  Legal aspects of communication agreements between adoptive and birth parents
  Research perspectives and findings relating to contact
• The role of social media in searching and contact
  First-hand accounts of young adults, adoptive parents, and birth parents involved in contact

Presenters include: Marla Allisan Susan Ayers-Lopez, Amanda Baden, Mary Beek, Judy Cockerton, Janie Cravens, Rachel Farr, Janice Goldwater, Harold Grotevant, Christopher Langelier, Ruth McRoy​, Jenae Neiderhiser​, Elsbeth Neil, Susan Ogden, Joyce, Maguire Pavao, Adam Pertman, Susan Livingston Smith, Emma Ward, Gretchen Miller Wrobel

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