FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 23, 2001

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Kathryn Creedy, 802-442-2845

SCHOOL DISTRICTS NATIONWIDE INTRODUCE EDUCATOR'S GUIDE

BENNINGTON, VT An Educator's Guide to Adoption, now in its fourth printing since publication a year ago, has been introduced into dozens of school districts nationwide, becoming an important new tool in the back-to-school kit for the millions of adoptive families in America. It is the first simple, user-friendly guide that helps teachers understand how simple assignments can sometimes be difficult for children of adoptive families.

"An Educator's Guide to Adoption is an important resource because it is a springboard for discussions on all kinds of diversity issues", said Leah O'Leary, who was instrumental in incorporating the guide into the Norwood, MA, school district. It's important because our culture is undergoing powerful paradigm shifts and adoption has been a catalyst for many of those changes. Transcultural adoption, transracial adoption, adoption by singles and same sex couples have shown us there are many ways to have a family. This has had a profound impact on society. It is increasing tolerance and redefining the way we think of families.

Published by the Institute for Adoption Information , a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the understanding of adoption, An Educator's Guide to Adoption is a common-sense approach to handling sensitive class assignments from baby pictures to family trees and cultural heritage. With it, parents and teachers can create a partnership on how to tailor assignments and to help when insensitive remarks are made.

This year, the Institute for Adoption Information, working with O'Leary, executive director of A Red Thread Adoption Agency, has developed a manual to help parents get An Educator's Guide to Adoption incorporated into their district's teacher material. A Red Thread was successful in getting local businesses to donate enough guides for all 400 teachers, guidance counselors, administrators and social workers in the Norwood school district. The manual is available at the Institute's website www.adoptioninformationinstitute.org -- along with an article on the Norwood project.

"While this booklet focuses on the issues surrounding families formed through adoption, we purposely used an approach that gave teachers the ability to enhance the understanding of children from all families," said Kathryn Creedy, Executive Director of the Institute for Adoption Information. "This is critical today given the changes the family has experienced in the past few decades. Its importance is reflected in the fact that it has not only been ordered by parents but by school districts and many of the top organizations nationwide providing post-adoption support services for families."

An Educator's Guide to Adoption explains the history of adoption as well as the research revealing the positive results of adopted children in both school and in life. It also dispels many of the myths surrounding adoption that continue to affect children. The Adoption Information Institute focused on educators for its first major publishing project because teachers are the single largest influence on young children outside the home. The inexpensive booklet is the first of many guides planned for publication by the Institute for Adoption Information, a non-profit, volunteer organization made up of adult adoptees, as well as adoptive and birth parents. Its mission is to promote a greater understanding of adoption and all three members of the adoption triad through education and media advocacy. The Institute for Adoption Information expects to publish two new "guides" this year.

An Educator's Guide to Adoption is available for $7.50 from the Institute for Adoption Information, Inc., PO Box 4405, Bennington, VT 05201 or from www.adoptioninformationinstitute.org.