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By Susan LaVigna, LCSW-C, Adoption Competent Therapist

Adoption-competent therapy helps children in adoptive, foster, and kinship families heal from early loss and trauma by addressing attachment wounds and teaching healthy coping strategies. Because early separation can lead to abandonment fears, emotional dysregulation, and trust issues, consistent and predictable parenting—along with open, age-appropriate conversations about a child’s history—plays a critical role in building safety and connection. Play-based interventions like Theraplay®, strong community connections, and ongoing parent self-care further support healing and strengthen a child’s sense of belonging and permanence.

C.A.S.E. is excited to announce that we have received funding from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption to support the addition of a new TAC (Training for Adoption Competency) site in 2026. If you are an organization in a state that doesn’t currently have a TAC partner and you are committed to expanding access to and availability of adoption-competent mental health professionals to support foster, adoptive, birth, and kinship families, we encourage you to apply by the March 20, 2026 deadline. 

By Cortney Jordan, MA, LGPC, Educational and Training Implementation Specialist

In recognition of National School Social Worker Week and its theme “Unite to Ignite,” this blog celebrates school social workers as vital mental health professionals who bridge students, families, and schools to foster safety, stability, and belonging. It highlights their especially critical role in supporting students impacted by adoption, foster care, and kinship care through trauma-informed practices, cross-system collaboration, and equity-focused advocacy. The piece also underscores the importance of continued training and resources—such as those offered by C.A.S.E.—to ensure school social workers are equipped to help every student thrive.

By Rachel Shifaraw, Adult Adoptee & C.A.S.E. Creative Content Specialist

We continue our series on the Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency by focusing on the issue of rejection. Through a personal adoptee perspective, Rachel explores how feelings of rejection can emerge throughout life—from relinquishment and systemic barriers to relationships and everyday experiences—and how these emotions can shape self-protection and connection with others. The blog highlights the importance of trust, consistency, and adoption-competent support in helping individuals and families navigate and heal from the complex emotional realities of adoption and permanency.

Letters, Rejection, and the Life-Long Journey of Adoption

By Catey Yost, C.A.S.E. Emerging Leader

This reflective blog recounts Catey’s childhood memory of learning about her sister’s contact with her biological family, which sparked feelings of rejection, invisibility, and unanswered questions about her own origins. Discovering hidden information about half-siblings deepened Catey's sense of being “between worlds,” caught between adoptive and biological identities. Now an adult in partial reunion, Catey holds both joy for her sister and enduring grief for her own missed connection, illustrating the lifelong complexity of adoption and belonging.

Forced To Say Goodbye Twice:

My Story of Secondary Rejection

By Emily Kwiatkowski, C.A.S.E. Emerging Leader

On her eighteenth birthday, Emily mailed her DNA to AncestryDNA, reclaiming a sense of agency in her adoption journey and ultimately connecting with an older biological sister, and later a brother through 23andMe. While sibling reunions brought belonging and long-sought answers, contact with her birth parents resulted in what she later understood as “secondary rejection,” leaving lasting grief and unanswered questions. Through reflection and support, including work with an adoption-competent therapist at C.A.S.E., she came to recognize that her worth is not defined by whether her birth family chose connection.

By Ashley Garcia-Rivera, Policy Advisor

Listening Beyond Permanency: Reflections from

Alishia Agee-Cooper, LICSW

In this blog, Ashley highlights insights from practitioner Alishia Agee-Cooper, LICSW, of the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families, who emphasizes that true well-being after permanency is rooted in belonging, youth voice, and long-term, community-based support. She advocates for prevention-focused systems, culturally responsive services, and policies created with—not for—impacted families, particularly those from communities disproportionately harmed by the child welfare system. Her perspective reinforces C.A.S.E.’s commitment to centering lived experience, practitioner insight, and sustained post-permanency supports to ensure lasting family stability.

How Access to Behavioral Health Services Shapes Permanency Outcomes

The Home for Every Child (HFEC) initiative has sparked a variety of conversations about the current state and future of behavioral health and child welfare. In "How Access to Behavioral Health Services Shapes Permanency Outcomes," featured on Child Welfare Wonk, C.A.S.E. board member Uma Ahluwalia, MSW, MHA, takes a deep dive into some of the current struggles in behavioral health for youth, families, and professionals, and highlights important factors that need to be addressed in order to meaningfully move forward.

As Uma outlines, the behavioral health system faces real structural challenges—from workforce shortages and long wait times, to a lack of providers trained to serve children and families in adoption, foster, and kinship care. Building a workforce equipped to meet these needs isn't just important -- it's foundational to achieving lasting permanency for children and families. This piece also validates our National Center’s focus on bridging child welfare and mental health systems, identifying behavioral health access and quality as a ceiling on child welfare outcomes. This is the gap that the National Center is designed to address through adoption‑competent workforce development, cross‑system collaboration, and implementation support.

Friday, April 17, 2026 | 1:00-2:00pm EST

C.A.S.E. is thrilled to participate in the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI)'s 2026 Pathways to Permanency Series, a multi-part webinar convening focused on advancing permanency outcomes for children and youth.

The April webinar, Building Bridges: Connecting Child Welfare and Mental Health Systems to Better Serve Families, you’ll hear from C.A.S.E.’s co-founder and CEO Debbie Riley, LCMFT, and board member and lived experience expert Tony Parsons. The session will highlight the importance of adoption- and foster-competent mental health services, including trauma-informed therapy that sustains permanency for children and families in adoption, foster, and kinship care.

WHEN: Saturday, April 11, 2026

WHERE: National Housing Center, Washington, DC

COME CELEBRATE WITH US to recognize our C.A.S.E. Star Awards and to benefit the adoptive, foster, and kinship families we serve. Enjoy cocktails, entertainment, dinner, a DJ and dancing, and our exciting auctions!

Sponsorships and tickets are NOW AVAILABLE!

Big Impact. Great Experience. One Lucky Winner.

Celebrate with us — from anywhere! 🎉

As part of our 2026 Empowered Voices. Brighter Futures. Gala, we’re hosting a special raffle to benefit adoptive, foster, and kinship families and the professionals who serve them.

Whether you’re local or supporting us from across the country, you can enter to win your choice of three unforgettable experiences.

With just 300 tickets available, this will sell out fast — secure yours today!

The lucky winner will be drawn on April 14, 2026. You do not need to attend the Gala to win.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026 | 7:00-8:00pm EST

Join us on Instagram Live! where Tony Hynes, Ph.D., C.A.S.E.'s Training and Content Development Specialist, will be talking with award winning author Sara Easterly as she discusses her engrossing memoir Searching for Mom, a “disarmingly honest” mother-daughter story.

Recovery and Repair After Conflict

Thursday, March 19, 2026 | 1:00-2:30pm EST

Conflict, meltdowns, and ruptures happen in every family and classroom. Through this interactive webinar, participants will learn to reframe conflict as an opportunity for growth and walk away with practical steps for repair, empathy, and rebuilding trust after difficult moments. If you interact or work with youth in any capacity, this powerful presentation is for you.

Presented by Gwen Bass, Ph.D., MEd, Founder and CEO of Dr. Gwen Bass Consulting, LLC. and Educational Consultant.

Use coupon code REPAIR at checkout to receive your FREE registration. There is a $15 charge per registrant after the first 600 registrants have used the coupon code.

Thursday, March 26, 2026 | 2:00-3:30pm EST

Children and youth in foster, adoptive, and kinship families often have complex mental health and developmental needs. Professionals across child welfare and behavioral health are looking for practical, effective ways to strengthen how they respond. The National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) is a free, web-based training designed to help practitioners better address the needs of children and families affected by separation, loss, placement, and permanency transitions. In this session, we’ll examine what recent national data tell us about NTI’s reach, engagement, and impact.

This webinar shares what national data show about NTI's reach and impact, including:

• Where NTI is being used and who is participating
• Who completes the training—and what supports make completion more likely
• Growth in knowledge, competency, and practice

Presented by Dawn Davis, Ph.D., Megan Paul, Ph.D., and Dawn Wilson, MSW.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | 7:00-8:30pm EST

$20 (1.5 CEs available)

Holidays are often a time of joy and celebration for adoptive families. However, for adoptees, these same occasions can also bring a mix of emotions, including reminders of the losses they’ve experienced.

Hosted by Tony Hynes, Ph.D., C.A.S.E.'s Training and Content Development Specialist, participants in this webinar will gain insight into common themes adoptees experience around holidays, such as feelings of disconnection from their adoptive families, longing for birth families, and a sense of not fully belonging in either world. Societal expectations around holiday celebrations often shape how adoptees feel they should respond, adding layers of guilt, shame, or isolation to what may already be a complicated emotional experience.

By better understanding the holiday experiences of adoptees, we can offer deeper, more empathetic support to them and their families throughout the year.

Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.), Provider #1972, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education.