California Kids Connection FY 2025-2026
How California Kids Connection supports children and youth, and results in adoptions for the State of California and its counties.
California Kids Connection (CKC) uses a public website, a secure professional database, provides direct family assistance and in-person matching activities statewide to move inquiries about children on CKC toward safe, permanent family placements. The program:
- Makes youth visible. Agencies feature children's profiles on the public website without disclosing confidential or identifying information.
- Empowers youth by giving them the technical resources to build their own curated web profiles, including video and audio, under the mentorship of social work staff.
- Enhances county's ability to find placements for children and youth who are not court approved for publicity by providing a secure, confidential and searchable database, accessible only by approved and licensed adoption agencies.
- Connects agencies and approved families. CKC gives adoption professionals access to a statewide database, follows up with families who inquire about specific children and helps connect children with potential family matches
- Guides prospective families. CKC staff answer questions about adoption and foster care, help families understand the process (known as Resource Family Approval) and connects them with next-step resources.
- Creates additional pathways to matching children and families. Regional exchanges, family fairs, and matching events bring children, youth, families, and adoption professionals together across county lines.
- Expands opportunities for children and youth who face greater barriers to adoption. Statewide visibility helps agencies identify families who live out of their area prepared to support older youth, sibling groups, and children and youth with complex medical, developmental and behavioral needs.
- Builds the relationships that lead to permanency. Regional exchange meetings, family fairs and in-person events
events build connections between county and private agency staff. These ongoing relationships help professionals
support potential matching of children with families across county lines and across California, with placements based on the needs of the child and the family’s strengths.
- Supports all adoptive families in California by providing a comprehensive post-adoption database of therapists and other resources.
In the past fiscal year (2025-2026)
- 4,593 total family contacts from families seeking information on a specific child listed on CKC (not including web site inquiries).
- 1,062 website inquiries were received about youth or children featured on CKC; 678 came from families who had
- completed Resource Family Approval family evaluations or an adoption home study, and all were California residents.
- 653 family inquiries about 244 youth listed on the website received follow-up support from CKC, coordinating
- with county agencies.
- 126 children and youth, and 51 families, added to the website, expanding the statewide pool of children and families.
- 65 medically fragile youth listed; of which three were matched or placed.
- 54 children matched with families through regional, in-person events with 35 placements made.
- The CKC Post Adoption site currently lists 133 general resources, and importantly 89 therapists with adoption training or experience
California has 36,789 children and youth in foster care. Of those, 8,845 have a legal permanency plan of adoption and 4,916 are legally free for adoption. CaliforniaKidsConnection provides the statewide infrastructure that helps agencies move beyond county-by-county recruitment, and is dedicated to a commitment that no child should leave foster care in California without a home and permanent legal parents.
A total of 3,872 children and youth have been listed on the public or secure site for adoptive placement, and 750 were reported as achieving successful outcomes.
A total of 4,268 families have been listed as seeking a child, or siblings for adoption. At least 200 of these were reported as experiencing a successful outcome.
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