COLUMBUS – Ohio’s foster care and adoption website now includes profiles of children in foster care who are waiting to be adopted, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) announced.

The profiles include children’s first names and ages, as well as hobbies, strengths and activities that reflect their personality and interests.

“Ohio has more than 16,000 children in foster care, and more than 3,000 of them are awaiting safe, loving and permanent homes,” said ODJFS Director Kimberly Hall. “All children need and deserve forever families, and we hope this addition to our website will help achieve that for more of them.”

Most children in foster care return to their birth parents or another relative or family friend within a year, but sometimes it takes longer.

When a court determines that returning home or to a relative is not in the child’s best interest, then the court may terminate parental rights, and the children services agency will move forward with finding a permanent home for the child.

In most cases, the best permanent option is adoption. The adoptive family could be a relative, a friend of the family, a foster parent or another family not known to the child.

Ohioans interested in learning more about adoption should visit FosterAndAdopt.jfs.ohio.gov. The website features information for prospective adoptive families, as well as an interactive map that can link them to local agencies that can help them decide if adoption is right for their family.

County public children services agencies can upload children’s profiles into a portal for ODJFS staff to review and post to the website.

If families are interested in learning more about a child after reading their profile, they can forward their information to the child’s caseworker through the website. The listing is located at FosterAndAdopt.jfs.ohio.gov/profiles.