The National Down Syndrome Adoption Network (NDSAN) is a national program that was founded in 1982 under the umbrella of the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati. NDSAN provides information, resources, and support to anyone who contacts them, from someone who sees NDSAN’s post about a child with Down syndrome in foster care, to an adoptive family who would like to join the NDSAN registry, to the most important contact: the expectant or new family who receives a Down syndrome diagnosis from their medical professional.

Over 90% of families who contact NDSAN have received a prenatal diagnosis, and 90% of those families find out about the agency through a Google search. Most of the time, the option of adoption, and sometimes the option of parenting, is not presented to the expectant family at the time of a diagnosis. 

NDSAN offers a 3-step approach of support to new and expectant families: Grief support, education, options counseling.  As Stephanie Thompson, the NDSAN Director has noted:

“We first allow the family to grieve and we walk through that grief with them until they are ready to learn more about Down syndrome – what it is, what medical issues may occur, what the lifespan of their child may look like. We then educate them on the option of adoption and the option of parenting.

If the family decides to parent, we refer them to their local parent group. If the family decides to make an adoption plan, the NDSAN has a registry of approximately 40 families who are approved to adopt, and who want to adopt, a child with Down syndrome. We walk with the family and connect them with an adoption agency, we provide families to the agency, and we remain as support until the child is placed with the adoptive family.”