Nearly 40 children in foster care will trade a courtroom for a theme park this year, officially becoming part of their forever families during a celebration at Busch Gardens. The event marks the third straight year that Hillsborough County has turned National Adoption Day into a joyful, only-in-Tampa affair rather than a standard legal proceeding.
A Courtroom Swap for Roller Coasters
For the third year running, Children's Network of Hillsborough County will celebrate National Adoption Day with the Busch Gardens event, according to WFLA. Nearly 40 children are expected to be officially adopted into their forever families, marking the end of their journeys through the foster care system. Rather than sitting through courtroom paperwork, families and kids will spend the day enjoying theme-park fun, the station reports.
Children's Network of Hillsborough serves as the county's lead child welfare agency, according to St. Pete Catalyst. The outlet has also described the Busch Gardens gathering as Florida's largest National Adoption Day celebration, underscoring the scale the event has reached in just a few years.
Last Year's Numbers Set a High Bar
At the 2025 edition of the Busch Gardens celebration, the agency said 52 children, including 10 sibling groups, were officially adopted, according to Children's Network of Hillsborough County. This year's expected total of nearly 40 adoptions reflects a separate group of children moving through the system, not a decline tied to the earlier event.
The agency's broader adoption work has been steady. Per the St. Pete Catalyst report, Children's Network of Hillsborough has finalized more than 1,626 adoptions since July 2022, including 374 children who found permanent homes during the 2025-2026 fiscal year alone.
Why Tampa Bay Still Needs More Families
Organizers say the Busch Gardens event isn't just about celebration — it's also meant to raise awareness about the urgent need for more families willing to foster and adopt children in Tampa Bay, per WFLA's reporting. That need has been described differently depending on when the data was pulled. A 2026 investigation from the Tampa Bay Times found that the state's foster population is the lowest it's been in decades. Two years earlier, Bay News 9 reported that Florida had a record number of children in foster care at the time, with agencies struggling to find enough safe and loving homes for thousands of kids statewide, according to Bay News 9.
The challenge extends well beyond Hillsborough County. Nationally, more than 100,000 children are waiting to be adopted from foster care, according to National Adoption Day. The organization notes that more than 400 communities across the country hold similar events on or around the Saturday before Thanksgiving to finalize and celebrate foster-care adoptions, and it has recognized more than 95,000 children moving from foster care into permanent families since the tradition began.
For the nearly 40 Hillsborough County kids set to finalize their adoptions this year, the day at Busch Gardens offers something courthouses rarely can — a celebration built around them, surrounded by roller coasters and new family members instead of legal forms.
