Ten children’s adoptions were finalized Thursday at San Francisco’s Civic Center Courthouse, where more than 100 family members and friends gathered for a National Adoption Day celebration, SFGATE reported. Juvenile court Judge Roger Chan presided. San Francisco Human Services Commissioner Scott Kahn said the city’s Human Services Commission had approved a resolution in October proclaiming November 2026 National Adoption Month, according to the report.
The event marked individual adoptions; it does not by itself describe the broader outcomes for children in foster care. The San Francisco Human Services Agency’s 2024 Child Welfare Report says that, across the five years it studied, 55% to 69% of children in foster care exited to permanency within two years of entering care. The report counts reunification and guardianship as well as adoption, so the figures are not adoption rates.
What local foster-care measures show
The same agency report counted 489 children in foster care on July 1, 2023, and 424 on July 1, 2024; those are snapshots on two dates, not an explanation of why the count changed. It also says referrals and case openings in 2024 were at their lowest levels in the preceding five years, a measure of child-welfare activity rather than adoption outcomes.
The report says the share of placements outside the Bay Area declined from 29% to 22% over the five years studied. That is not directly comparable with a San Francisco Chronicle report from 2020, which said nearly half of the city’s foster children then lived at least 100 miles away. The figures cover different periods and use different geographic measures.
Adoption is one route to permanency
California Rule of Court 5.730 allows an adoption petition for a dependent child who has been freed for adoption to be filed in the juvenile court with dependency jurisdiction. If the petition is granted, that jurisdiction must be dismissed, the Judicial Branch of California says. The rule describes a general procedure; it does not establish the legal path followed in any child’s case at Thursday’s event.
For residents interested in supporting children through foster care, the San Francisco Human Services Agency says city residents age 18 or older can apply to become resource parents and that prior experience is not required. The agency says approved families can receive training, support groups and respite care. Becoming a resource parent is a separate step from adopting a child.
A recurring courthouse observance
Thursday’s event follows earlier local ceremonies, without establishing a trend in adoption outcomes. A 2025 San Francisco Superior Court announcement described nine children and their families celebrating adoptions. California Courts says the Judicial Council first declared November Court Adoption and Permanency Month in 1999, placing the local events within a longstanding statewide observance.
