Legal Definitions - transracial adoption

Transracial adoption occurs when a child is adopted by parents who belong to a different racial or ethnic group than the child.

Here are some examples to illustrate transracial adoption:

• Example 1: A Caucasian couple living in the United States adopts a child from South Korea. The child, who is of Korean ethnicity, is now being raised by parents of a different racial background (Caucasian). This situation exemplifies transracial adoption because the child's racial and ethnic heritage differs from that of their adoptive parents.

• Example 2: A single African American woman adopts a toddler whose biological parents were of Hispanic descent. In this scenario, the adoptive mother is Black, while the child identifies with a different ethnic and racial background (Hispanic). This constitutes a transracial adoption because the child and the adoptive parent are from distinct racial and ethnic groups.

• Example 3: An Indigenous family from a Native American tribe adopts a child who is identified as biracial, with one parent being White and the other Black. Here, the adoptive parents are of Indigenous heritage, while the adopted child has a different racial composition. This is a transracial adoption because the child's racial identity does not align with that of their adoptive family.