Exploring the path from foster care to stable and lasting adoption: Perceptions of foster care alumni

•Self-determination is crucial for youth in foster care and their adoption outcomes.•Trauma-related and behavioral health needs are prevalent and significant.•Adoptive parents need better training to understand/address adopted children’s needs.•System barriers: worker turnover, fragmented systems, discontinuity in subsidies.•Formal and informal supports can make a difference for youth in foster care.

This qualitative study explored perceptions of youth with foster care experiences, regarding successful adoption. A purposive sample of 16 participants was recruited and convened in two groups. Semi-structured focus groups were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using theoretical thematic analysis. Emergent themes were organized within a theoretical framework consisting of child, family, and system facilitators and barriers to successful adoption. Themes that strongly emerged redounded to a more youth-centered adoption process and to significant changes in practices and policies regarding parent–child matching, adoptive parent preparation, youths' supports, service quality and effectiveness, and overall systems' understanding and response to trauma.