In 2000, the Coalition for Court Access and Freddie Mac Foundation encouraged nine cities to open their courts on or around the Saturday before Thanksgiving to finalize and celebrate adoptions from foster care. The first National Adoption Day was inspired by Michael Nash, a former presiding judge of the Juvenile Court in Los Angeles. He opened the court on Saturdays to allow foster children to be adopted and had court employees help with this effort. This helped reduce the number of children that had been waiting for adoption for a long time.

National Adoption Day is celebrated annually on November 20th.

National Adoption Day is a day that was founded in 1999 by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.