The process of adopting a child who is in state custody can be confusing and a little difficult for potential adoptive parents to get started. State agencies generally do not have the ability to advertise and promote the nearly 120,000 children currently legally free to be adopted. When families are considering adoption the information they find easily often does not include waiting children in the foster care system. Most state children’s services programs need all the funding they have in order to keep the children safe and have very little to invest in adoptive family recruitment.
The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, NAIC, is a federally funded program and Web site designed, in part, to help potential adoptive families find their way to the information about the system. This program is responsible for keeping statistics and information about the children who are in foster care. The Web site is also designed to provide interested families with information on how to contact their own state and start the process of adopting a child who is legally free, or who may be in the future.
Families interested in adopting a waiting child will need to contact the right office in their state. The actual process of adoption is managed and handled by the state the adoptive family lives in. Each state has their own laws and procedures for approval, processing and finalizing the adoption of children in State care. The laws of each state vary in many ways however there are several mandates the federal government imposes on the state for consistency in order to improve the chances that the children find forever families.
The biggest impact on adopting children in state care came in 1997 with the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) which established several guidelines all states must follow in order insure children do not linger in foster care for years. The greatest change resulted in laws which require the state to have a case plan for permanency if a child has been in state care 16 of 25 consecutive months. If a child is in foster care 16 months the state must create a case plan that includes adoption often these plans may run concurrent with the case plan for reunification with the birth family.
The result of the ASFA has been that children in state care are placed with foster to adopt or pre-adoptive families quicker and children are moved from one family to another fewer times. It has also meant that potential adoptive families have been able to have younger children placed and in some cases newborns.
While there have been unexpected results to the passage of the ASFA there is no doubt children have benefited from these regulations. Adoptive families have also been provided with better support services and children who are less hurt by their experience in the system.
I will be making future entries about many of the issues the ASFA has addressed and tips and information about navigating the government systems in order to be considered as an adoptive family resource. Including the differences between the Foster to Adopt and Pre-Adoptive programs, Inter State adoption and the adoption assistance programs as well as important things to remember should you consider providing a child with a forever family.
In addition to the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse interested families might find support and information at the Web site www.Adoption.com or At this site dedicated to supporting State foster and Adoptive Families.
Please feel free to leave your questions and comments here or post on the www.Families.com forum in the adoption section.
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For more information about parenting special needs children you might want to visit the Families.com Special Needs Blog and the Mental Health Blog. Or visit my personal website.