Tuesday, April 14 1998 1 PM - 2:30 PM
Featuring: Topics Include: Foster Care and Adoption Internation Adoption Transracial Adoption Search and Reunion FOSTER CARE AND ADOPTION
The number of children in foster care in the United States continues to grow. At the end of 1994, there were 468,000 children in foster care in this country, a 70% increase since 1984. It is estimated that between 86,000 and 100,000 of these children will not return to their birth families and will need adoption planning services. Given current trends, it is likely that the number of children in foster care who need adoptive families will continue to increase.
Who are the Children in Foster Care Who Need Adoptive Families ["Waiting Children"]?
Children in foster care who are waiting for adoptive families cross all age ranges. The vast majority of waiting children are not infants. More than one-third of waiting children are between 1 and 5 years of age and close to 45% are between the ages of 6 and 12. Approximately 60% of waiting children are children of color. Many children are part of sibling groups that will be adopted together. In addition, some percentage of waiting children have special physical, emotional and developmental needs that require special services.
Do Children in Foster Care Get Adopted?
An ongoing problem has been that children in foster care who need adoptive families remain in care. Even though the number of children who need adoptive families has continued to grow, the number of adoptions actually finalized in any one year has remained about the same [around 17,000 to 22,000 adoptions of waiting children each year]. A number of issues have been identified as contributing to this problem:
• difficulties in proceeding effectively with termination of parental rights; and • problems recruiting a sufficient number of adoptive families for older children who may have special needs and many of whom are children of color. Child welfare programs across the country have attempted to address these issues with a range of programs designed to expedite decision making regarding reunification or adoption; to work with courts to make it possible to terminate parental rights in a timely way; and to effectively recruit, prepare and support adoptive families for waiting children. Who Adopts Children in Foster Care?
Increasingly, children in foster care are adopted by their foster parents. Some communities report that as many as 80 to 90% of all adopters are foster parents. Children are also adopted by relatives and by families who are unrelated to them. There has been great controversy about who should be able to adopt waiting children. The issues frequently raised and debated include adoption by single parents [largely accepted, but there continue to be disputes about adoption by "unmarried" individuals]; adoption by gay and lesbian individuals; and transracial adoption, particularly the adoption of African American children by white families. Despite the attention to issues regarding who should be able to adopt, the supply of prospective adoptive families remains far below the needed number of families.
What Does the Law Require Regarding the Adoption of Children in Foster Care?
Federal law that addresses the adoption of children in foster is contained in the Social Security Act, Title IV-E. Under this law, the federal government provides funds for foster care services and for adoption subsidies [monthly payments] to support children with special needs who are adopted. The law also sets out certain requirements that states must meet to receive federal funding. Recent changes in the law, made by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, attempt to increase the number of adoptions of children in foster care. As examples, the new law requires states to initiate termination of parental rights for children who have been in foster care for certain periods of time; requires that each child have a "permanency hearing" within 12 months of the child coming into foster care; and provides that child welfare agencies do not have to make "reasonable efforts" to reunify a child with his or her family if the parents has committed certain criminal acts in relation to the child or a child's sibling [such as torture, sexual abuse, or the murder of a sibling] or if the parents' rights to another child have been involuntarily terminated.
Another federal law [the 1996 Small Business Protection Act], contains a provision on the "removal of barriers to interethnic adoption." This provision states that agencies may not consider race, culture, or ethnicity as a factor in decisions to delay or deny a foster or adoptive placement. Many questions remain unresolved about the application of this requirement.
Challenges for Foster Care and Adoption in the Future
What is the right balance between efforts to reunify families and the need to free children for adoption as early in their lives as possible?
Will growing numbers of children continue to enter foster care and to need adoption?
With the current focus on adoption as the answer for many children in foster care, how can the needed number of adoptive families be recruited, prepared to care for children who may have special needs, and then supported after adoption?
Will policies that promote transracial adoption "solve" the problem of children waiting too long in foster care for adoptive families?
With the growing application of managed care to child welfare, will changes in funding foster care and adoption make a difference -- in a positive or negative direction-- for children?
In 1997, almost 14,000 children, from over 50 countries, were adopted internationally to the United States, an almost 100 percent increase over 1990. This year, the number is expected to exceed 15,000. These children, primarily living in orphanages and other institutions, would likely not have found permanent families in their countries of birth. For these children, intercountry adoption represents the only way for them to have a family of their own.
Why are children adopted internationally?
Countries typically choose to allow intercountry adoption for their children when sufficient homes are not available domestically, either for economic or cultural reasons. Many countries have in place procedures and policies to encourage domestic adoption, but allow intercountry adoption if no home can be found for the child in his country of origin.
Why do American families adopt from other countries?
Families choose to adopt internationally for a variety of reasons. Some believe it to be quicker or less expensive than domestic adoption, although this is most often not true. Other families choose not to enter the competition for a baby in the U.S. and would rather adopt a child for whom a family is not waiting. Recently, international adopters have expressed the belief that these adoptions are less likely to be challenged by birth parents after placement of the child.
What are the requirements for international adoption?
Intercountry adoptions are subject to more oversight and controls than are domestic adoptions. While prospective parents must conform to the requirements of their state of residence, each country also has its own laws that must be satisfied as well. Both the parents and the children must also meet eligibility requirements of the Immigration and Naturalization Service before the child is issued a visa. To enter the U.S. with a preference visa as an "adoptable orphan", a child must be a true orphan, be unconditionally abandoned, or have a sole surviving parent who is unable to care for him. The total expense of an intercountry adoption ranges between $12,000 and about $25,000, depending on travel requirements of the child's country of origin. Typically, an intercountry adoption takes 9 to 18 months to complete, after the home study is finished.
Who are the children who are being adopted internationally?
In 1996, almost two girls were adopted from abroad for every boy. Over half of the children were under one year of age, with 90 percent under 4 years old. In 1997, the majority of the children came from Asia (48%), Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics (38%), and Central and South America (10%). Russia (28%), China (27%), and South Korea (12%) placed the most children with U.S. families.
The majority of the children are characterized as "healthy" at placement, but upon careful screening, many exhibit an unsuspected medical condition, typically something minor such as intestinal parasites. However, serious health conditions such as hepatitis B are sometimes discovered after placement. The American Academy of Pediatrics has approved a series of screening tests suggested for all newly arrived international adoptees.
What are the special challenges of parenting through intercountry adoption?
Once the child is in his new home, families find that there are special parenting concerns and responsibilities inherent in nurturing a child adopted internationally. Health and developmental status may require special attention in the early years, while issues of adoption, identity, and racism (most often the children are of minority ethnic heritage) require parental attention as the child grows. Supports for the family include adoptive parent support groups, interaction with local ethnic communities, visits to the child's country of origin, programs provided by adoption agencies and adoptive parent groups to support ethnic heritage, and parenting resource materials such as books, videotapes, etc.
What does the research say about international adoption?
A review of the research of outcomes for children adopted internationally finds that the children generally do quite well. Attachment, identity, and comfort with adoption issues are generally reported to be good. International adoptees typically find racial discrimination issues to be more troubling than issues stemming from adoption. The rates at which international adoptions disrupt are equivalent to those for domestic adoptions.
What is the future of intercountry adoption?
The future of intercountry adoption will be determined by the perceptions of its success held by officials and the public in the children's countries of origin. Safeguards contained in the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, a multilateral treaty of cooperation and controls now being considered for ratification by countries around the world (including the U.S.), will help reassure all parties that the rights of the children and birth parents in an intercountry adoption are respected. The Convention should put to rest some of the fears (that the children are being used as organ donors, for example) that make the process unstable at best and deny the love of a permanent family to children who could benefit from adoption. The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and its implementing legislation may be introduced to the Congress for consideration early in 1999.
Challenges for Intercountry Adoption in the Future
ï How can prospective adoptive families be better prepared for the unanticipated joys and challenges of intercountry adoption?
ï Will the United States ratify the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, and what will that mean for children overseas who need new families and for the U.S. families who want to adopt them?
ï Will international adoptees want to search for their birth families? Will this be possible and will the policies of their countries of birth allow it?
ï Will there be a trend toward more openness in intercountry adoptions, as we've seen in domestic adoptions?
Prepared by Susan A. Freivalds APRIL 1998 Between two and five million children in the United States have been adopted, and between 2% and 4% of all families have adopted. Although there is no definitive source of data on the number or types of adoptions finalized, it is generally estimated that between 130,000 to 150,000 adoptive families are formed each year. Between 30,000 and 40,000 of these adoptions are adoptions of infants and very young children.
Are Fewer Infants Available for Adoption?
The number of infants available for adoption has significantly declined over the last few decades. With changes in societal attitudes toward contraceptive use, abortion and nonmarital parenting, fewer women make the choice to relinquish their children for adoption. Among never-married white women, the relinquishment rate declined from 19 percent of all nonmarital births in 1965-1972 to between 2 and 3 percent in the 1990s. African American and Latina women historically have not surrendered their infants for adoption -- fewer than 2 percent have at any time chosen adoption as the option for their newborns.
Are More People Wanting to Adopt Infants?
Interest in the adoption of infants has grown. As the large Baby Boom group has reached their reproductive years and more individuals delay child bearing, the incidence of infertility has increased. While many infertile individuals seek to conceive through reproductive technologies, many consider the adoption of infants as the path to forming their families. In 1988, the data showed that at any one time, 200,000 women were considering adopting; by 1995, some 500,000 women were, at any one time, considering adoption. The number of individuals wanting to adopt greatly exceeds the number of infants available for adoption in this country.
How Do People Adopt?
Adoption now occurs in a variety of ways. Adoption agencies offer services to birth parents needing counseling on their options and assistance with planning the adoption of their children. These agencies also work with prospective adoptive families to "match" a child and family. Independent practitioners, particularly attorneys, have taken a greater role in infant adoption. Legal in all but four states, the independent adoption practice of attorneys may now represent the primary route through which infant adoptions take place. Prospective adoptive parents increasingly are advertising their interest in adopting and making their own "matches" with birth parents. In these "identified" adoptions, adoptive and birth parents may jointly approach a lawyer or agency for assistance in finalizing the adoption.
Adoption and Birth Families
In the area of infant adoption, there have been significant changes over the last decade in the involvement of birth families in planning the adoption of their children. In the 1960s and 1970s, agencies generally selected the adoptive family for a child with no input from the birth mother or father. Current practice is much different. In most agency adoptions and for virtually all independent adoptions, birth parents are actively involved in selecting the adoptive family for their child.
Reports in the media of contested adoptions have caused many people to believe that disputes between birth parents and adoptive parents after a child has been placed for adoption are common-place. In reality, less than 1 percent of all adoptions result in a legal contest between adoptive families and birth parents who seek to regain their rights to their child. The contested adoption cases that have arisen have generally been associated with inadequate counseling of birth mothers before the adoption; failures to abide by state laws regarding the required waiting time between a child's birth and the mother's signing of relinquishment forms; and issues related to birth fathers' rights.
Adoption and Greater Openness
One major change in adoption has been greater acceptance of some level of contact between birth and adoptive families. "Open adoption" can mean many things. At one end of the spectrum, birth and adoptive parents may meet before the adoption is finalized and have no further contact. At the other end of the spectrum, birth and adoptive families may maintain some level of ongoing contact throughout the child's life, such as by exchanging photos or letters or face-to-face meetings. "Search and reunion" is another aspect of openness. To a growing extent, adopted adults are undertaking searches for their birth parents and seeking contact with their parents and other biological relatives.
Challenges for Infant Adoption in the Future
Will the disparity between the demand for adoption by infertile couples and the supply of healthy infants available for adoption continue?
How will the expansion and marketing of new reproductive technologies -- such as frozen embryo transfer and the sale of "ready-made" embryos-- impact adoption?
As independent adoption continues to grow and more people use advertising to adopt, will the adoption of infants look very different in the future? Will adoption agencies still have a role?
Birth fathers have largely been ignored or, when they are a part of the decision-making about adoption, they have been viewed as troublesome. Will the role of birth fathers change in the future? Should it?
Will greater openness in adoption continue? Is ongoing contact between an adoptive family and the birth parents a "good" thing for children?
APRIL 1998 Transracial Adoption
Transracial adoption in the United States has generally referred to the adoption of African American children by white families. The number of transracial adoptions in the US is not known. Transracial adoptions, however, have declined since 1972 when the National Association of Black Social Workers issued a position paper opposing transracial adoption. In-race adoption became the preferred approach to adoption. In 1996, however, federal law was amended to require that adoption agencies no longer give any consideration to race, culture or ethnicity in adoptive placements. The policy is believed by its proponents to be critical to ensuring that the thousands of African American children in foster care waiting for adoptive families will be adopted. Others contend that transracial adoption is not likely to have much of an impact on the number of children of color experiencing long stays in foster care, and may, in fact, detract attention from efforts to address more pressing problems affecting children of color and their families. Because the policy is only now being implemented, the actual impact remains to be seen.
The Role of Money in Adoption
Many point to the increasing cost of adoption as one factor that makes adoption appear to be less than a desirable undertaking. Most infant adoptions involve expenses of $10,000 to $15,000 and some cost twice that much. An international adoption, depending on the country, can cost between $5,000 and $20,000 with more money changing hands in other countries as various intermediaries and functionaries become involved. The issue has become one of appropriate expenses for services rendered versus money that, in effect, "buys" a child.
In the area of foster care and adoption, expenses to adoptive families are generally very low. The issue for these adoptive families is the extent to which post-adoption subsidies and other supports will be available to help them meet their children's special needs on an ongoing basis. Complexities in federal law have raised questions about the ready availability in the future of adoption subsidies -- and the Medicaid coverage they carry for children. At the same time, there is now great interest in importing managed care principles from the health care arena into foster care and adoption, thereby saving money. Adoption, particularly if done quickly so that children leave foster care early and if completed without ongoing responsibilities for post-adoption services, is seen as a cost-effective strategy. This approach to adoption raises questions about the role of money in policies related to foster care and adoption.
Openness in adoption encompasses several issues:
The practice of having some level of contact between birth parents and adoptive families as adoption is being planned and/or on an ongoing basis after the adoption
Access to identifying information in adoption records
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