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Wednesday, March 31
1999 Monday, April 5 1999 Wednesday, April 7 1999 Featuring:
Topics Include: Foster Care and Adoption
The number of children
in foster care in the United States continues to
grow. At the end of Fiscal Year 1996, there were
more than 500,000 children in foster care. This
number represents a 79% increase over the number
of children in care in 1986. Approximately
110,000 of the children in foster care 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"]? The majority of children
in foster care who need adoptive families
often referred to as "waiting children --
have "special needs." "Special
needs is a term that generally refers to
characteristics that may make it difficult to
place a child for adoption factors such as
older age, membership in a racial or ethnic
minority group, being a part of a sibling group,
or a physical or mental disability. Children in
foster care who are waiting for adoptive
families cross all age ranges, but the vast
majority of waiting children are older. 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. Although
there are no definitive data, many waiting
children have physical, emotional and
developmental needs that require special
services. Are There Barriers to Adoption for
Children in Foster Care? An ongoing problem has
been that children in foster care who need
adoptive families remain in care for extended
periods of time. 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 stagnated
for years -- around 17,000 to 22,000 adoptions
of waiting children each year. It has been
reported, however, that the number of adoptions
of children in foster care in 1997 reached
31,000, and, it is estimated that as many as
36,000 adoptions were finalized in 1998. Several issues have been
identified as contributing to the difficulties
in moving children from foster care to adoption:
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 fashion; and to effectively recruit,
prepare and support adoptive families for
waiting children. There is a growing effort to
free children for adoption as early as possible.
Research indicates that younger children are
more readily placed with adoptive families than
are older children and that children who are
placed at younger ages tend to fare better
psychologically and socially than children who
remain in foster care for longer periods of
time. 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 Caucasian 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.
What Does the Law Require Regarding the
Adoption of Children in Foster Care?
Federal law that
addresses the adoption of children in foster
care 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. Recent changes in the law made
by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997
[ASFA] attempt to increase the number of
adoptions of children in foster care. The law
reflects the commitment made by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services in 1996
to double the number of adoptions of children in
foster care by 2002. ASFA, among other mandates:
Another federal law
[amendments to the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of
1994 made by the 1996 Small Business Protection
Act], contains a provision on the "removal
of barriers to interethnic adoption."
Federal law 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 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? 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 non-marital parenting, fewer women
make the choice to place their children for
adoption. Among never-married Caucasian women,
the relinquishment rate declined from 19% of all
non-marital births in 1965-1972 to between 2%
and 3% in the 1990s. African American and Latina
women historically have not placed their infants
for adoption -- fewer than 2% 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 members of the large
Baby Boom group have 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 infants 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 involvement of the birth mother or
father. Current practice is much different. In
most agency adoptions and in 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% 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 betweena
child's birth and themother's signing of
relinquishment forms; and issues related to
improperly resolving the rights of birth
fathers. 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 thechild'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? What is the role of
birth fathers in adoption? Are they, as often
presented, uninvolved and disinterested or does
the adoption "system" push them away?
Will greater openness in
adoption continue? Is ongoing contact between an
adoptive family and the birth parents a
"good" thing for children? In 1998, almost 16,000
children, from over 50 countries, were adopted
internationally to the United States- an almost
120% increase over 1990. In 1999, the number is
expected to be at least this great. 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. Prospective parents must
conform to the requirements of their state of
residence and each country 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 $25,000, depending on travel requirements of
thechild's country of origin. Typically, an
intercountry adoption takes 9 to 18 months to
complete, after a social worker gathers a
complete set of information regarding the
prospective adoptive family, attitudes toward
adoption, and the type of child desired. The
information seeking process and final report are
referred to as a home study. Who are the Children 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% under 4 years old. In 1998, the
largest number of children adopted by U.S.
families came from Russia (4,491 children),
followed by China (4,206), South Korea (1,829),
Guatemala (911), and Vietnam (603). 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 and videotapes. Openness
in adoption may provide additional support for
families of children who have found homes
through intercountry adoption and for adopted
adults. However, policies of other countries may
inhibit information exchanges that allow for
various levels of contact between birth parents
and their children who are adopted. 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 or lead to
the return of the child to the pre-adoptive
environment 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 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 has been introduced
to the Congress for consideration this year. Challenges for Intercountry Adoption in
the Future How can prospective
adoptive families be better prepared for the
unanticipated joys and challenges of
intercountry adoption? 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? What would U.S.
ratification of the Hague Convention mean for
U.S. children who leave the U.S. for adoption by
families in other countries? 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?
Will there be a trend toward more openness in intercountry adoptions, as has occurred in domestic adoptions?
Prepared by Susan A. Freivalds, Joint Council on International Children's Services, 7 Cheverly Circle, Cheverly, MD 20785.
Telephone: 301.322.1906. Click here to view a table of resources for international adoption
TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION The subject of
transracial adoption is often controversial
among policymakers, child welfare practitioners
and the general public in this country,
particularly when it concerns the adoption of
African American children by Caucasian parents.
Generally speaking, the transracial adoption of
children of other racial, ethnic or cultural
backgrounds, whether Asian, Indian, Latino,
South or Central American, or from Eastern
Europe or other countries around the world, is
more readily accepted. The transracial adoption
of African American children, however, seems to
raise the persistent question of whether or not
such arrangements are ultimately in the best
interests of the child. Those who favor
transracial adoption look to the fact that
African American children represent the largest
group of children awaiting adoption and spend
the longest time in foster care. The argument is
that, given the need for stability and
permanence in a child's life, the race of the
child and the adoptive family should be
irrelevant, especially in a
"colorblind" society. Those who
disagree with the adoption of African American
children by Caucasian families, including
professional groups such as the National
Association of Black Social Workers, essentially
argue that it compromises the child's racial and
cultural identity. Federal law, in the form of
the Multiethnic Placement Act and its subsequent
amendments, now prohibits consideration of race
or culture in making adoptive or foster care
placements. The law applies to all agencies
which receive federal funds. Statistics on
transracial adoption can be imprecise and
research on the subject often incomplete. The
level of transracial adoption, however, appears
to be limited. Transracial adoptions may account
for only a small percentage of public agency
adoptions, and perhaps a larger percentage of
private agency adoptions. These adoptions,
however, almost always involve healthy infants,
rather than older children or those with special
needs (including physical, mental or emotional
conditions), children who represent the greater
population of African American children in
foster care. The question is whether transracial
adoption can actually provide a solution to the
need to find permanent and appropriate homes for
children who will not be reunited with their
birth parents. Kinship care,
guardianship and adoption by relatives and by
members of the child's own racial and cultural
heritage are more typical arrangements for
children in foster care who cannot be reunited
with their parents. Whether or not these
familial plans are necessarily the best choice
in every case is a subject that merits its own
consideration. The discussion of
transracial adoption should not divert attention
from the core child welfare issues affecting
African American children, especially the
inadequacy of social policy and the systemic
failure of state and city child welfare agencies
to serve minority families in an effective
manner by addressing the underlying problems
that result in foster care placement of these
children: poverty, neglect, abuse, parental drug
use and mental health problems. THE ROLE OF MONEY IN ADOPTION The cost of adopting a
healthy infant or a young child can be
relatively expensive, certainly if compared to
the usually more modest expenditures of
biological parenthood. By contrast, the adoption
of a child in foster care with special needs may
involve no or only nominal costs. To some
extent, the costs associated with adoption can
be contained, resources found, and monetary
assistance and other support may be available.
Costs of Adoption. Private agency fees
for the adoption of infants in the United States
can range anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000. The
average is about $12,000. Fees are formulated to
cover such costs as reimbursement for the birth
mother's expenses (including medical bills,
counseling, and possibly, housing and related
maintenance), interim foster care placement for
the child, personnel expenses (including
specialists to evaluate homes, attorneys to
manage court filings and documentation
requirements, and administrative staff) and
overhead (including leases, insurance, and
various operating costs). International adoptions
may be more expensive, depending on the country.
Current fees are approximately $3,000-5,000 for
children from Haiti or Ethiopia; $6-12,000 for
children from Vietnam, Korea, China or Colombia;
and $9-14,000 for children from Romania, Russia,
or Guatemala. Independent adoptions,
in which prospective parents undertake
individual responsibility for all necessary
arrangements, can cost twice as much as an
agency adoption. Independent adoption, legal in
every state except CO, CT, DE and MA, involves
the retention of an attorney who will, at
minimum, handle the documentation to finalize
the adoption in court, and who may also be
engaged to identify and screen potential birth
mothers. Attorney fees are at least $3-5,000. A
licensed social worker must also be employed to
conduct a home study evaluation; the cost of
this service is typically $500-1,000. If the
prospective adoptive parent chooses to
advertise, costs can be most significant,
perhaps $10,000 or more depending on the extent
of publicity. Travel and reimbursement of
maternity expenses for the birth mother may also
be involved. Financial Support for Adoptive Families. It is possible to minimize the cost of adopting a healthy infant. Many private agencies have sliding-scale fees. Many employers provide adoption assistance programs, which can include free counseling, paid parental leave, and a variable sum for expenses (typically $2,-4,000). In addition, a federal tax credit on $5,000 of unreimbursed adoption expenses is available to households with adjusted gross income not exceeding $115K. Financial support also may be obtained from a variety of sources, including special adoption loans, second mortgages, credit card advances, and disbursements against life insurance polices, 401K and other deferred income plans. For families adopting children in foster care, ongoing financial support may be available. Under the federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act, financial assistance is available for adopted children with "special needs," meaning that the state has determined that the child cannot or should not be returned to his or her birth parents, and it is reasonable to conclude that due to the presence of certain factors or conditions (which may include the child's age, ethnic background, membership in a minority or sibling group, medical condition, or other physical, mental or emotional handicaps) the availability of financial assistance is necessary to place the child in a permanent, adoptive home. Federal benefits include reimbursement for certain adoption expenses (including reasonable and necessary agency and attorney fees, court costs, and travel and other directly related expenses), monthly adoption assistance stipends (at a level related to foster care maintenance payments), eligibility for Medicaid coverage (depending on income and resources of the parents), and social services (which vary by state).
OPENNESS IN 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
A significant change in
adoption practice is greater contact between
birth and adoptive families. In many agency and
most independent adoptions, birth and adoptive
families meet prior to the adoption. Identifying
information may or may not be exchanged. In some
number of adoptions, agreements are reached
between birth and adoptive families for a level
of ongoing contact throughout thechild's life.
Contact may be the periodic exchange of
photographs or letters, telephone calls on
special occasions such as birthdays or holidays,
or face-to-face meetings. A few states have
statutes in place that permit post-adoption
contact agreements and allow them to be enforced
by the parties after the adoption process is
completed. This area of openness is likely to
continue to be an issue in the future.
Access to identifying information in
adoption records
There is an ongoing
policy and legal debate about whether adult
adoptees and/or their birth parents should have
access to information that identifies the other
party. In two states, Alaska and Kansas, adult
adoptees can obtain copies of their original
birth certificates and the information they
contain about their birth parents. A similar law
was recently passed in Tennessee. This law,
however, was challenged unsuccessfully on
federal constitutional grounds, and is now being
challenged in state court on state
constitutional grounds. Oregon recently approved
a similar measure through a statewide
referendum, but it too is now being challenged
in the courts. Bills which would allow adult
adoptees to obtain their birth certificates are
currently pending in a number of states. This
issue often involves arguments, on the one hand,
that confidentiality is critical to adoption,
and arguments on the other, that adult adoptees
have a basic right to personal information about
themselves.
Search and reunion
To an increasing extent, adult adoptees and the birth parents of adults whom they placed for adoption as children are attempting to find one another. Searches and reunions in some states may be facilitated by mutual consent registries [through which both parties must register for a Amatch to occur and information to be shared] or by Aconfidential intermediary programs [through which certain designated individuals act as facilitators to determine if both parties wish to have contact with one another]. Many adoptees and birth parents turn to the services of private investigators to assist them in finding the other party. Because this area has not been well researched, much of what is understood about search and reunion is based on anecdotal accounts, which suggest a range of results when individuals seek and make contact with one another. For previous Adoption Institute Forums on Adoption and the Media, click here
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© 1999 The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute