THE EVAN B. DONALDSON ADOPTION INSTITUTE
August 2003 E-NEWSLETTER
IN THIS ISSUE
1. Laws, Policy & Practice
2. Research
3. News
5. About the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
1. Laws, Policy & Practice
CALIFORNIA
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS SECOND-PARENT ADOPTION
In Sharon S. v. Superior Court, the California
Supreme Court this month ruled that second-parent adoption
in California is valid in appropriate circumstances and
in the best interests of children. The decision allows
parties, particularly the custodial birth or first adoptive
parent, to waive the usual consequence of an adoption
that a birth parent is relieved of all rights and responsibilities
and the new adoptive parent becomes the sole parent. Estimating
that there have been 10,000-20,000 second-parent adoptions
in the state, the Court reasoned that allowing second-parent
adoption is in the best interest of children, and thus
consistent with public policy and the intent of the legislature.
The Court reversed a lower court decision holding that
the statute did not allow for second-parent adoptions,
except by stepparents. Most second-parents adoptions involve
same-sex couples raising children together. To read the
decision, go to: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S102671.PDF.
See also American Bar Association Supports Second-Parent
Adoption below.
ILLINOIS
EXPANDS ABILITY OF ALL PARTIES TO USE INTERMEDIARY PROGRAM
Effective January 1, 2004, adopted people 21
and older and adoptive parents can obtain a court-appointed
confidential intermediary without proving medical or psychological
cause, as they had to under the old law in Illinois. Additionally,
birth parents now will be permitted to participate in
the intermediary program once the children they placed
reach age 21. All parties can access the intermediary
program for the purpose of exchanging medical information,
obtaining identifying information or arranging contact
with mutually consenting biological relatives. Previously,
intermediaries could only seek medical information from
biological relatives. Provided a “sought-after relative”
has not filed a Denial of Information Exchange, the confidential
intermediary will inform such relatives of the petitioner’s
request and of their options. The law also allows adult
adoptees access to non-identifying information on original
birth certificates and the “actual date and place
of birth.” To read the law, go to: http://www.legis.state.il.us/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=093-0189.
AMERICAN
BAR ASSOCIATION SUPPORTS SECOND-PARENT ADOPTION
The American
Bar Association (ABA) issued a resolution supporting “laws
and court decisions that permit the establishment of legal
parent-child relationships through joint adoptions and
second-parent adoptions by unmarried persons who are functioning
as a child's parents when such adoptions are in the best
interests of the child.” The ABA recognized that
such adoptions ensure that children are entitled to the
legal, financial, emotional and developmental benefits
of having two parents. Second-parent adoption is available
by statute or court order in ten states, but court decisions
in another four states prohibit them. The statement is
in line with previous ones by the ABA, such as its endorsement
of the Uniform Adoption Act which allows second-parent
adoptions and its policy supporting “the enactment
of laws and implementation of public policy [providing]
that sexual orientation shall not be a bar to adoption
when the adoption is determined to be in the best interests
of the child.” To obtain the report in support of
the resolution, contact the ABA Section of Individual
Rights and Responsibilities: http://www.abanet.org/irr/home.html.
For more information, go to: http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/summer03/parental.html.
GUATEMALA REPORTEDLY SUSPENDS
HAGUE IMPLEMENTATION
According to
a State Department notice citing a media report, the Constitutional
Court of Guatemala “ruled to suspend the implementation
of the Hague Adoption Convention and the Central Authority.”
The August 14, 2003, posting notes that the State Department
is seeking confirmation from the Guatemalan government
and assessing the effect on current and future cases.
To read the notice, go to: http://travel.state.gov/guatemala_notice1.html.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HELPS PROSPECTIVE
PARENTS ADOPTING FROM CHINA
The Department
of Homeland Security announced this month that it would
amend regulations to assist prospective adoptive parents
who face processing delays in China. These delays follow
the six-week, May 15, 2003-June 24, 2003, suspension of
dossier processing imposed by the China Center for Adoption
Affairs due to the spread of severe acute respiratory
syndrome. Changes in Homeland Security policy will give
the Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services discretionary authority to extend the duration
of any key application. The Chinese suspension raised
concerns among prospective parents that their application
approval would expire before they could travel to China
to finalize their adoptions. To read the Department’s
notice, go to: http://www.bcis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/newsrels/adopt080703.htm
2. Research
CENSUS
REPORTS NUMBER OF ADOPTED CHILDREN FOR THE FIRST TIME
The 2000 Special
Report on Adopted Children and Stepchildren, released
this month, found that there were 2.1 million adopted
children of householders in the United States, representing
2.5% of all children; of these, 1.6 million were under
age 18. This number was composed only of dependent children
living in the owner or renter’s household at the
time of the census. Of adopted children, 58% were non-Hispanic
white, 16% African American and 14% Hispanic. Additionally,
13% of adopted children were born abroad; of these, 48%
were adopted from Asia, 33% from Latin American and 16%
from Europe. Korea was the largest country of origin,
representing 22% of foreign-born adopted children. Census
2000 also discovered that 17% of adopted children under
18 were of a different race than the householder, and
7% were of different Hispanic origin than the householder.
To read the full report, go to:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-6.pdf. To
read a news account of it, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2003-08-22-adoptees-usat_x.htm.
ONLY 10 STATES MEET STANDARD
FOR FOSTER CARE ADOPTION
The Department
of Health and Human Services’ “Child Welfare
Outcomes 2000: Annual Report to Congress” found
that just 10 states met or exceeded the national standard
for the outcome, “reduce time in foster care to
adoption.” The national standard is moving 32% of
children from foster care to adoption within 24 months;
of the 48 states with sufficient data to calculate a percentage,
the median was 19.7%. This outcome is one of seven child
welfare outcomes, and the only one specific to adoption.
In its report this month, HHS cited barriers such as inadequately
implemented strategies to expedite adoption, but also
acknowledged that states are attempting to place children
who have been in foster care for long periods of time,
as contributors to delays. To read the report, go to:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cwo00/cwo2000.pdf.
DELAYS REPORTED IN COMPLETING
STATEWIDE CHILD INFORMATION SYSTEMS
A United States
General Accounting Office report finds that despite spending
$2.4 billion in federal, state and local funding, states
cited median completion delays of two and one-half years
in developing statewide automated child welfare information
systems. The July 2003 report, “Most States Are
Developing Statewide Information Systems, but the Reliability
of Child Welfare Data Could Be Improved,” also found
that nearly all the states described “insufficient
caseworker training and inaccurate and incomplete data
entry” and most reported insufficient guidance from
Health and Human Services as contributors to diminished
data quality. Of the 47 states developing or operating
Statewide Information Systems, only five are complete;
34 are fully or partially operational (a lesser standard)
for adoption information and 25 are fully or partially
operational for adoption assistance payments. Congress
requires that HHS compile data on children served by state
agencies and authorized federal funding for the systems
to support state information tracking. To read the report,
go to:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=d03809.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao.
STUDY FINDS ADOPTIVE PARENTS
PLEASED WITH OPEN ADOPTION
A longitudinal
study, “Open Adoption of Infants: Adoptive Parents’
Feelings Seven Years Later” by Siegel found that
among 16 adoptive couples, all parents were happy with
the openness in their adoptions and adhered to the contact
agreements they had with birth families. Open adoptions
were defined as “those in which the birth and adoptive
parents had some sort of personal contact and exchange
of information about themselves before or after the adoption
finalization, or both.” All of the parents responded
that “my child is better off because she or he has
access to her or his birth parent.” The research,
published in the July 2003 Social Work, Vol. 48, No. 3,
is the second part of a longitudinal study examining adoptive
parents’ feelings about their infant open adoptions.
The initial study, performed in 1988, surveyed 21 white
married couples in New England; the 1995 study collected
information from 16 of the original 21 families. To order
the journal, go to: http://www.naswpress.org/publications/journals/social_work/swintro.html.
3.
News
PROMINENT
COLUMNIST SUGGESTS REASSESSING “SAFE HAVEN”
LAWS
Calling “safe haven” laws “a
classic illustration of two phenomena: well-intended public
policy with unintended consequences and the almost irresistible
appeal of an attractive label,” columnist Albert
Hunt concludes that such laws are “largely ineffective.”
His column, headlined “No Safe Haven,” was
published in the August 21, 2003, edition of the Wall
Street Journal. The column points out some of the laws’
deficiencies, such as precluding both access to health
information and contact with biological family members.
Additionally, Hunt writes that the laws open the door
to coercion of biological mothers to abandon their newborns
and jettisoning the rights of biological fathers. The
article recommends confidential counseling about parenting,
prenatal care, and adoption as constructive alternatives.
The article is not available for free on the Wall Street
Journal’s website.
MILLIONS OF AFRICAN CHILDREN, ORPHANED
BY AIDS, STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE
The U.N. AIDS organization reports that in Sub-Saharan
Africa, more than 3.5 million children have lost both
parents to AIDS and more than 13 million have lost at
least one parent to AIDS. According to an August 13, 2003,
Washington Post article, “A Generation Orphaned
by AIDS,” relatives of these orphaned children are
often already overburdened and unable to house or help
them. Parentless children are at-risk of complete poverty,
hunger, poor health, not attending school, abuse and exploitation.
To read the article, go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51948-2003Aug12.html
UK LAW GIVES BIRTHMOTHERS RIGHT TO SEEK
OUT ADOPTED CHILDREN
For the first time, birth parents in the United
Kingdom have a chance to seek information about children
they placed for adoption, reports the July 30, 2003, Guardian
article “Past Present.” The Adoption and Children
Act 2002 provides that once an adopted child turns 18,
birth parents and other biological relatives can request
information and contact through an intermediary. The law
was informed by a Children's Society study of 78 non-searching
adopted people who had been indirectly contacted by a
birth relative, 90% of whom agreed to contact. The law
covers both future and past adoptions and will be implemented
in two steps. Beginning in April 2004, rules will address
adoptions prior to 1975 and, a year later, adoptions after
1975. To read the article, go to:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/adoption/story/0,8150,1008334,00.html.
4. About
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Since
its establishment in 1996, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption
Institute has been a pre-eminent, independent voice for
improving adoption for everyone it touches - particularly
children - through innovative programs, educational initiatives,
research and analysis, and advocacy for better practices,
policies and laws.
Our award-winning
web site, www.adoptioninstitute.org,
is a popular and reliable source for accurate adoption
information. Read past e-Newsletters at http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/whowe/nl_archives.html.
SUPPORT
OUR WORK
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