Making Adoption Work
for Children and Families

This article appeared in the March 1998 issue of the American Humane Association
publication Child Protection Leader. Reprinted with permission of the author.

A permanent home with a loving family is obviously the best place for children to grow up. Recently legislation encourages state child welfare agencies to strive to reach this goal for more children by speeding adoptions for those who cannot safely remain with their biological families. This is a laudable goal, as many children have languished for too long in foster care. As efforts to increase adoptions gain momentum, however, it is imperative to reaffirm that adoption is intended to provide a lifelong commitment of permanence and stability for children, not merely a quick answer for the immediate dilemma of where an at-risk child will reside. Many adoptive families will need continuing support to reach this goal and enable adoptions to succeed. Children awaiting adoption often have a troubled history, and it may take special effort for parents to bond with older adoptive children.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, which became federal law in November, 1997, strongly encourages states to increase adoptions, by providing both policy and fiscal incentives for them to do so. That Act requires state child welfare agencies to initiate or join in court proceedings to terminate parental rights for children who have been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months or whose parents have killed or seriously injured another child in the family. Exceptions are provided for children already placed with relatives or for whom efforts to reunite with birth parents are reasonable and have not yet been provided. In addition, the law now permits concurrent planning, allowing agencies to make reasonable efforts to place children for adoption at the same time that they are making efforts to reunite the same children with their families of origin.

Fiscal incentives for states to increase adoptions are also written into the new federal law. When a state exceeds its average number of adoptions completed during a previous base year (with FY 1995-1997 as an initial base period and , from FY 1999 on, in any previous fiscal year after FY 1996), for each additional child adopted the state will receive a payment of $4,000 per adoption for each current foster child who is adopted, and $6,000 per child for each special needs foster child who is adopted. Up to $20 million per year has been authorized for these "adoption incentive payments" to states for FY 1999 through FY 2003. Additoinal funds are also provided for technical assistance to states to promote adoption, including such items as:

  • Risk assessment tools for early identification of children who cannot safely be returned home;
  • Models to encourage fast-tracking of children under age one into adoptive placements;
  • Development of programs that place children in pre-adoptive placements prior to termination of parental rights;
  • Best practive guidelines for termination of parental rights; and
  • Development of specialized units with expertise in moving children towards adoption as a permanency goal.

All of the emphasis in the law on speeding children into adoptive homes may prove to be misplaced, however, if equal attention is not given to providing adoptive families with the supports that are needed to ensure that adoptions are not disrupted. The majority of children waiting for adoption through public child welfare agencies have entered the system because they have suffered abuse, neglect, or abandonment by their parents. This maltreatment has often resulted in emotional or behavioral difficulties for these children. In some cases, developmental delays have also occurred, or the children have arrived in state custody with developmental or physical disabilities and continue to require special care. Many children for whom adoptive placements have not been found are older, school-age children, or are siblings who need to be adopted together. Over 50% of those currently awaiting adoption are children of color. The challenges for adoptive families trying to address the emotional, cultural, physical, and other special needs of these children can be great.

To reap the joys and rewards of successfully living together as an adoptive family, services such as counseling for the child and family, tutoring or special education, medical treatment, and reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs may be needed. Even the most dedicated adoptive parents meed assistance in helping their adopted child to cope with the multiple losses they have experienced, such as loss of family members, schoolmates, and foster parents. When children move between placements, they also frequently have their education disrupted, and may need extra attention to academic work to catch up to their peers. Some medical needs of adopted children are addressed in the new federal law by expanded requirements on states to provide health insurance for special needs children. But a well formulated effort to respond to the multiple needs presented by many of the children in the public child welfare system, whom the legislation seeks to place in adoptive homes, is lacking.

Giving the families who will adopt these children the boost they may need to successfully parent their new family members is a continuing commitment to permanence that is only fair to the children (who have lost so much already) and to their adoptive parents (who have given their high hopes to the adoption endeavor). Providing postadoptive supports to these families also makes sense in terms of preventing the return of these children into the system. Plans for an all-out effort to increase adoptions cannot, therefore, overlook:

  • Connecting children and families with ongoing supports as aprt of any agency-sponsored adoption;
  • Oganizing formal, ongoing support groups for children and parents;
  • Ensuring that planning for adoptive placements includes plans to meet any special needs of the children being place that will continue to need to be addressed;
  • Planning to provide ongoing links with the children's culture of origin;
  • Ensuring that speical educational needs will be addressed in the child's new school of residence;
  • Involving foster parents in planning for and facilitating the child's transition to the adoptive home; and
  • Letting adoptive parents know that the lines of communication remain open with the agency's adoption unit, even after the adoption is legally finalized.

With proper planning and continuing supports for adoptive families, adoption can be a permanent, nurturing alternative for children who cannot safely remain at home. We must view it though, not only as a policy mandate, but as a commitment to ensuring permanent homes for children, accompanied by the supports that adoptive parents need to unify and strengthen their new families.

References and research information from: National Endowment for Financial Education (1997). Making Adoption an Affordable Option, Denver, CO: Author; H.R. 867, Public Law 105-89, (1997). "Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997"; Gadson, B. (1997, November). "Creating a new adoption paradigm." Common Ground, 14(4).

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 1/07/06