children who have experienced early adversity.
PROSPECTIVE SINGLE ADOPTIVE PARENTS
Adoption by single adults has increased over the past few decades as well. In 2011, close to one-third of adoptions from foster care were by single adults, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.1 Since the 1980s it has become more culturally acceptable for single parents to raise children on their own.
Women in particular have become increasingly willing and interested in raising children alone, though single fatherhood is on the rise as well. Children may come to single women biologically, through relationships with partners, surrogate partners, artificial insemination or through adoption. Older child adoption may appeal particularly to single women who are in a later stage of life when raising an infant is not an option. Single women who have a strong support system may adopt with the hope they will later find a partner with whom to raise the child. Others may not be as concerned about finding a partner and are willing and expecting to take on the burden of parenting largely on their own. Lesbians and gay men may need to adopt as single parents, even if they have a partner, due to restrictions on gay couples adopting in their states.
While there are more single women interested in adoption, the pool of prospective single male adoptive parents is growing. Single men may have concerns similar to single women including feeling that, as older single men, they are more prepared to parent an older child than an infant. Some single men who adopt may be gay and do not yet have a partner or are restricted to adopting as a single man due to state laws against same-sex second parent adoption. While the number of single adoptive fathers is increasing, single adoptive mothers greatly outnumber single adoptive fathers by a ratio of thirteen to one.2
KINSHIP CARE AND ADOPTION
Kinship care or kinship adoption refers to the care or adoption of a child by a relative such as a grandparent, aunt or uncle. Some states have a broader definition of kin that includes non-related persons such as close friends of the family. Kinship care arrangements are made in families every day without the involvement of the courts or the child welfare system. Parents may be unable to care for their children due to military deployment or sudden illness. In certain cultures, informal care of children by kin is not uncommon. In Native American cultures, for example, members of the extended family and even unrelated members of the tribe are expected to care for children in need. Quite often, Native American children whose parents are unable to care for them are raised by grandparents or other older relatives.
Custody or guardianship agreements may be preferred to formal care or adoption by relative caregivers, because it does not result in termination of parental rights but gives the caregivers authority to make decisions for the child.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 placed a major emphasis on kinship care and adoption. The Act encouraged states to enact policies requiring child welfare agencies to do a diligent search for all extended family members of a child removed from the home and to notify those family members of the child’s removal within thirty days. It also made funding available to states for programs that emphasize and support kinship care and adoption. Kinship navigator programs help kin caregivers access services vital to successfully raising the child(ren) in their care. Since the Act was passed, kinship care and adoption have grown. From 2000 to 2008 the percentage of children adopted out of child protective care by relatives increased from 21 to 30 percent.3
In a majority of states, related family members are given preference in the care of a child removed from the home. Relatives who are asked by agencies to care for related children, often with little notice, may not have to undergo all the licensing requirements of foster parents but they will generally have to undergo a criminal background check. Kinship caregivers filing for adoption are given priority in many jurisdictions. Kinship care and adoption policies vary from state to state, so it is important to understand what rights you have as a kinship caregiver in your state.
Over the past decade, researchers and practitioners have discovered a number of benefits of kinship foster care and adoption. In the care of relatives, children may be able to maintain stronger connections with their parents, community and culture. They also are more likely to be placed in the care of relatives with their siblings or in family situations where they have more contact with siblings.4
PROSPECTIVE ADOPTIVE PARENTS WHO ARE SERVING IN THE MILITARY
Active members of the armed services, based in the United States or abroad, are eligible to adopt from the US foster care system and internationally. They may also adopt an infant through the US system of private adoptions. It is important that active service members learn about special benefits and services they are eligible for when they adopt and about some of the barriers they may face during the process. Generally, military families follow the same process of adopting a child from the US foster care system as other families, including an agency orientation, pre-adoptive training, paperwork, background check, home study and working with the agency to be matched with a child.
Military families interested in adopting an infant should find a private agency to work with. Likewise, military families interested in intercountry adoption should find a Hague-accredited agency to work with either in the United States or in the country where they are based. Several agencies specialize in working with service members based abroad who are interested in adopting domestically or internationally.
According to AdoptUSKids, active service members must follow the laws of adoption of the state where they are currently based. Military families move often, which can complicate the process. Two laws regulating interstate adoptions will be important to military adoptive families: the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) and the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA). Both laws were enacted to facilitate the placement of foster and adoptive children across state lines and ensure that families receive vital services. It is important that older children legally free for adoption have as many opportunities as possible to be placed with adoptive families, even if the family lives in another state. Although interstate adoptions are common, families do report delays and challenges when they seek to adopt a child living in a different jurisdiction. The best approach for military and other families to take when adopting from another state is to ask their agency of choice a lot of questions and also do as much research as possible about adoption laws in the state where their prospective adoptive child currently resides.
As active service members, military families are eligible for the Department of Defense adoption reimbursement program, which covers $2,000 in eligible adoption expenses per adoptee in one calendar year.5 Members of the armed forces are also eligible for up to twenty-one days of leave upon the adoption of a child. In addition to Medicaid if they qualify, pre-adoptive and adoptive children of active and retired service members are eligible for TRICARE benefits, the healthcare program of active and retired service members.6 Military family service centers should be able to provide members of the military with additional information about benefits they can expect to receive when they adopt a child. Service members should complete as much research as possible on their own as well and find an attorney skilled in military family adoption.
PROSPECTIVE GAY AND LESBIAN ADOPTIVE PARENTS
Sometimes a waiting child does have preferences in terms of an adoptive parent’s characteristics; this is often true when it comes to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) foster children. According to the Human Rights Campaign, LGBT youth are disproportionately represented in the foster care system.7 Sadly, many of these LGBT children and teens in the foster system are rejected or even abused and neglected because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The discrimination or rejection that each may have experienced in their adopted or fostered lives can create a strong bond of understanding between gay or lesbian adoptive parent and LGBT child or teen.
Because
