the number of prospective adoptive parents of color may improve permanency for children of color who statistically experience longer stays in foster care. In recognition of this fact, many states have developed adoptive parent recruitment and support programs geared specifically toward certain racial and ethnic groups. There also are a number of adoption agencies that specialize in recruiting and working with prospective adoptive parents of color.
Adopting Within the United States
UNDERSTANDING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM
“Over the last five years, opinions of foster care adoption improved to be as good, if not better, than those of private domestic infant adoption or international adoption,” according to The Dave Thomas Foundation.1
The number of older children being adopted through the American child welfare system may be increasing in recent decades due in part to a greater awareness among prospective adoptive parents of the need for permanent homes for waiting children; a decrease in the number of infants being placed for adoption and a greater willingness by kinship and family caregivers to legally adopt children in their care. Should you decide to adopt an older child domestically, learn all you can about the American child welfare system, because you will interact with many parts of the system as you go through the adoption process. You will have many choices to make along the way, including what kind of agency to work with, what type of adoption you would like to pursue and the characteristics of the child you would like to adopt.
The American child welfare system emerged from concerns about the lack of protections afforded abused and neglected children. Interestingly, the first child welfare agencies in the United States served both abused children and animals. Over the centuries and in modern times the US child welfare system has grown in complexity.2
The three pillars of the American child welfare system are safety, permanency and well-being. Local and state child welfare organizations are responsible for investigating allegations of abuse and neglect, removing children from the home when they cannot safely stay there, developing case plans for families and finding permanent homes for children when parental rights are terminated. While most child protection work is carried out by public agencies, an increasing number of private agencies are becoming involved in child abuse and neglect prevention and treatment services. Private agencies licensed by the state also commonly deliver foster care and adoption services. Although child protective services largely fall under the jurisdiction of the states (states decide how to administer services and enact child welfare laws and policies), federal legislation has significantly impacted local agencies. States must comply with federal child welfare laws and regulations to receive federal funding for services and programs.3
Public child welfare agencies have come under intense scrutiny by the media. Underfunded in many counties and states, some agencies struggle to provide the best child protection and permanency services possible. Notorious for being overworked and underpaid, many public agency caseworkers and supervisors quickly become discouraged and burn out. The good news is that millions of federal dollars have been invested in child welfare system changes, capacity building and professional development for the child welfare workforce over the past two decades.4 Public funds help support the development of programs by county and state agencies to enhance recruitment and retention of quality child welfare staff. Furthermore, schools of social work have partnered with public child welfare agencies to increase the number of MSWs entering the field and provide agency staff with comprehensive training. Publicly funded programs to help agencies become more “trauma informed” and implement “evidence based practices” have made great strides in improving service delivery in cities, counties and states throughout the country.
Foster parents provide temporary homes for children who cannot live safely with their parents or legal guardians. Many children are placed with relatives, while others are placed with foster parents. In 2012, there were about 400,000 children in foster care at any given time, according to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS 2012).5
When allegations of abuse or neglect are substantiated, parents must follow a case plan if they want to remain with or be reunified with their children. Parents who satisfactorily meet the requirements of their case plan are reunited with their children. In other cases, courts terminate parental rights and children become “legally free” for adoption. In 2012, the case plan for about half of all children in foster care was reunification with parents or guardians while the plan for about a quarter of the children was adoption. Other permanency goals include long-term foster care or guardianship placement with relatives.
Children whose parents’ parental rights have been terminated and are legally free to be adopted are often referred to as “waiting children.” While waiting for a “forever family,” children are most often placed in relative or non-relative foster homes while a small percentage, usually children with severe mental, medical or physical challenges, are placed in group homes or hospitals. Some foster children experience multiple foster placements before they are adopted. Approximately 100,000 children in the United States are waiting to be adopted, according to AFCARS 2012.6
TRUTHS ABOUT OLDER CHILD ADOPTION
Adoption of children from the US foster care system, sometimes referred to as public adoption, has been increasing over the past three decades and accounts for about 40 percent of all adoptions by Americans (the remaining adoptions are of American-born infants voluntarily relinquished by biological parents and international adoptions).7 A majority of older children adopted in the United States are adopted by their foster parents. Not all foster parents adopt children in their care, however—they may be unwilling or unable to make a lifetime commitment to the child. A growing number of foster children are being adopted by family members, due in part to state programs and federal incentives encouraging kinship adoption. In most states, relative caregivers of children removed from their parents have first priority in adoption.8 Some family members prefer legal guardianship to allow the child’s parents a greater measure of involvement in the child’s life. The remaining children adopted out of foster care—many considered “hard to place”—are adopted by persons unrelated to them.
| COMMON MYTHS ABOUT OLDER CHILD ADOPTION | |
| MYTH | FACT |
| Most foster children are juvenile delinquents. | Most foster children are caught up in the child welfare system through no fault of their own. |
| Most older children and teens waiting to be adopted have significant mental health problems and need to live in institutions. | Very few foster children live in institutions and the vast majority function normally. |
| Domestic older child adoption is expensive. | Generally there is no cost to adopting from the public system, and you may receive monthly adoption subsidies. |
| Older teens in foster care don’t need adoptive families; they will do just fine on their own. | Were you able to live independently at sixteen, eighteen or even twenty-one? Teens aging out of foster care without a permanent family face serious lifelong challenges. |
ADOPTIONS FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM
It is important that prospective adoptive parents of older American children become familiar with the foster care system, because their future child most likely will have spent time in foster care. Foster care is meant to be a safe place for children but sometimes it does more harm than good if children are moved from home to home or experience maltreatment in a foster home. Children in foster care already have experienced the trauma of being separated
