Safeguarding the Rights and Well-being of Birthparents in the Adoption Process

This new publication, released in November for National Adoption Awareness Month, represents the most thorough, intensive and sophisticated effort to date to understand contemporary infant adoption, particularly as it relates to the least-understood and most-stigmatized participants in the process: the women and men usually termed birthparents.” 

The report is downloadable at the Donaldson Adoption Institute. The complete report is 84 pages long. The executive summary is 9 pages.

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Intercountry Adoptions

The Child Welfare Information Gateway’s September E-lert includes these two publications on intercountry adoptions.

Intercountry Adoptions Finalized Abroad
Intercountry Adoptions Finalized Abroad: Summary of State Laws

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Public Child Welfare Adoption Topics

The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Adoption provides links to information on the following topics: kinship adoption, open adoption, foster parents, adoption assistance, compassion fatigue, concurrent planning, decision making and matching, family group decision making, family preparation and assessment, older child adoption, sibling adoption, mediation, and post adoption assistance.

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Foster Adoption Law - Success and Challenges

Foster adoptions have increased 64% nationwide, but there is debate about whether the government is too focused on money for adoptions. Kentucky, for instance, is investigating the process of terminating parental rights in the wake of allegaitons from some social workers and others that the Cabinet for health and Family Service sometimes worngly terminates parental rights.

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Helping Indian Adoptees Find Their Roots

A St. Paul woman has made it her life’s work to help Indians adopted into white families reconnect with their cultural roots. She runs the First Nations Orphan Association, working as an advocate for reconnecting Indian adoptees and foster children with their cultural identities.

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Publication of Proposed Rules Moves the US Closer to Ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention.

A statement published at the U.S. State Department’s web site provides details on the two proposed rules and a link to an Internet page for comments on them. The first rule deals with adoption and custody proceedings in the United States. The second rule revises orphan visa processing by consular officers around the world for children being adopted and brought to the United States from a Convention country.

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Parental Substance Abuse, Child Protection and ASFA: Implications for Policy Makers and Practitioners

This study was designed to explore how dependency courts are making permanency decisions under ASFA for children of parental substance abusers. Through mail and telephone surveys, legal analysis and five case studies of courts that have implemented special strategies, four policy and practice implications recommendations were derived. The link above is to the report’s executive summary, a 22 page pdf file.

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National Adoption Directory

This directory includes state-by-state contact information for a variety of adoption-related organizations and services including public and licensed private adoption agencies, support groups, state reunion registries, and more. Available from the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse. 421 page pdf file.

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Adoption JobSite

A one-step job matching program that connects law and graduate social work students to adoption and child welfare employers across the county. The program is a free service to both students and employers. The site is managed by the national Center for Adoption Law & Policy

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Domestic Transracial Adoption

From the National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning, an information packet on domestic transracial adoption. It includes a comprehensive set of fact sheets and resources and a bibliography.

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An Underground Network Moving Children From Home To Home

This article examines a largely unknown aspect of the nation’s child welfare system: an underground network of families that takes in children others do not want. Some families do so legally, but others may violate child-welfare laws by failing to notify authorities. A trial for a couple in Tennessee who took in 18 children will begin January 30. They are charged with abuse and neglect and with child trafficking for moving a girl to Arizona without permission from state child-welfare officials.

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