Opinion:Why is it easier to adopt a child from overseas than from another state?
Occasionally, we will link to media opinions on aspects of adoption and child welfare that you may never have thought about. This opinion piece discusses why only 840 children get adopted out of state yet “8,868 children crossed international borders to be adopted by U.S. parents.”
“And, to our great shame as a nation, more than 23,000 children “aged out” of foster care in fiscal 2012, the most recent year for which data are available. A primary reason so many children leave foster care without a family is because it is virtually impossible in the United States to adopt a child from foster care across state lines.”
“In contrast, 8,868 children crossed international borders to be adopted by U.S. parents that year, according to State Department data. If 10 times as many children are able to cross international boundaries as state boundaries, why is Congress focused on eliminating barriers to adopting from other countries?”
Read the rest at:Why is it easier to adopt a child from overseas than from another state?[The Washington Post 4/27/14 by Jeff Katz]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
I can answer the question in two words– State’s Rights.
Every state has its own autonomous CPS and foster care department, with its own independent standards for foster parents to meet. Constitutionally, Congress has limited power over the states’ internal governance.
I followed the link in the article to Jeff Katz’s website. His group is called ‘Listening to Parents’, and his writing is solely from the perspective of the “loving” PAP who is “willing” to adopt black kids from foster care. The potential adoptee is presumed to have the exact same perspective as the PAP– Mr. Katz doesn’t seem to recognize that any divergence is possible.
I also notice that one of ‘Listening to Parents’ Board of Directors– Elle Hogan– is an adoption agency representative of some sort. She’s a “Fellow” of ‘Adoptions Together’, a domestic adoption agency. They also have a report co-authored with the Evan B. Donaldson Institute on how to make adoption more “customer friendly” for the PAPs. One of them is putting more focus on recruitment and less on pre-screening out parents who SHOULDN’T adopt.
Some of the stuff they recommend sounds good, but I’m queasy about increased intrusion of private adoption agencies into adoption from foster care. I’m afraid we’ll see more babies and toddlers yanked from their mothers for “potential harm” and fast-tracked for severance of parental rights.