Evaluation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act The implementation of the ASFA certainly carries many strengths with its amendments to the AACWA, including a title using “the term ‘safe families’ that few people would want to oppose legislation with this goal” (Jansson, 2008). One of the strengths of the new law was its movement away from bias favoring reunification that the AACWA once carried, and the placing of emphasis on child safety. Another strength was the change from selective provision of services to universal provision of services, where all special needs children would receive health coverage, regardless of whether or not they were a Title IV-E adoption. The switch to annual judicial permanency planning hearings was also an …show more content…
These areas include: the overuse of permanency goals such as emancipation and independent living, did not address what needed to be done to prevent removal and reunify children with their birth families quickly and safely, did not sufficiently support kinship care, revealed the need for improved collaboration with other public agencies and systems, and the failure to hold agencies accountable and needing infrastructure improvements. Recommendations In addition to the areas of ASFA needing improvement included in the evaluation of the law by CSSP, there are many quality recommendations provided to help improve ASFA. While ASFA should remain intact, the recommendations by CSSP that would be most helpful include: focusing on community-based prevention and intervention services to families, increased efforts and supports for reunification, implementing specialized treatment for families dealing with substance abuse, mental illness, or incarceration, reassessing ASFA timelines regarding the termination of parental rights and support for parents to progress, analyzing the child welfare system regarding practices for equality towards the specialized needs of diverse families and children, and committing to widely available and effective post-permanency supports for children (CSSP, 2009). Professional Development My research regarding
The organization under investigation is Child Protective Services, also referred to as CPS, which is an agency within the Department of Family and Protective Services. CPS is a governmental organization that has existed for years. The agency is designed to protect children from abuse and neglect. There are numerous cases that are called in on a daily basis in the state of Texas, and it is the duty of state employees to address all allegations in a timely manner. The positions held as a caseworker within the agency are either Investigator, Special Investigator, Family Based Safety Services Specialist, or Conservatorship Specialist. Due to the required work and deadlines involved with being a caseworker at CPS, the job can become very
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent, and in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities, from the biological parent or parents. Unlike guardianship adoption effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition. Adoption is a good process which helps children in different ways. I prefer to handle adoption worldwide and in all societies regardless from religious point of views.
The Administration for Children’s Services otherwise known as ACS, is an organization that works to ensure the welfare of children and to service families by providing a variety of different services. As stated on the Administration for Children’s Services website, their mission is portrayed as the following “To protects and promotes the safety and well-being of New York City’s children, young people, families, and communities by providing excellent child welfare, juvenile justice, and early care and education services”. The Administration for Children’s Services has had a great impact in the lives of children,
The reasons in which DCS can remove children from the home has since grown. (Myers,
A failure to share sources of information that could have contributed to a better understanding of children and their families
The law also provides Federal Grants to agencies that fall under its guidelines. Many agencies could not exist or be of any benefit to the community without this funding. This law protects children with disabilities, by means that housing that is unique to them be defined with specialized training and equipped to do so. Abandoned infants are a unique situation that is not as easy as one would expect to solve. Even though the “client” is unable to speak for themselves, they still need protection. When dealing with near homeless or homeless families, a human service worker may find they are unsure when to become involved more, which is something that this law will help guide them through. Finally, to protect children all around, it is now apparent that certain jobs that work with children must make their employees subject to background checks.
Furthermore, the content of the bill to a certain extent is clear and organized. The bill has labeled the population in need, the details of placement time frames, the population responsible for implementing the bill, and briefly discussed under what circumstances extensions are allowed. Although, this bill has provided general information there are many gaps within it. First, the bill does not address how the child stay would be logged and who would be in charge of that. If this is established, there needs to be a specific system created to log the days of each child residing in these homes that is under the age of 12. This would allow there to be clear and organized data that the caseworker could utilize in their planning. Also, this system
Some revision can be recommended to mitigate potentially negative or insufficient consequences of this low mentioned above. First, this expansion of Medicaid coverage should be combined with the system assures the high traceability of former foster care youth since the access to health care is important but merely one aspect of
For 30 years, advocates, program administrators, and politicians have joined to encourage even more reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Their efforts have been successful, with about three million cases of suspected child abuse having been reported in 1993. Large numbers of endangered children still go unreported, but a serious problem had developed: Upon investigation, as many as 65 percent or the reports now being made are determined to be "unsubstantiated", raising serious civil liberties concerns and placing a huge burden on investigative staffs.
Imagine spending so much effort of trying to have a child but you can’t because through a complication in the war you became sterile. Military Veterans look towards adoption as a way to have children since combat injuries don't permit them to (Wax-Thibodeaux). Therefore, the costs of adoption are almost 40,000 dollars per child in the U.S. today (Kaminer). Furthermore, you have to think about the additional funds you need to raise the child after the adoption is complete. Within the year 2008, domestic adoption ranged from 15,000 to 30,000 dollars per child. Therefore, the government tried to help parents with the costs by creating a tax credit up to 11,700 dollars for adopting parents to claim towards financial help (Block). Along with
By the year 1967, all U.S. states had child abuse reporting laws. “Child abuse reporting laws and enhanced awareness of child abuse produced an increase in intervention” (Myers, 2013). As reporting laws came into affect, more and more cases of child abuse and neglect were shown. By the mid 1970s, over 60,000 child abuse cases were reported and the extremely high rate of children in foster care alarmed government officials. In 1980, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA) was passed. This act required every state to make reasonable efforts in keeping children with their families, and when removing the child was not avoidable, the child was required to have a plan to be placed back in the home or have their parents’ rights revoked. For the children whom returning home was not an option, Congress offered financial incentives for adoption. This effort to preserve the families was a main objective of AACWA. An influential investigation pertaining to this was done by Henry S. Mass and Richard E. Engler, as explained by Sribnick (2011). They concluded that many children were living a majority of their childhood years in foster care and institutions. Their findings showed that if a child stayed in foster care for more than a year and a half, it was not likely that he or she would ever be reunited with his or her family or be adopted. In response to this, the Child Welfare League of America lobbied for child welfare workers to consider
Adoption is a beautiful system that allows for families to raise a child that could have otherwise been in bad situations. These children are taken in by a family and are given a fresh start. Children can be adopted from birth until they are eighteen years old, but thousands of these children in need are not given the opportunity of adoption because of the extravagant cost. An adoption ranges anywhere from $6,000 to $50,000 and because of this Adopt Together says, “Cost is the number one reason families don’t adopt.” There is a long list of fees that rack up the price that include legal fees, home studies, agency cost, and many more. The extravagant cost of adoption can and should be lowered in order that more families can provide a loving home to children in need.
My sister Katie feels like she “doesn’t belong” with my family. As kids, we used to play dress up with one another and Katie would always ask my mom to make her have blonde hair just as I did. My mom would then put a yellow towel on her head so that she could pretend she did. As a child I could not understand why Katie would want to do such a silly thing to try and look as I did. In my eyes we were both the same and nothing else mattered. As we got older, it became more apparent to me how different we really were. I am Caucasian and she is Native American. I have blonde hair and blue eyes while she has black hair and brown eyes. Not only did we look very different but our personalities differed as well. Katie was always much more fussy
In the last four decades, the concept of the American family has undergone a radical transformation, reflecting society¡¯s growing openness. Among all segments of society, there is a greater acceptance of a variety of family structures ¨C from single parenting to blended families to same sex parenting of children. The introduction of openness into the process of adoption offers new opportunities for children in need of a parent or parents and prospective parents wishing to create or expand their families. Meeting the requirements to become eligible to adopt no longer means being constrained by the conventions of an earlier generation.