The Influence Of The Adoption Assistance And Child Welfare Act

Raising children is one of the most important responsibilities in any society. Today, working parents have many options, but what about those children who have neither a mother nor father? What about those children who come from broken and abusive homes? In such cases there are often few choices. Parentless children may be placed in orphanages or in foster homes. Ideally, foster care offers children more personalized attention than would normally be available at a public or private situation. However, orphanage care is notoriously uneven. While some children are indeed in loving homes, others find themselves neglected or

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

A nine year old in Oregon was removed from her home by child protective services in 2010 and placed into the care of Kamlo and Dwight Reed. Even though the state Department of Human Services allegedly knew that Dwight had been accused of sexually abusing a another foster child, the adoption still went through. After the Dwight couple abused the young girl sexually, physically, and emotionally, a a guardian who was court-appointed for the child filed a lawsuit against the department in 2016. If the agency had looked into the allegations, the child would have likely been saved from suffering through years of abuse by being placed into a different home. The social service workers receive a large amount of cases each year. According to the U.S. Children 's Bureau, children protection agencies received nearly 3.6 million reports of abuse or neglect concerning 6.6 million children; however, the agency only reported roughly 702,000 children who suffered from abuse, including 1,580 children who died. The number of cases reported is less than ¼ of the cases received. If the agency discovered some of the 1,580 cases quicker, adolescent deaths

The National Children 's Alliance reported that the number of unique cases of abused and neglected children in the United States stands at an annual rate of 700,000 and rising (as cited in ?U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,? 2016, p. ii). Sadly, this means that more than 1,900 new children become victims of abuse and neglect with each passing day. Neglect was the type of

Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 Before this bill was signed into law the Federal Government provided about $70 million per year to conduct programs for adolescents leaving foster care that are designed to help them establish independent living. Research and numerous reports from States conducting these programs indicate that adolescents leaving foster care do not fare well. As compared with other adolescents and young adults their age, they are more likely to quit school, to be unemployed, to be on welfare, to have mental health problems, to be parents outside marriage, to be arrested, to be homeless, and to be the victims of violence and other crimes (Cook, 1991). The need for special help for youths ages 18 to 21

The question on the minds of a lot of people is: “Should child welfare regulations be

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In 1980, about 500,000 children were in foster care, but a series of successful reforms began with that year 's Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act which dramatically decreased the number of children in foster care. But in the early 1990s, with the advent of crack cocaine and an economic recession numbers went back up. Child welfare advocates said that the foster care system was in need of changes so that children spend less time in foster placements and that America’s child welfare system needed an improvement. Some children in care were separated from their siblings, others transitioned from one foster care placement to another, never knowing where to call home. Too many children were being abused in systems that were supposed to protect them. Instead of being safely reunified with their families or moved quickly into adoptive homes many remained in foster homes or institutions for years.

Here in America, there is an ongoing tragedy ceaselessly unfolding right before our eyes. Beyond the calamities of gun violence, the loss of innocent lives through ruthless crimes and deadly motor vehicle accidents, there is a crisis occurring in the very homes of many Americans. There is a proceeding addiction to the pill bottles hidden behind bathroom mirrors, needles poking through the surface of fragile skin to get a “fix”, and prescriptions being written left and right with the intention to help but the potential to kill. Here in America, over 115 people die every single day from overdosing on opioids and this is a reality that has been nothing short of deadly since as early as 1990.

Most people are familiar with the foster care system and impacting legislation like the Social Security Act. This policy was created and reformed in part by the United States Children’s Bureau. The Children’s Bureau is a United States government agency created to serve the needs of families, women and children who are underprivileged. The United States Children’s Bureau was signed into law by President William Taft on April 9, 1912. The agency was built on traditional values. Men were to bring home the money to provide for their families, while the women would focus on being the caretaker for the children and family. This proved to be an obstacle sometimes because people who were not in line with the Bureau’s ‘traditional values’ were

Two obvious sponsors of AB 12 were its creators, Jim Beall and Karen Bass. Beall’s interests are in helping foster care children, low-income families, and people with disabilities. Bass’ interest in child welfare issues and foster care issues is seen in the legislation that she sponsors; one of her priorities is to improve America’s foster care and adoption system.

When a child is endangered in one’s own home, child protective services interfere to ensure the safety of the child. In some cases, when conditions at home are unfit regarding the safety of a child, foster placement occurs. Over a half million children within the United States reside in foster care. Out of these children, approximately 20,000 of them continue through their lives within the foster care system until the age of 18. This is referred to “aging out”. Once a child within the foster care system turns 18, they are no longer cared for by state or government agencies and must provide for themselves. For those who do age out of the foster care system, it is often that they find themselves lacking the necessary skills needed to make it on their own, which is often due to the lack of having a stable support system such as a family.

One of the greatest challenges for child welfare workers for years has been how to serve the unique needs of the older youth in foster care and of those who have “aged out” of foster care. The term “aging out” refers to youth that are forced to exit foster care at the age of 18 because they have reached age- defined adulthood (NASW Press, 2015). The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 attempts to meet those needs by providing states with the option to support youth who are transitioning from foster care to adulthood. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is a child welfare bill that was designed to achieve greater permanence and improve the well-being of children served by child welfare agencies (Stoltzfus, 2008).

The Social Security act benefited many people. Those who fell in this category were workers, victims of industrial accidents, unemployed insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the handicapped. This Social Security act was later signed into law, by current president at the time, Roosevelt. (Social Welfare History Project, n.d.) Moving along the line in 1970 was when the CWLA helped establish the National Foster Parents Association. In August 1971, this CWLA program received a three-year grant to create an organization based for foster parents. This association was established as an outcome of the concerns of the independent groups. The people felt that the country needed a program to meet the needs of the foster families in the U.S (Family Plus, n.d.). In 1980 the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare became law. The tenacity was to create a program of adoption assistance to ultimately serve different criteria’s. Its purpose was to strengthen the program of foster care assistance for the needy and dependent children, improve child welfare as well as social services and aid to families with dependent children programs (child Welfare Information Gateway, 2012). There are a myriad of different historical information that can lead and relate to the cause of the Child Welfare services. These are all just bits and pieces of importance that historically gives this program

The adoptive Family Relief Act passed on the 16 of October in 2016 was enacted to provide relief for adoptive family’s form immigrant visa fees in certain situations. It amends the immigration and Nationality Act to refund or waive renewal or replacement fees for an immigrant visa that was issued on or after March 27, 2013, for a child who has been lawfully adopted or is coming to the United States to be adopted by a U.S. citizen. This is used if a child is unable to use the original immigrant visa during its valid period due to extraordinary circumstances. This includes situations like denial of an exit permit. Under these kinds of circumstances, parents or adopting parents have no control, thus, making this act necessary. In 2012, around nine thousand immigrant children were adopted into the United States. That means about nine thousand adoptive families have to renew the validity of their adopted child’s visa every six months. In addition to this expense, families have to pay an extra renewal fee after the Democratic Republic of Congo’s suspension of issuing exit permits. Renewing a visa costs $325 and on top of this the child must complete a medical exam that costs $200. But these expenses are not the end, many families must also pay for monthly childcare or foster care fees. Keep in mind that these expenses are per child and many families adopt more than just one child. These constant burden of