The Adoption Process Within The United States

According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a

`Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in or a part of the adoption process? Most people have different opinions on the whole system. Many think that the process is easy and they don’t actually know what most children go through. If more people understood the problems they face then child welfare wouldn’t be so difficult. Children come from broken or abusive households where treatment is horrible or to the point where they just remove the children.

4). In the scope of adoption, it is evident that child welfare agencies use the majority of their available resources for placing children in foster families, investigating child-abuse cases, and providing other family services. “As a consequence, they do not possess adequate additional resources for efficiently placing children in adoptive homes once they are available for adoption, depriving many children of the benefits a stable, permanent home provides” (Snell, 2000, p. 2). The current government operated child welfare system is detrimental to the children involved due to its inability to ensure their safety and

There are eight different ways of adoptions. Some are adopting through an agency. Adoption agencies can be public or private. One of the other types of adoption involves a direct arrangement between birth parents and adoptive parents. Another way to adopt is by adopting through identification. Children being adopted from a foster home must be ages four and up. African American children are commonly placed with African American adoptive parents. A single person an adopt a child. Single parents adopt the same reason as a married couple. They adopt because single

The aim of this study is to evaluate the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 2007. This act provides children waiting in foster care with permanent families through adoption. The states increased the number and proportion of adopted children that received adoption assistance because the child had a special need. The article goes over administrative data that indicates that states more diligently recorded the special needs of children as well as post adoption financial support and assistants. The paper reviews how some states found themselves in the contradictory position of promoting adoption while simultaneously cutting post- adoption support. In the next section of the article it outlines federal adoption incentives and funding for post- adoption

Design/Methodology: This exploratory design hopes to attain valuable insight on what types of post adoption services are available to families. This design is qualitative as it seeks to explore the types of services that are offered and if any have a positive influence in providing the necessary support to assist in the preservation of adoptive families. It is hoped that this results can provide a deeper understanding of which post adoption services are vital in aiding new adoptive parents to safeguard their forever family against possible challenges that lie ahead. Sampling: This study will utilize non probability convenience and purposive sampling as current or former foster parents of the Los Angeles child welfare system will be recruited through various post adoption service agencies. Eligible participants are individuals who have received post adoption services and finalized adoption with at least one child. According to Acharya et al. (2013), convenience and purposive sampling is beneficial when participation of individuals is needed to meet a certain criteria; individuals will also be easily located for the study. Two hundred former consumers of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, Post Adoption Services Unit (PAS) department will be invited to participate in the study via U.S. mail. The PAS unit offers post adoption services such as referrals and counseling to families to avoid family dissolutions which will return the child in the child

Since ancient times and in all human cultures, children have been transferred from adults who would not or could not be parents to adults who wanted children for love, labor, and property. Adoption’s close association with humanitarianism, upward mobility and infertility are uniquely modern phenomena. Adoption was not fully marked on who was adopted and by whom until 1920. (darkwing.uorgeon.edu) In fact, closed adoptions amended birth certificates and legal regulations are a recent innovation that gained momentum in the 1930s and later, and many adoptions were open prior to that. (Free, Barbara). Historians consider the 1851 Adoption of Children Act an important turning point because it directed judges to make sure that adoption decrees were

So why is it that these children are not getting adopted? While adoption requirements can vary by state, most states have the same basic requirements in place. First, a person looking to adopt must fill out an adoption application and pay an application fee. These applications are then reviewed by a local adoption agency or government agency. These applications can get quite personal and typically ask for personal information about the applicant 's work history, family history, medical history, religious affiliations, current home life situation, and financial information to name a few. Oftentimes the applicant will also have to attend some form of training class along with the application. If the application is approved it is then turned over to an adoption case worker who will contact the applicant about conducting a home study. During the home study, the case worker will interview the applicant, as well as their family, friends, and possibly co-workers. The case worker will make an assessment of the potential parents daily life and routines, neighborhood, relationships, and readiness to become a parent. These home studies are quite invasive and can take three to six months to complete. After this step is passed the applicant gets registered and placed on a waiting list to be paired with a child that the agency feels would be a good fit. It can take a year or more from application to actual placement. If the prospective parents are lucky enough to be matched with a child

Approximately five million Americans alive today are adoptees. Having the opportunity to adopt has given many families the chance to have a family on their own that they may not have been able to have before. Although it benefits the parents who are adopting it also helps the birth mother tremendously. There are several ways to adopt. Parents who want to adopt should choose the best option for them while birth mothers should be more educated so they can be sure to make the best decision for herself and her child.

There’s a lot of families who are willing to take a baby into their home and give them the love and care those babies need. Adoption agencies are waiting for pregnant women who do not want their babies to take them and give them to families that are in desperate need of being mothers and fathers.

While many organizations, such as Adopt Together, are putting forth an effort to reduce the price of adoption, it is not enough. Resources such as these are not well known. Therefore, many adoptive parents and potential donors are completely unaware that they exist. They try to face adoption without financial help and are unable to adopt. The solutions provided through grants, loans, tax credits, and crowdfunding platforms help many families but do not fully support the cost of adoption. For these solutions to work fully, more publicity would be required.

The demand for adoption is very high. With the opportunity to put a child up for adoption the mother is in charge of so much more than what may be expected, such as naming the child, watching them grow up, and even bonding a real relationship with them (www.americanadoptions.com). When it comes to abortion, the mother is aware it ended with death but with adoption, the mother is aware of the fulfilling life the child is capable of (www.americanadoptions.com). Most women do not take into account that adoption can lead to a happier healthy life for both the mother and the child.

In addition, with adoption being so costly and complicated many have turned to buying children illegally through the black market. According to Costello (1973), “Many persons wanting a child but unwilling to wait several years turn to the black or gray adoption market. In the black market, legal procedures are bypassed, birth certificates are falsified and available children are sold to parents unwilling to apply through the normal channels” (Costello, 1973, para. 6). The process of adopting through an agency is so tedious,

     Adoption is metamorphosing into a radical new process that is both sweeping the nation and changing it. But this process is not an easy one, there are many steps to go through. Through research it is made a lot easier. Adoption is a also a highly visible example of a social institution that has benefits from and been reshaped by both the Internet and the exponential growth of alternative lifestyles, from single to transracial to gay. It is accelerating our transformation into a more multicultural society; even as it helps redefine out understanding of “family.” The process includes three main steps including a type of adoption, the techniques for location a baby for adoption, arranging

While this time may be difficult time for the family who wants to be the adoptive parent or parents to that child, it allows the mother the crucial time she to reflect on her situation and make the right decision for her and the baby she is carrying.