Fewer foster-care youths await adoption

[Rose Siding]

The number of children waiting to be adopted from state foster care has fallen by about 10 percent in recent years — a trend that most likely is a result of child-welfare reform passed in 1997.

"There's a good news story here," said Wade F. Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In the 1990s, Congress learned that abused, neglected and abandoned children removed from their homes often spent three or more years in state care. In 1997, Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) to speed up decisions about these children's futures "so they wouldn't languish" in state care, Mr. Horn said.
...
Not surprisingly, the number of children adopted from foster care has risen from about 28,000 in 1996 to about 50,000 a year in recent years. The overwhelming majority of these foster-care adoptions appear to be permanent, according to a recent study from a private adoption institute.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041226-114857-9122r.htm

The WaTimes wouldn't mention it but the improvement is the on-target result of a Dem program...

http://www.healthieryou.com/chilwelf.html

Adoption

To reduce the number of children presently in foster care, the Clinton administration launched an "Adoption 2002" initiative to reduce barriers to adoption and double the number of children adopted or permanently placed each year, from 27,000 in 1996 to 54,000 in 2002.

Adoption 2002 is based on a set of principles that declare that every child deserves a safe, permanent family; that the child's health and safety should be the paramount considerations in all placement and permanency planning decisions; and that foster care is a temporary solution and not an appropriate place for children to grow up. Adoption 2002 establishes unequivocally that the Federal goals for children in the child welfare system are safety, permanency, and well-being.

By offering financial incentives and technical assistance to states, courts, and communities, the federal government will help states meet ambitious new adoption targets. Toward that end, the President's FY 1998 budget proposes $21 million for technical assistance and grants to state agencies, courts and communities, innovative demonstrations to reform the child protective system to reduce barriers to permanency, and a national public awareness campaign.

[Maat]

1. I was working for Child Protective from '93 to 2000 ..

and Pres. Clinton initiated the good changes. Things have gotten better. When a kid is taken into custody, and there is an almost-100% chance there will be no successful reunification, the social worker can recommend officially no reunification. From placement to adoption usually still takes about a year, though. And that's a hellish year, during which you bond with your baby, being mommy and daddy (for the kid's sake -- that bonding is crucial), but you have these moments of worrying when you force yourself to just forget about the possibilities of losing YOUR child back to the system. Adoption is the most wonderful thing on Earth - but it takes parents dedicated beyond belief to that kid's welfare. I speak from personal experience (my daughter's dopted). They really need to put a lasso around adoption workers that drag things out to really, really, really make sure that things are going well with the new family (the ones that worked with me were wonderful and speeded things up). I don't see Boooosh addressing some of the residual issues. Pat Clinton on the back - he deservs it.

It is still an arduous process. And work from my compatriots is that Booosh is not helping. They found to keep that program that allows adoptive parents to receive aid if they need it for awhile.

I'm very committed to preserving Choice. I know the system well. We simply could not take millions and millions more of neglected, abandoned and abused children coming into the system. And that is what happens when women are coerced into taking pregnancies to full term when they knew at the onset neither they nor those around them could handle it.