Adoption

A new memorandum from the federal government’s top child welfare leaders argues that the field has been getting one of its most important goals — permanency — all wrong. After examining the latest research — including new analyses of federal data conducted by the U.S.

The Missouri House of Representatives unanimously passed two bills on Jan. 27 that would increase financial support for foster and adoptive parents. Now, they await approval by the Senate.

As we move into a new Democratic administration, ending family separation inflicted by the so-called child welfare system should be a top priority. Specifically, the Biden administration should refuse to sanction the federal government’s endorsement of arbitrary timelines that permanently tear families apart. That

Every child and youth who enters the U.S. foster care system should leave with a safe and permanent family to a place they call home. Our priority must always be to prevent foster care in the first place and then support their return home quickly and safely.

In March of 2016, Latonia Rolbiecki’s grandson was born at Fairview Hospital in Wyoming, Minnesota, his body riddled with the effects of his mother’s drug and alcohol abuse. The child was immediately placed into a foster home by the Chisago County Health and Human Services Department. 

A federal judge in New York granted temporary reprieve last week to a Christian adoption agency, ruling that the organization could continue arranging adoptions while litigation proceeds over its faith-based refusal to place children with same-sex adoptive parents. 

Twenty-five years ago, I testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means to bring attention to the need for a new paradigm in foster care. The system needed to put a child’s need to love and be loved, to trust and to form attachments, as the paramount concern of a system that was established for children who were removed from their biological family due to abuse and neglect. 

The number of youth in foster care began to decline in earnest last year, according to federal child welfare data released this week, which also found that reunifications have declined and the number of children adopted from foster care continues to reach record levels.