Adoption

This could be the year that nearly 1 million Texas adoptees can get a copy of their original birth certificate without asking a judge.

Texas adoptees said attempts to pass a measure making it easier for them to obtain the document have fallen short time and again in recent years.

In 2020, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed into law a a “religious freedom” bill ensuring that foster care and adoption agencies could continue to be eligible to receive taxpayer funding even if they refuse to serve same-sex foster and adoptive parents.

Activists are preparing to embark on a national campaign aimed at repealing the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), bipartisan legislation passed in the late 1990s in an effort to prevent children from languishing in foster care. 

Adoption practices continue to challenge the ethics of social workers due to myriad conflicting interests which have existed since the practice began. Dangerous informal child care arrangements in the early to mid 1900s have been replaced by a patchwork of state and federal laws, regulations and child care practices meant to serve the best interests of everyone associated with adoption, but we continue to allow for ethically concerning “wrongful” adoptions.  

One of the largest evangelical foster care and adoption agencies in the nation will now serve LGBTQ families everywhere it operates — a landmark shift in the child welfare field, where deep and enduring ties to faith communities have come into conflict with recent anti-discrimination laws and high court rulings.

Only 58% of teens in foster care live with a family, compared with 95% of kids 12 and younger, according to a recent report by Annie E.

Adoptees say receiving their original birth certificates is opening up profound feelings of relief and closure.

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.