Adoption change is in the air. In "Adoption, the Underclass, and America," a super article that appeared in the LA Times Magazine on October 1, 1995, Nina J. Easton presented some hard-hitting, common-sense strategies to make the system of adoption work better for the children it is supposed to serve.

The US Children's Bureau convened a group of national, state, and local representatives of adoption organizations to develop a plan to improve the outcome for waiting children. These Adoption Network Partners, as they have become known, have arrived at some strategies for a 5-year plan for overall system reform, some aspects of which match Easton's ideas and some of which look for change in different directions.

The Federal government has also approved a tax credit of up to $5000 against adoption expenses for adoptive parents. Though we are not pleased with some aspects of the multiethnic placement act (MEPA), it does attempt to address the needs of children whose placements were delayed because of policies on racial matching, and it represents action on the part of the government to make a difference.

Many of the ideas are not new in themselves, but we are excited by this new sense of movement and direction in the world of adoption and want to share with you some of the thinking.

• "Move to a strict one-year-and-out welfare policy":
  "A child should find a permanent home, either with his birth parents or with adoptive parents, within twelve months of entering the system or the agency should lose Federal funding," says Easton. "The same sense of urgency that brings a child into the system should guide plans for his departure." Limit to the same strict one-year period unwed fathers' and extended family members' chances to seek custody. Require social workers to convene a meeting of all the child's available relatives within 10 days of entering the system. The Adoption Network Partners agree and hope to influence systemic changes in the welfare and judicial systems to accomplish this goal.

• "Put babies on a fast track":
  Easton urges a shift in priorities to looking for homes for the little ones-for whom there is strong demand-without worrying about being fair to the older kids who are stuck in the system. "Fairness is a steep price to pay for the lives of tens of thousands of kids who could otherwise be saved."

• "Include regard for the child's background and need for cultural continuity in decisions regarding placements."
  Children have the right to maintain cultural, racial and ethnic continuity. Agencies do not always have sufficient prospective adoptive families who reflect the child's background or have the capacity to parent a child of a different race or ethnicity. Agencies should reach out to find these adoptive families.

• "Give children, families and network partners access to all information pertinent to meeting the needs of the child":
  It is not in children's interest to withhold the truth about them. Appropriate parties need to know a child's history in order to support the child's positive future.

• "Terminate parental rights in cases of severe abuse":
  Says Easton, "Sexual abusers and physical tormentors don't deserve a second chance. Less abusive and neglectful parents do, but that second chance should be finite. The chances of reunification increasingly fade the longer a parent and child are separated."

• "Present opportunities for voluntary surrender of parental rights."
  Courtroom dramas staged to prove a parent is unfit would be less necessary if parents had the chance to embrace adoption as a positive option in the child's best interest.

• "Minimize loss and maintain continuity with family, significant others, community and culture before and after adoption."
  Adoption Network Partners are calling for changes that will safeguard the child's relationships with important people in his/her life before and after placement.

• "Tailor adoption subsidies to a child's medical needs, counseling and therapy - not to age or race."
  Children pouring into the system have new medical needs (e.g. HIV, drug exposure) and special educational needs that adoptive parents may require financial support to address. Such children can be adopted, but families may need assistance to do so.

• "Aggressively recruit to increase the number and accessibility of approved families who reflect the diversity and meet the needs of waiting children."

• "Provide holistic, culturally, and linguistically relevant services and resources that will achieve and sustain adoptions."

What do you think? Are these strategies that you can support? Let us know what you agree with, and what seems problematic to you. What are your ideas? What role can you play to help a child find a permanent family? November is National Adoption Month: a good time to focus on improving the system.

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