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Social Welfare Issues & Poverty: Adoption & Foster Care

Reference

Perspectives

Babies Without Borders

While international adoptions have risen in the public eye and recent scholarship has covered transnational adoption from Asia to the U.S., adoptions between North America and Latin America have been overshadowed and, in some cases, forgotten. In this nuanced study of adoption, Karen Dubinsky expands the historical record while she considers the political symbolism of children caught up in adoption and migration controversies in Canada, the United States, Cuba, and Guatemala. Babies without Borders tells the interrelated stories of Cuban children caught in Operation Peter Pan, adopted Black and Native American children who became icons in the Sixties, and Guatemalan children whose "disappearance" today in transnational adoption networks echoes their fate during the country's brutal civil war. Drawing from archival research as well as from her critical observations as an adoptive parent, Dubinsky moves debates around transnational adoption beyond the current dichotomy--the good of "humanitarian rescue," against the evil of "imperialist kidnap." Integrating the personal with the scholarly, Babies without Borders exposes what happens when children bear the weight of adult political conflicts.

Beyond the Foster Care System

Each year tens of thousands of teenagers are released from the foster care system in the United States without high school degrees or strong family relationships. Two to four years after discharge, half of these young people still do not have either a high school diploma or equivalency degree, and fewer than ten percent enter college. Nearly a third end up on public assistance within fifteen months, and eventually more than a third will be arrested or convicted of a crime. In this richly detailed and often surprising exploration of the foster care system, Betsy Krebs and Paul Pitcoff argue that the existing structure sets kids up to fail by inadequately preparing them for adult life. Foster care programs traditionally emphasize goals of reuniting children with family or placing children into adoptive homes. But neither of these outcomes is likely for adolescents. Krebs and Pitcoff contend that the primary goal of foster care for teenagers should be rigorous preparation for a fully productive adult life and that the standard life skills curriculum is woefully inadequate for this purpose. The authors, who together cofounded the Youth Advocacy Center in New York City, draw on their fifteen years of experience working with teens and the foster care system to introduce new ways to teach teens to be responsible for themselves and to identify and develop their potential. They also explore what sorts of resources-legal, financial, and human-will need to come from inside and outside the system to more fully humanize the practice of foster care. Ultimately, Krebs and Pitcoff argue that change must involve the participation of caring communities of volunteers who want to see disadvantaged youth succeed as well as developing methods to empower teens to take control of their lives. Bringing together a series of inspiring, real-life accounts, Beyond the Foster Care System introduces readers to a number of dynamic young people who have participated in the Youth Advocacy Center's programs and who have gone on to apply these lessons to other areas of life. Their stories demonstrate that more successful alternatives to the standard way of providing foster care are not only imaginable, but possible. With the practical improvements Krebs and Pitcoff outline, teens can learn the skills of effective self-advocacy, become better prepared for the transition to full independence, and avoid becoming the statistics that foster care has so often produced in the past.

Adoption

A top adoption attorney reveals the insider secrets of successful adoptions. Renowned adoption attorney Randall Hicks demystifies the legal system with this essential resource for adopting a child-domestically and internationally-within one year or less. With practical information and insightful wisdom, Adoption offers advice from a leading industry insider who knows exactly what people can expect as expecting adoptive parents.

Adoption Beyond Borders

Now Available in Paperback, Adoption Beyond Borders endorses international adoption as a viable path to child welfare by exploring key topics including: · Effects of institutionalization on children's developing brains, cognitive abilities, and socioemotional functioning · Challenges of navigating issues of identity when adopting across national, cultural, and racial lines · Strong emotional bonds that form even without genetic relatedness · How adoptive families can address the special needs of children who experienced early neglect and deprivation, thereby providing a supportive environment in which to flourish · Features the author's first-hand accounts of her own adoption journey as she visited a Kazakhstani orphanage daily for nearly a year, and illustrates the complexities and implications of the research evidence

Adoption, Race, and Identity

Adoption, Race, and Identity is a long-range study of the impact of interracial adoption on those adopted and their families. Initiated in 1972, it was continued in 1979, 1984, and 1991. Cumulatively, these four phases trace the subjects from early childhood into young adulthood. This is the only extended study of this controversial subject.Simon and Altstein provide a broad perspective of the impact of transracial adoption and include profiles of the families involved in the study. They explore and compare the experiences of both the parents and the children. They identify families whose adoption experiences were problematic and those whose experiences were positive. Finally, the study looks at the insights the experience of transracial adoption brought to the adoptive parents and what advice they would pass on to future parents adopting children from different racial backgrounds. They include the reflections of those adopted included in the 1972 first phase, who are now adults themselves.This second edition includes a new concluding chapter that updates the fourth and last phase of the study. The authors were able to locate 88 of the 96 families who participated in the 1984 study. Bringing together all four phases of this twenty-year study into one volume gives the reader a richer and deeper understanding of what the experience of transracial adoption has meant for the parents, the adoptees, and children born into the families studied. This landmark work, will be of compelling interest to social workers, policy makers, and professionals and families involved on all sides of interracial adoption.

Psychological Issues in Adoption

In this book, leading researchers spotlight how dramatically the practice of adoption has changed both in North America and Europe in recent decades due to, among other factors, a falling rate of domestically born infants being placed for adoption. This has resulted in a rise in international adoption, children of color being placed with Caucasian parents, increased foster care and special needs adoptions including children exposed to prenatal alcohol and drug use as well as maltreatment by birth parents. Also examined is the far more diverse group of adults being granted adoption rights, including single and homosexual parents. Research findings demonstrate the trend across countries toward open adoption, wherein the birth parents and adoptive parents meet to share information. As the editors note, there is no longer a typical adopted child or a typical adoptive family. Paralleling these changes has been a growing interest in the study of adopted children and adoptive parents. Although earlier research showed adoptees more likely to experience school problems and psychological disorders, recent studies show the differences in these areas between adoptees and non-adoptees to be relatively small. Models guiding adoption research are beginning to emphasize resilience and positive adaptation, rather than risk and psychopathology. This handbook will be of interest to all involved with adoption policy and practice.

Child Adoption

Adoption is one of the oldest social institutions. Nevertheless, adoption still raises highly emotive issues because of its fundamental implications for the familial ties. This publication provides a solid foundation for furthering research on child adoption and, more specifically, on the demographic factors that shape the demand for and the availability of adoptable children. The focus of this report is on the nexus between adoption policies and trends at the national and global levels. Understanding adoption policies and their origins is all the more important today because, as adoption has become global, inconsistencies among the legal principles and traditions regarding adoption in different countries are increasingly coming to the fore.

Achieving Permanence for Older Children and Youth in Foster Care

Through a novel integration of child welfare data, policy analysis, and evidence-informed youth permanency practice, the essays in this volume show how to achieve and sustain family permanence for older children and youth in foster care. Researchers examine what is known about permanency outcomes for youth in foster care, how the existing knowledge base can be applied to improve these outcomes, and the directions that future research should take to strengthen youth permanence practice and policy. Part 1 examines child welfare data concerning reunification, adoption, and relative custody and guardianship and the implications for practice and policy. Part 2 addresses law, regulation, court reform, and resource allocation as vital components in achieving and sustaining family permanence. Contributors examine the impact of policy change created by court reform and propose new federal and state policy directions. Part 3 outlines a range of practices designed to achieve family permanence for youth in foster care: preserving families through community-based services, reunification, adoption, and custody and guardianship arrangements with relatives. As growing numbers of youth continue to "age out" of foster care without permanent families, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have increasingly focused on developing evidence-informed policies, practices, services and supports to improve outcomes for youth. Edited by leading professionals in the field, this text recommends the most relevant and effective methods for improving family permanency outcomes for older youth in foster care.

Orphans of the Living

In an eye-opening look at how America cares for its abused and neglected children, Jennifer Toth travels to foster-care homes, orphanages, and juvenile detention centers to record the poignant, often heroic voices of youngsters trying to survive in an overburdened system. Jennifer Toth's first book, The Mole People, spurred federal funding for the homeless living in the tunnels under New York City. Now Toth turns her attention to another hidden population -- children trapped in the maze of the "substitute care system". Toth takes readers into the lives of shattered families unable or unwilling to care for their children, exposing the inadequacies of government policies and introducing the foster parents, judges, psychologists, and social workers ill-equipped to handle their often bleak jobs. Most important, she presents the kids who, with humor, hope, and resilience, struggle to overcome society's failure to provide for its youngest citizens. "The strength...lies in her empathy with her subjects, her willingness to let them have their say and the evident determination not to edit out what makes them so difficult to help". -- Cel

Unlocking the Heart of Adoption

Know How

Number of Children in Foster Care Awaiting Adoption

Online Resources

International Adoption

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