Timeline:
1851—Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act is the first piece of legislation for adoption standards.
1920—Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is established, sets agency standards, and eventually becomes a leading authority for adoption.
1940’s and 1950’s—Demand for adoptable children increases in the baby boom era, known as the “Baby Scoop Era”
1973—Roe v Wade. Abortion is legalized. There are not as many desirable healthy white infants to adopt.
1975—Adoption agencies redefine adoption standards and no longer consider any child without a home “unadoptable”
1980—Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act becomes one of the first federal laws to ensure adopted children are taken care of properly by providing money and physical protection
1997—Adoption and Safe Families Act adds more clauses to the AACWA and increases funding for the foster care and adoption system.
1999—Foster Care Independence Act signed into effect. This increases spending and coverage for young adults in foster care.
2004—Braam case settled and enforces old legislation more effectively and adds new areas of improvement.
2008—Arkansas Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban makes it illegal for anyone outside of marriage to adopt or become foster parents.
5 Alternative links:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~adoption/index.html
This site is devoted to the history adoption. It provides a lot of good outside resources and facts that contribute to problems and successes in adoption and foster care.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103465_braam10m.html
This is an article published in the Seattle Times about struggling issues in the foster care system and how the Braam case affects the foster care system.
http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/children/fostercare/rates/
This webpage shows foster care reimbursement plans in Oregon. The whole site is very useful to get an understanding of foster parents or prospective foster parents.
http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2005_listenparents_all.pdf
This document was a study conducted to see why prospective foster or adoptive parents decided against adopting or fostering a child. The document suggests a lot of things agencies can do to increase placements for children.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3402800022.html
This is an encyclopedia entry that tells a lot about the history of adoption and the problems in the past and present. It’s also a useful guideline.
Summary:
These links provide a good background of the topic, as well as an entry into the current issues of the struggles in the foster care system. One current issue involves increasing the amount of foster care families available to take in children, and there is much debate as to who is a suitable parent and who is not. Another issue is the lack of funding that is going into the certain programs, and inadequately using that funding. Child safety and sibling bonds are also issues that state foster care is dealing with. All of these web pages are relevant and extremely helpful in this research. It is indisputable that the foster care system needs assistance because there are many children in America without any type of safe and loving home.
