Being a Foster Parent According to most recent data, there are currently more than 500,000 children in the United States who are somewhere in the foster care system. The unfortunate reality is that there simply are not enough families for all of them. While some find success and happiness in foster homes, the majority spend […]

Arizona Creates Cabinet-Level Division to Monitor and Enforce Child Safety and Family Services In 2014, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer followed the precedent set by 10 other state chief executives, disbanding the state’s child protective services, seeking to replace it with an independent agency that would report directly to the governor’s office. Governor Brewer used an […]

Ohio Advisory Group Makes Recommendations to Attorney General In late 2012, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine put together a panel known as the Foster Care Advisory Group, a collection of child welfare expert tasked with taking a close look at the state’s child welfare system, and with making specific recommendations to increase the safety and […]

On February 25, 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior issued revised guidelines involving the placement of Indian children into foster care or the termination of parental rights so that the child could be placed for adoption. Those guidelines are to supercede those that had been in effect […]

The news media has been carrying stories almost weekly if not more often, about T.V. personality, Sherri Shepherd, and her court case involving a gestational carrier. As has been reported in the media, Sherri Shepherd and her husband entered into a written agreement with a woman to serve as a gestational carrier for them in […]

In February 2015 a three judge panel of the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey issued an opinion involving application of the Indian Child Welfare Act and the requirement to notify an Indian tribe of a pending involuntary termination of parental rights. The New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency sought […]

The Challenges of Adopting a Toddler While many adoptive parents want only newborns, statistics show that nearly half of all domestic adoptions (47%) and a majority of international adoptions (59%) involve children between the ages of one and four. Authorities say that, with the large numbers of children between the ages of six and 12 […]

Getting the Information You Need from a Prospective Birthmother When you are considering adopting an infant, and have learned about a potential birthmother, you may have a lot of questions, the answers to which will help you determine whether the relationship is a good fit. Experts advise caution as you gather information from a potential […]

How to Work Most Effectively with Prospective Birthparents When you are seeking to adopt an infant, one of the most harrowing aspects of the process can be the uncertainty involved. Even though you may have met with the prospective birthmother, and feel that you have a relationship of trust, the birthmother can still change her […]

Adopting a Child without Using an Agency—The Benefits and Risks of Independent Adoption Though public perception often seems to indicate that most families seeking to adopt work with an adoption agency, statistics show that private or independent adoptions are far more common. Though five states require the use of an adoption agency, agency adoptions typically […]