Supreme Court Decision Regarding Same Sex Marriage The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States establishing that same sex couples have a constitutionally protected right to marry has a direct and beneficial effect on children. Specifically, the decision recognizes the dignity of all families and provides for the protection of children who […]

Foster Children Struggle to Find Academic Opportunity In a recent study, researchers found more than 4,000 college age youth who were either still in foster c are or had recently left the state’s foster care system. The study also found that less than one in four of those young adults were taking any college classes. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Tips for Dealing with the Challenges of Adopting an Older Child If you’ve decided to adopt an older child, you’ll find that there are advantages and disadvantages: There are more older children readily available for adoption You’ll have more communication at an earlier level Your child will likely have formed attachments or bonds to other […]

Understanding the Cost of an Adoption Most estimates put the cost of raising a child at more than $20,000 per year, not including the price of a college education. For parents of a biological child, there’s little expense in bringing the child into the home that isn’t covered by insurance. But if you plan or […]