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The State of the Children: An Examination of Government-Run Foster Care
Many Would Adopt Foster Children
There is no shortage of Americans who would consider adopting a foster child.
A survey commissioned by the Institute for Children and conducted by The
Polling Company in Washington, D.C., found that 71 percent of individuals
polled would, if deciding to adopt, consider adopting a child who had spent
time in foster care. 43 Support for adopting a child who had been in foster
care was high among all groups, regardless of income, geographical location,
race or political affiliation.
- Those from high socioeconomic backgrounds and low socioeconomic backgrounds
were equally likely to consider adopting a foster child (79 percent and
78 percent, respectively).
- Middle-class respondents were still very willing to consider adopting
a foster child, but at a slightly lower level of enthusiasm (69 percent).
- Eighty-one percent of women under age 50 were willing to consider a foster child, compared to 68 percent of men under age 50.
ation has been broadened to become almost meaningless."
- In 1993, all but three states used "race" or "race
plus age" as a trigger for special needs categorization. 45
- In the same year 20 states used "emotional ties to foster parents"
as a trigger for labeling a child as having special needs. 46 This means
that if a child is growing up and forming attachments to the people who
care for him, and he is a foster child, in 20 states he is classified as
special needs.
- Some states use religion as a trigger for special needs categorization. 47
- In 1993, Florida, Louisiana and Wisconsin reported that 100 percent of public agency adoptions were special needs adoptions. 48
The notion that certain children are not adopted from foster care because would-be adoptive parents are interested only in healthy white babies is a myth. Evidence shows that no child is unadoptable. For example, Jim Jenkins of the Children with AIDS Project in Phoenix - a nonprofit group that takes no government funding - has recruited more than 1,000 parents to adopt AIDS orphans and HIV-positive babies. California's Child SHARE (Shelter Homes: A Rescue Effort) is an entirely privately funded nonprofit organization that works through a network of religious communities in Los Angeles County to recruit foster and adoptive parents. Child SHARE provides training workshops, parent-led support groups, emergency child care and baby-sitting. It also maintains church-based co-ops to provide clothes, toys and other supplies for foster children. With its comprehensive support mechanisms, Child SHARE achieves remarkable results that lead to stability and permanency for children: 70 percent of children in Child SHARE homes stay until they are reunited or adopted, eliminating the trauma of multiple placements; additionally, more than 15 percent of children in care are adopted by their Child SHARE foster family. The success of these private efforts makes the public child welfare bureaucracy appear by comparison even more ineffective.