‘Adoptions in Los Angeles County May Be on the Verge of Crisis’

When a person or couple consider adoption, a vision of a healthy child may come to mind. Yet in the county’s Department of Children’s Services, a majority of our children have special needs as reported in your article.

As a worker in this department, I feel the crisis of placing children in adoptive homes has already arrived. Most adoptive applicants are hesitant to accept children above 3, whose background involves sexual or physical abuse, parental drug abuse, developmentally delayed or any other “unacceptable” traits.

We workers have done enough applicant group meetings to know that this is true. For those couples or single parents who choose to adopt our “hard to place” children and have had successful adoptive replacements, we are deeply grateful and hope that they can be role models for other potential adoptive parents.

We workers are committed to the welfare of the children on our caseloads and make every attempt possible to have successful adoptive placements despite the enormous obstacles of high caseloads and the daily frustrations that accompany them.

AMELIA R. MEDRANO

Los Angeles