Social Workers Protest Increased Adoption Goal

The long-standing debate between proponents of adoptive homes and supporters of family reunification was played out again Wednesday when a group of social workers protested new goals seeking to nearly double the annual number of adoptions in Los Angeles County.

The social workers contend that a movement toward permanent adoptions over traditional foster care, endorsed by President Clinton earlier this year, will too quickly wrest children from chances of reunification with biological parents.

“The department is trying to take our right to be driven by family bonds and the child’s future in favor of meeting a quota,” said Tim Farrell, a leader of the social workers.

Peter Digre, the director of county Department of Children and Family Services, has set the new goal of placing 2,000 county foster children in adoption during 1998, up from last year’s 1,100 adoptees. He said the number of adoption specialists will be doubled by August.

About 50 workers, attending a required county seminar Wednesday on the advantages of permanent adoption, challenged Digre’s plans with placards and slogans. They insisted that speeding up the adoption process could cut the time available to review each prospective adopter.

They further charged that their superiors have set a dangerously high goal in order to win planned federal bonuses for each child placed. Digre denied that allegation.

The social workers took issue with President Clinton’s February endorsement of incentives aimed at doubling the number of children adopted nationally out of the foster care system and recently passed state laws favoring adoption over family reunification.

Many children are placed in foster care after an isolated instance of abuse or sudden family crises, returning to biological parents within months. But about one-fifth of those in foster care never return.

Proponents of increased adoptions believe that the longer a child remains in foster care--often while the system attempts to improve conditions in the birth family--the greater the potential for deep emotional damage.

“Every child who grows up in long-term foster care sooner or later looks into their heart and asks ‘What is wrong with me?’ ” said Digre. “They think, ‘There is nobody in this world that is committed to me and committed to me for life.’ ”

Digre said that last year about 2,600 children were in the county’s adoption program with about 2,000 more awaiting judicial clearance. Hundreds of mostly minority children in the 6- to 16-year-old range are passed over for adoption each year.

Among other findings, a judge must determine that there is no reasonable and safe possibility for the child to be reunited with parents.