Foster Child Adoptions Soar in California

Adoptions of foster children have jumped nearly 50% in California over two years, mirroring a national trend in which states are moving more rapidly to find permanent new homes for the offspring of the most troubled parents.

The speedup creates stable homes for thousands of children who had been trapped in abusive and neglectful families, experts said. It also should cut taxpayer costs by reducing the number of social workers, lawyers and judges needed to track children on California’s foster care rolls, the nation’s largest.

The trend toward more public adoptions is expected to continue under new laws that reduce the amount of time failing parents have to reform themselves or lose their children.

“I think there’s a substantial and even a cultural change within child welfare,” said Jorja Prover, a professor of social welfare at UCLA who trains Los Angeles County social workers. “Instead of keeping kids languishing in foster care and fighting this sometimes losing battle of family reunification, people are thinking in terms of finding permanent homes.”

Despite the increase, California still lags behind other big industrial states in the number of endangered children who find permanent homes. Los Angeles County, in particular, has a backlog. There are 4,000 pending adoptions in the county, mostly because there aren’t enough social workers to screen the homes of adoptive parents.

The adoption trend flows from a series of legal and administrative changes at the national, state and local level--moves that buttress the concept that children should be freed for adoption earlier, when they are less damaged by early childhood deprivation and easier to place in new homes.

President Clinton embraced the trend in 1997 by offering bonuses to states that increase adoptions of foster children. California received $3.9 million last year, the first year of the incentive program. The money will be used to provide support groups, counseling and referrals for adoptive families.

In the budget year ending last June, 5,908 foster children were adopted across California, compared to 4,021 two years earlier. Los Angeles County had even a sharper increase, from 951 adoptions to 1,574, a 65% increase.

Orange County completed 351 adoptions, a two-year increase of 48%. The trend has been even more dramatic elsewhere, such as Santa Clara County, where adoptions tripled to 183, and Riverside County, where they nearly tripled to 231.

Tougher Rules for Birth Parents

Several changes in state law are pushing the adoption wave. The state has shortened the time parents have to reform deviant behavior and win back their children. The old “reunification” period was a standard 18 months, frequently extended. Parents now have one year to rehabilitate themselves; just six months if their child is under 3.

Another law allows judges to immediately cut off parents’ reunification attempts under a dozen severe circumstances, including chronic abuse and child abandonment. Still another law allows social workers to begin planning immediately for adoption as a fallback position, even in cases where birth parents might regain their children.

Low- and middle-income families--who adopt most foster children--also are getting more financial support, including a $6,000 one-time federal tax credit. Foster parents and relatives who once feared they would lose assistance payments if they adopted are now promised that government support will be maintained.

“Some agencies used to be content to work with a [troubled] birth family for two or three or four years, before they would finally throw in the towel” and place a child for adoption, said Rich Hemstreet, chief of the Adoptions Policy Bureau for the state Department of Social Services. “Think of the emotional toll, during that time, on the child.

“There has been a lot more research now on the physical implications, to brain development, on a child,” Hemstreet said. “Moving to adoption--with stability and permanency--should be a major objective because of that.”

Anita Bock, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, said she is trying to move more workers into the adoptions unit to clear the backlog of cases. She has set a goal of 3,000 adoptions for this year.

The elimination of that many cases from the foster care rolls can create a huge cost saving, said Rita Saenz, director of the California Department of Social Services. Saenz estimates that the state will save $114 million in the year beginning July 1 because of the thousands of children removed from foster care rolls.

“More importantly, every one of those kids has a permanent home,” Saenz said. “You can’t put a price on that.”

Illinois Leads With 20% Adopted

How far can the push for adoptions go?

It would appear to have its limits, because most child welfare experts believe it is best to keep children with their birth parents, avoiding the trauma of separation except in severe cases.

Illinois has exceeded all other states, with 7,315 adoptions in the last budget year. About 20% of the children coming into foster care now end up in adoptive homes.

“That has always been seen as something of a ceiling, but we are there now,” said Mark Testa, research director for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. “Whether we will ever move to 35% or 40% adoptions, that is the big question.”

The California Department of Social Services could not provide statistics on what percentage of its foster children are adopted. But many believe there is a capacity for more.

“Even with these increases, we are not maxing out. There are still a lot more children in the foster care system who could benefit from adoption,” said Hemstreet, the state adoption executive. “A big problem is finding enough adoptive homes.”

The public face of child welfare adoptions is a joyous one. On occasional weekend “adoption days” at the Edmund G. Edelman Children’s Court in Monterey Park, hundreds of groomed and coiffed young people are joined to new families in ebullient festivities. Social workers, lawyers and judges celebrate the occasions as a respite from the court’s often grim work of protecting children from their own parents.

But the adoptions do not come without some pain.

A group of Los Angeles County social workers recently met around a conference table in Lancaster and discussed the birth parents whose bonds had to be cut to clear the way for those happy new families.

One social worker told of a father who desperately wanted to be with his children, but also with a girlfriend who kept dragging him back into drug addiction. The worker moved to cut off the father and place his two young children for adoption. She cried as she told her co-workers the story.

“I knew it was the best thing,” said the worker, “but it was still just heartbreaking. . . . Everyone knows it has to be done, but we are the ones who have to do the deed.”

Early in the adoption campaign, some Los Angeles County workers said they felt pressured to increase the number of adoptions, sometimes by coercing relatives to adopt. But for a grandparent, aunt or uncle to permanently take on a child, they must acknowledge that the birth parent will probably never resume any parenting duties.

“I wonder why we are forcing grandparents to adopt,” said another worker, who, like other social workers at the Lancaster workshop, spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Many feel like, ‘I like being a grandparent. Why do I have to lose that status and go back to being a mommy and daddy again?’ ”

The state hopes to alleviate that concern by allowing relatives a sort of middle ground: guardianship. A statute that took effect Jan. 1 makes it easier for relatives to become legal guardians.

The law eliminates the need for the costly and painful legal process of terminating parental rights. It also improves access for relatives to government support payments.

As with adoptions, guardianships have the potential of removing hundreds of children from the expensive foster care rolls, where they must be overseen by social workers, lawyers and judges.

But a few experts are striking cautionary notes about the new adoption trend.

“Adoption is an indication of permanence within a family for a child, and that is wonderful,” said Alan Watahara, president of the California Childrens Lobby. “What we don’t know yet entirely is what made these numbers increase or whether there have been problems with any of them, or if anyone has tried to invalidate some of them.”

And there is a ripple effect of increased adoptions--potentially reducing the number of parents available to take foster children. Many of the most dependable foster families no longer want to take on new children, once they have permanently adopted one or more of their charges.

“We hear distress from public and private agencies about losing foster families who have adopted children,” said Gail Johnson, executive director of Sierra Adoption Services, an award-winning adoption agency in Nevada City, Calif. “It can be a disincentive that you have to deal with.”

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More Adoptions

The number of children adopted from foster care in California has increased sharply in the past two years. Public adoptions in the state and counties for fiscal years 1997 and 1999:

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1997 1999 California 4,021 5,908 Los Angeles 951 1,574 Orange 237 351 Fresno 61 164 Riverside 83 231 San Bernardino 221 192 San Diego 407 449 San Francisco 99 82 Santa Clara 61 183 Ventura 28 39

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Note: Figures are for fiscal years ending June 30, 1997, and June 30, 1999.

Source: State Department of Social Services