Bumps in path to adoption of blacks
Published Tuesday May 27, 2008
BY ERIN GRACE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
“Colorblind” federal adoption legislation passed more than a decade ago was supposed to reduce the number of black children in foster care and smooth the path to their adoption.
That hasn’t happened, an adoption advocacy group contends.
In a report released today, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute said the federal law failed on two major fronts: not enforcing a requirement for “diligent recruitment” of adoptive families of color; and showing “an unyielding colorblindness” in failing to prepare families adopting a child of a different race.
The report’s authors conclude that the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994 and subsequent provisions added in 1996 have not resulted in equity in adoption of black children.
That’s because, the report’s authors say, the legislation was based on three faulty assumptions:
• Large numbers of white people seek to adopt minority children in foster care.
Existing data do not support that, the authors say, particularly when the age of the child is considered. The proportion of black children adopted transracially averaged 16 percent in the years from 1996 to 2003. The majority of black children adopted transracially were age 4 and younger while the majority of black children waiting were 8 and older.
• Too few black families show interest in adopting foster children.
States with large African-American populations report large increases in the number of black children adopted from foster care, and only a small portion of the adoptions were transracial. But the report says black families are disproportionately screened out of the adoption process.
• Minority children will get permanent homes in larger numbers.
Black children are still in foster care at rates at least twice that of their share of the general population. They also are more likely than their white peers to stay in foster care longer.
Though the portion of transracial adoptions has increased slightly since the legislation was passed and the time spent in foster care overall has decreased, black children are not adopted in proportion to their share of the eligible population.
The national report was met with cautious interest from a state foster-care official and embraced by the head of an Omaha adoption agency trying to promote the adoption of black children.
The varying reactions of Todd Landry, director of the state’s division of children and family services, and Cheryl Murray of Adoption Links Worldwide could be explained, in part, because of their relation to the law.
The federal law governs foster care — and, therefore, Landry, who oversees it for the state. Murray operates beyond the law’s scope as head of a private adoption agency that deals in international and domestic adoptions.
Break the law and Nebraska faces federal sanction — as one Ohio county did when it was found in violation of U.S. Civil Rights law because it required parents who adopted foster children of a different race to prepare a plan for addressing the child’s cultural identity.
Landry said he did not necessarily agree with the Donaldson Institute’s assertion that the 1990s legislation has failed.
“Are there further improvements that can be made? I’m sure there are,” Landry said. “Many aspects of federal legislation did improve the practice of adoption in our country.”
He said the state is trying to beef up recruitment efforts through the Nebraska Foster and Adoptive Parent Association and through an arrangement with three private adoption agencies in Omaha, including Murray’s Adoption Links.
“Do we have more work to do? Absolutely — we always will,” Landry said.
Murray said the report underscores her mantra at work and home that race matters.
“It can be bad for children when parents don’t acknowledge that,” said Murray.
Despite a pressing need for adoptive parents of black infants, she has steered would-be applicants away from that program if she found them not racially conscious enough.
The Donaldson Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization that focuses on adoption research, policy and education.
The New York-based institute’s latest report does not aim to prevent or impede transracial adoptions, but it details how children who are adopted into a home of a different race can have more difficulty than those adopted into homes of the same race. The difficulties can include trouble forming an identity and behavioral issues.
The institute does note that adopting a child of a different race can be a necessary solution to achieving good, lasting homes for children in need.
And it adds that transracial adoptions are more likely to be successful when the child is younger, parents get special training and families make efforts to promote the cultural identity of the child.
But given the difficulties adoptive children can face — particularly if they experienced abuse or neglect in their homes of origin, had multiple foster placements and are faced with bridging two cultures — the institute contends the current legislation needs to change to be more in line with sound adoption practices.
One recommendation: provide federal funds for subsidized guardianships. More qualified relatives might step forward to adopt foster children if they didn’t have to support termination of the parents’ rights, the authors suggest.
Also among the key suggestions: restoring race as a consideration in adoption placement.
The report says race consideration would enable agencies to assess families’ readiness to adopt a child of another race or ethnicity, prepare families for transracial adoption and consider families’ existing or planned connections with the child’s racial group.
“Color consciousness — not ‘colorblindness’ — should help to shape policy development,” the authors wrote.
SIDE BAR:
Transracial adoption
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Studies on the effects of transracial adoption have indicated:
By age 4, children are generally aware of physical racial differences, and by age 9, they see themselves through the eyes of others.
The older the child
is when placed for adoption the more difficult the adjustment can be; adjustment issues are magnified when the placement is in a home of a different race.
Adopted children of a race different from their parents’ struggle more with acceptance and comfort with their physical appearance than peers adopted into same-race homes.
Adoptive parents can help children successfully adjust and form positive identities if they don’t emphasize a colorblind approach.
Source: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
• Contact the writer: 444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com
Tags: adoption, African American, blacks, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, minority, Multi-Ethnic Replacement Act, transracial
