Foster Care is a system where minors are placed into the care of adults who are not their biological parents. In 1997, there was a new act called the Adoption and Safe Families Act this act established a way to improve the safety of children to improve safety of children, to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and to support families. This new law makes changes and clarifications in a wide range of policies established under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act.
Legal adoption is changing the world. It is giving a home and safety to children who other wise would be dead and on their own. There are places established called safe havens, which are hospitals and fire stations, were mothers can drop off their babies and not get into abandonment troubles. Foster care and legal adoption also saves children who are in a terrible home life. Children who are abused mentally, sexually, and physically are taken care of. Children who are neglected are taken care of. This program saves lives!
There have been many main changes in legal adoption over the last decade. Some of these changes including: open adoption, gay adoption, international adoption, and trans-racial adoptions. Another thing that they have done is they are making the transitions from foster care to legal adoption speedier and easier for the child.
When it comes to trans-racial adoptions, many people are making a fuss about it, but this is one of the best things that have happened to the legal adoption peoples. White or Caucasian peoples adopt more than minorities. So, when a white family adopts an African American or Asian child, this is a very good thing, because there are not enough African American and Chinese people willing to adopt. In 2004, twenty-six percent of African American adoptions were done trans-racially. Some African American peoples think that this is an insult because it will cause the child to lose their cultural roots, but others consider it a great thing because it shows that people are getting adopted. Also in 2004 forty-five thousand African American children were left in foster care. My grandmother is Caucasian and has adopted a African American boy that is five years old and she is fostering a year old African American girl, and my mother is a Caucasian who is fostering a six month old African American little boy. These three members of our family are treated just the same as the other Caucasian members of the family.
Legal adoption is a great thing that is helping children around the entire United States.