Adoption and Foster Care in a Nutshell
Authors:
Katz, Sanford N. / Katz, Daniel R.
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2012
13 chapters
have results for Adoption Laws in a Nutshell
Preface and Acknowledgments 4 results
- The laws regulating the formation of family relationships like marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships and adoption are found in state statutes and may differ considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There may be a variety of reasons for this phenomenon including the religious, political and ethnic make-up of the citizens of the jurisdiction. History plays an important role as well. American adoption laws, for example, do not trace their origins back to the English common law, like so many of American laws, but have a distinct American foundation. Because of the lack of homogeneity in the population of the United States, and because adoption is so reflective of a jurisdiction’s social policy, the laws of adoption in the United States lack uniformity, and attempts to establish a uniform law of adoption have been unsuccessful. It is for that reason that one cannot accurately speak of American adoption law. Rather, one must refer to the American laws of adoption. This is...
- We caution the reader to check the current state of the law since the charts were developed from 2009 to 2012 and some changes may have occurred since then. We also alert the reader to the fact that the laws regarding intercountry adoption may also change.
- A number of Boston College Law School students assisted in the development of the charts and also did research on specific topics. We acknowledge with appreciation the work of Stephanie Giuliano Abhar, Tarek Audi, Michael Avery, Andrew Bender, Mark DeVincentis, Kevin Gallagher, Andrew Jones, Sam Lawrence, Julie Meeks, Michael Mohr, Feyisara Olotu, Ryan M. Rourke–Reed, Victoria Santoro, Peter Tipps, Paul Wagoner, Christine Weaver, Barrett Wilson–Murphy and Ben Winterhalter. Special thanks are due Meg Parsont for her excellent editing and Curtis Beyer for his valuable technical assistance in preparing the manuscript for publication.
- The Bibliography consists of sources for the information in this book and suggestions for further reading in specific areas.
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Part Four. Intercountry Adoption 9 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The process of adopting a child under eighteen from a foreign country is complex and involves a number of issues, like immigration law requirements, that are not found in domestic adoptions. It is not uncommon for an exporting country to change its laws regarding the availability of local children for adoption by foreigners. Intercountry adoption involves the laws of the country of origin, American federal laws, especially immigration and citizenship laws, which must be followed, as well as the law within in the state of the prospective adoptive couple. The Hague Conference on Private International Law adopted the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. That Convention became law in the United States in 2008 and must be followed. The idea behind the Convention is the protection of children and the prevention of their exploitation. In addition to setting up certain organizational requirements like the establishment of a Central...
- Adopting a child from a foreign country should not be taken without serious consideration of the process involved, including the concern for the time for the process to be completed and the necessity for a knowledgeable facilitator or an agency experienced in foreign adoptions. Facilitators can be a lawyer, doctor, or social worker who acts as an intermediary in independent adoptions. Facilitators can also be, and frequently are, private nonprofit international adoption agencies. Using such an agency can be beneficial because of the agency’s experience in intercountry adoption. Choosing the agency route is also important if a prospective adoptive couple wishes to adopt a child from a country like Russia that does not allow independent adoptions.
- For details regarding intercountry adoption including a list of American agencies that deal with foreign adoptions as well as the full text of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption see A, A A §§ 14.21–22 (3d ed. 2009). For practical issues and United States immigration law requirements including forms, see J , A §§ 11.01–08; Appendix 11–A (2011). For information regarding specific country’s laws regarding intercountry adoption as well as other important domestic matters, see C , A 411–454 (2d ed. 2010). Of special concern is the United States State Department website, which should be consulted for purposes of gaining insight into specific United States requirements, see <http://adoption.state.gov/index.php>
- Prospective adoptive parents interested in adopting a foreign child should also expect their expenses to be more than those for a domestic adoption using a child welfare agency. Foreign travel and living in the country of the child’s birth for whatever time is required increases the expenses. Subsidized adoption, which is available in cases of adopting “special needs” children in the United States, and is discussed in this book, is unavailable in intercountry adoption because the children are foreign-born and were not placed with the prospective adoptive couple by an American public agency after having been the subject of a dependency proceeding.
- Paramount in intercountry adoption is the necessity that prospective adoptive parents recognize that the child may come from an entirely different culture than the adoptive parents. Successful trans-racial adoptions in the United States are those in which the adoptive parents understand the differences between them and the children and make every effort to make the children feel as comfortable as is humanly possible in fitting into the children’s new immediate and extended family and community. Intercountry adoptions share the same goal.
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Part One. Establishing the Adoptive Relationship 238 results (showing 5 best matches)
- “Embryo adoption” is the phrase used to describe the practice of donating cryogenically preserved embryos to a genetically unrelated woman for implantation and eventual birth. Referring to the practice as adoption may be a misnomer because the adoption laws do not, in fact, govern it. Since all state adoption laws only allow the placement of a child for adoption after a child has been born, that is not the case in embryo adoption. The law concerning this practice is undeveloped. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio and Oklahoma expressly permit embryo adoptions. [A. A. §§ 742.11(2), 742.14 (West 2012); GA. C A. §§ 19–8–40 to 43 (West 2011); LA. R . A. A A. A
- It should be noted that as a decree, the adoption decree should be recognized in a sister jurisdiction under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U. S. Constitution. This is particularly important with regard to inheritance rights of the adopted child. There is no uniformity among the jurisdictions on how foreign adoption decrees are treated in the United States. For the most part, a foreign country adoption is recognized in American courts so long as it has been verified and approved by the Immigration and Naturalization Services. Some state laws require that the foreign adoption not offend the state’s public policies. The state in which the adoptive couple resides determines whether the foreign adoption decree is satisfactory and whether a local proceeding, like re-adoption, is necessary. Intercountry adoptions are discussed later in this book.
- Adoption agencies are not perfect and it is possible that they can make mistakes in the placement of children for adoption. Wrongful adoption is a term used to describe the cause of action available to an adoptive couple for the agency’s failure, whether negligently or intentionally, to disclose important facts about the child and her birth parents, like the child’s health, the birth parents’ genetic background or the circumstances surrounding the birth of the child. Some states have specific statutes that require agencies to provide information about the child to the prospective adoptive parents. Failure to do so may give the adoptive parents a statutory cause of action called wrongful adoption. The tort of wrongful adoption is basically an extension of the common law doctrine of fraud and was recognized in Ohio in 1986 with the case of ...1101 (Ohio 1986). The issue in that case concerned intentional misrepresentation and left open the matter of simple non-disclosure. The latter...in
- ., A A. § 9–9–216 (West 2011) (adoption decree cannot be challenged after one year on any grounds); C . A. § 19–5–214 (West 2012) (adoption decree cannot be challenged after ninety days for a procedural or jurisdiction defect, and after one year for fraud); H . § 578–12 (2011) (adoption decree can be challenged up to one year for good cause); S.D. C
- The Federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 works in concert with state laws. State subsidized adoption laws sometimes cover children that the federal law would not, and state laws sometimes provide benefits unavailable under the federal law. The subsidy ends when the child turns eighteen. However, it can be continued to age twenty-one if the child evidences a mental or physical handicap, and in some cases, beyond that age under the federal Medicaid program.
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Part Two. Maintaining the Adoptive Relationship 398 results (showing 5 best matches)
- There is no common law adoption. As stated earlier, adoption is no longer considered a private act, but requires a judicial proceeding. However, there is an exception and this exception shows some similarity to informal marriage in the sense that there is no formal documentation of the adoption but a holding out and an intent on the part of the parents to treat the child as a member of the family.
- well developed law of adoption in this State and to depart from the statutes by creating a doctrine of equitable adoption would import mischief and uncertainty into the law.”
- “The adoption of a child was a proceeding unknown to the common law and exists only by virtue of statutory authority which expressly prescribes the conditions under which an adoption may legally be effected; the method of adoption provided by statute is exclusive. Thus, a trial judge’s order finding that a de facto or equitable adoption had occurred would be reversed.”
- A post-adoption decree contact may be the appropriate outcome for situations involving a child over the age of five who has had contact and a positive relationship with his or her birth parents while in foster care and continuation of that contact after adoption is in the child’s best interests. In California, Indiana and Massachusetts where a child’s consent to his or her adoption is allowed, a post-adoption contact may be a provision suggested by the child himself. [See C A A. ch. 210 § 6C(c)]. An adoption decree that allows post-adoption contacts has been called “open adoption.”
- “De facto adoption,” “adoption by estoppel” and “virtual adoption” are terms used in a judicial proceeding involving the estate of a parent. They describe the rights of children in a decedents estates matter or wrongful death action who have assumed the status of an adopted child but lack the formal documentation. Normally, unless a child has been legally adopted, that child does not enjoy the status of a child born to the decedent parent under state inheritance laws. In the judicial proceeding the clear and convincing evidentiary standard is applied to determine whether the child seeking to be an heir was considered the equitably adopted child of the decedent.
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Introduction 9 results (showing 5 best matches)
- State adoption statutes vary as to the substantive law as well as the proper court to handle adoptions, those being either courts of general jurisdiction or specialized courts such as a probate court or a family court. In addition, like other areas of family law, there may be a specific residency requirement for persons seeking adoption. That requirement may vary from sixty days to one year, depending on the jurisdiction. In addition, actual or constructive notice of the adoption hearing must be given to all interested parties.
- The Massachusetts Act predated the English law of adoption enacted by Parliament in 1926 by slightly over seventy-five years. The reasons ordinarily given for the timing of the English adoption law have centered on the low birth rate at that time, deaths of men in World War I and the war’s devastating impact on families, adult deaths caused by the influenza epidemic, and the resulting orphaned and abandoned child population. In a way, the English adoption law was designed to protect those children and legalize the informal practice of parenting them.
- State statutory laws regulating the adoption of children under the age of eighteen have as their origin the Massachusetts Act to Provide for the Adoption of Children, (M . ch. 324 (Supp. 1851)) which was enacted in 1851. The Act differed from the model of adoption law in the past by its providing for a judicial proceeding to adopt a child rather than a private informal agreement, deed, or a legislative act to formally change the name of a child and secure the child’s right to inheritance. In addition, the adoption process, rather than a transaction or a legislative act, took into account the welfare of the child to be adopted and the qualifications and fitness of the adults who were to become the adoptive parents. From 1851 until 1873, the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, Connecticut, Kansas, California, Maine, Rhode Island, North Carolina and New York enacted adoption statutes. They followed the lead of Massachusetts
- Adoption both in law and in practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was different from what it is in the twenty-first century. It can no longer be divided into two processes: the formal and voluntary relinquishment of a child to a prospective adoptive couple or to a licensed adoption agency for placement or the involuntary termination of parental rights to a child and the subsequent adoption of that child by the child’s foster parents or others. While both those processes exist, new artificial reproductive techniques with all their possibilities have provided another source for adoption. This method of reproduction has become particularly attractive to individuals and couples seeking adoption in the twenty-first century as domestic and international sources for adoptable children decrease. That decrease has been caused by the decline in the domestic birth rate, the change in attitudes toward the pregnancy of single women who may raise their children themselves or have...
- In addition, while in the past it could have been said that the adoption decree terminates all legal and custodial rights of the birth parents to their children, and seals the adoption records from individual and public view, such statements can no longer be asserted absolutely. For example, as we shall see later, adoption may not sever all inheritance rights either of the adopted child from his birth parents or the birth parents from the adopted child. Individual state statutes must be consulted. In addition, a birth parent’s custodial rights under certain circumstances may survive the adoption in a limited way. Perhaps the most remarkable change in both adoption law and practice over the past fifty to one hundred years has been the removal of the shield of secrecy that covered adoption and the social taboo that restricted its open discussion.
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Copyright Page 3 results
- Nutshell Series, In a Nutshell
- Thomson Reuters created this publication to provide you with accurate and authoritative information concerning the subject matter covered. However, this publication was not necessarily prepared by persons licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. Thomson Reuters does not render legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.
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Bibliography 49 results (showing 5 best matches)
Part Three. Federal Legislation Affecting State Adoptions 14 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) was enacted as part of title V of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 and was aimed at eliminating racial, ethnic and national origin discrimination in the foster care and adoption system. MEPA prohibited state agencies involved in foster care or adoption placements that receive federal funding from delaying, denying or otherwise discriminating on the sole basis of the child or parent’s race, ethnicity or natural origin when making placement decisions and likewise banned such discrimination when determining a person’s eligibility to become a foster or adoptive parent. Nonetheless, MEPA allowed an agency to consider the cultural, ethnic or racial background of a child and the ability of the adoptive or foster parent to meet the needs of a child with such a background when making a placement. In an effort to strengthen these new provisions, Congress ...failure to comply with MEPA a violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act and... ...a...law
- As stated earlier, in the 1960s the federal government was concerned with the plight of children in long term foster care and whether there were barriers to adoption. The development of the Model State Act to Free Children for Permanent Placement and the Model State Subsidized Adoption Act reflected those concerns. Thirty years later, n 1997, Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) with the purpose of promoting the adoption of children in foster care, including provisions that accelerated permanent placement, ensured the safety of abused and neglected children, and modified the “reasonable efforts” standard used by state welfare agencies when making removal and reunification decisions. The ASFA made efforts to accelerate the permanent placement of children by requiring states to initiate a judicial “permanency hearing” for children who had waited at least fifteen of the last twenty-two months in foster care, and allowed the states to free children for adoption...
- The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act was designed to improve state child welfare and social services programs through open-ended federal funding for qualifying state foster care and adoption assistance programs. The AACWA required states to make these federally funded subsidy payments for foster care maintenance and to parents who adopt a child who is AFDC-eligible (now replaced with the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program) and has special needs. The legislation also conditioned a child’s eligibility for federal support upon (1) a judicial finding that remaining at home is contrary to the welfare of the child (2) a showing that the state agency has made “reasonable efforts” to prevent removal, and to take steps to reunite the child, if appropriate. Additionally, AACWA required states to place a child in the least restrictive setting and, if beneficial to the child, one that is close to the parent’s home. It ...or agency review every six months of a...
- States exercise primary control over child welfare programs, but in order to qualify for federal funding under certain programs, states must comply with specific federal requirements. The federally funded programs that support state efforts for foster care and adoption activities are found primarily in the Social Security Act and administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. Below is a summary of the Federal legislation spanning the last three decades that has had an impact on foster care and adoption in the fifty states.
- FEDERAL LEGISLATION AFFECTING STATE ADOPTIONS
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Outline 33 results (showing 5 best matches)
Half Title 2 results
Title Page 3 results
Index 82 results (showing 5 best matches)
- AGE RESTRICTIONS (in Adoption Placement),
- CONVENTION ON PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND CO–OPERATION IN RESPECT OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION,
- In Obtaining Access to Adoption Record, 177
- HAGUE CONVENTION ON PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND CO–OPERATION IN RESPECT OF INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTION,
- LAWYER’S ROLE IN ADOPTION,
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Advisory Board 12 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Professor of Law, Michael E. Moritz College of Law,
- Professor of Law Emeritus, University of San Diego Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Michigan
- Professor of Law, Chancellor and Dean Emeritus, Hastings College of the Law
- Dean and Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
- Professor of Law, Yale Law School
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- Publication Date: August 21st, 2012
- ISBN: 9780314190307
- Subject: Adoption Law
- Series: Nutshells
- Type: Overviews
- Description: With the number of people waiting to adopt children, the need for a comprehensive yet succinct explanation of adoption laws and practices is met by Adoption Laws in a Nutshell. The book is an excellent resource for the legal and social work professions, providing an analysis of the latest developments regarding agency responsibilities toward adoptive parents and children, the consents necessary to complete an adoption, the father’s rights, the new assisted reproductive technology, and adoption, including surrogacy, standards for placement, open adoption, access to adoption records, inheritance rights of all the parties and intercountry adoption.