Policy & Law : NCFA’s Policy Priorities

NCFA’s Policy Priorities

INFANT ADOPTION: Only one to two percent of children born out of wedlock are placed for adoption. Without presuming to judge any individual decision, it seems to be in the best interests of children and their birthparents for significantly more of these children to be placed for adoption. Social science has directly correlated the rise in children languishing in foster care to the number of single-parent households. The number of single-parent households is directly correlated to the decrease in infant adoptions. Here are some of NCFA’s policy priorities to help create healthier attitudes towards infant adoption and make it easier for birthparents to choose adoption.

• Infant adoption awareness training in pregnancy counseling situations: In at least two-thirds of unplanned pregnancy counseling situations, women are presented either no information about adoption, or negative or inaccurate information about adoption. NCFA has developed curricula and provides training for pregnancy and health counselors on how to present adoption as a positive option for women with unplanned pregnancies. For women to be able to make fully informed decisions, the presentation of adoption as a viable alternative is appropriate in the full array of counseling situations involving unplanned pregnancy.

• Infant adoption awareness in family life and sex education curricula in schools: Presently, almost all of these curricula do not even mention adoption as an option for an unplanned pregnancy. NCFA supports state legislative efforts to direct departments of education to formulate curricula that present adoption as a positive option for unplanned pregnancy.

• State-level putative father registries: NCFA promotes effective registries at the state level that protect fathers’ rights while enabling birthmothers and adoptive parents to make secure adoption plans. In order to maintain his rights to receive notice of an adoption and to seek custody, an effective registry requires the father to register as the father, establish his paternity, and support the mother and child.

• Adoption counseling in federally funded maternity group homes: In 2003, differing versions of congressional legislation offered opposite policies regarding support for adoption counseling in federally funded maternity group homes. NCFA maintains that these homes should receive support for adoption counseling, not just the teaching of parenting skills.

• Research on why birthmothers place their children for adoption: NCFA is conducting research into why birthmothers make adoption plans for their children. This research will provide new understandings into the dynamics of birthmothers’ decisions that will facilitate better presentation of the adoption option in pregnancy counseling and through the media.

• Safe Havens in all 50 states: Three states remain to achieve a clean sweep for this commonsense policy that is saving babies’ lives by allowing desperate birthparents to place their babies safely and legally with authorized caregivers, rather than harming or abandoning them.

ADOPTION OUT OF FOSTER CARE: The success of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) and heightened attention to the plight of children languishing in foster care have helped many children to be adopted out of foster care. But there are still some 114,000 children with the case status of 'waiting to be adopted,' and a total of 513,000 children in foster care. There is still much work to be done to help these deserving children find loving, permanent families. NCFA’s research, education, and advocacy efforts to improve the foster care system and produce positive results for children and families includes the following priorities.

• Flexible funding for states’ federal foster care dollars: Present federal law restricts states to spending their foster care dollars on placement costs. States do not have the flexibility to customize their child welfare systems to the unique needs of their children and families. As a result, they cannot adequately fund other services, such as parent recruitment and training and post-adoption services. NCFA supports President Bush’s flexible funding proposal that would allow states to maintain the federal funding of their foster care program as is, or to receive these funds as a flexible grant over five years, to support a range of child welfare services. The proposal’s flexibility offers states the opportunity to be timely and effective in addressing the specific challenges of their respective foster care populations and systems. This approach is consistent with the proven ASFA model for federal-state partnerships: The federal government provides standards, incentives, and accountability; the states determine the best ways to achieve them, given the particular needs and circumstances of their respective states. It does not serve the best interests of children and families for the federal government to dictate a one-size-fits-all policy for our diverse 50 states.

• Performance-based measures for family courts: One of the greatest problems with foster care today is dysfunctional family courts that trap children in a lengthy process of hearings and legal technicalities, with the result that they grow older in foster care and less likely to be adopted. The lack of performance measures and incentives for family courts makes it difficult for policymakers to praise courts for good performance and hold them accountable for poor performance.  Federal and state governments should establish an effective accountability system for family courts that: (1) defines clear performance measures for family courts; (2) measures court performance according to these standards; (3) reports these performance measures timely to policymakers with authority over the courts and to the general public; and (4) develops incentives, at the state and federal levels, that promote improved performance. Among the measures that should be considered: the average length of time between review hearings; percentage of review hearings that are postponed; numbers of placements children experience while in foster care; numbers of review hearings children experience while in foster care; percentage of children in foster care 15 out of the last 22 months who are exempted from termination of parental rights, and the reasons given for these exemptions; lengths of time from entry into foster care until termination of parental rights; and numbers of disruptions of placements, by type of placement.

• Adoptive parent recruitment through faith-based communities: NCFA informs faith communities and religious leaders regarding the needs of children in foster care. For every child waiting to be adopted out of foster care, there are three places of worship in this country, and every major faith admonishes its believers to care for orphans. Communities of faith present an excellent opportunity to find loving, forever families for these deserving children.

• Equipping adoption agencies to prepare families for adopting out of foster care: There are 55 million married couple households in the US; that is 471 couples for each child waiting to be adopted. Single-parent adoption is part of the solution, too, especially for older children. Agencies need assistance in learning how to recruit and counsel parents for the additional challenges that children who have suffered abuse and neglect, or have special needs, can bring.

• Publicizing the compassion and love of foster care adoption: NCFA uses special events such as National Adoption Day and our own Kids at Heart festival to draw attention to the loving families who adopt children out of foster care.

• Educational assistance for older foster children: In 2003, Congress and the Bush administration successfully enacted the Adoption Promotion Act, which created additional incentives for the adoption of foster children ages 9 and up. Another administration proposal, the Foster Care Independence Program, would help older foster youth transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency after leaving foster care by providing them vouchers of up to $5,000 for education or vocational training.

Click here for more information about NCFA's foster care initiatives.

INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION: Children languishing in orphanages around the world deserve loving homes, too. Working with its adoption agency members, the White House, Congress, Department of State, Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly INS), and foreign embassies, NCFA promotes a healthy system of intercountry adoptions, in the best interests of children. NCFA’s intercountry adoption priorities include the following.

• Advising the development and implementation of the new Hague intercountry adoption regulations: NCFA will continue to speak for the best interests of children while working with the complex variety of interests, agencies, and governments to establish more child- and family-friendly intercountry adoption rules and procedures, under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption.

• Educating adoption agency members regarding how to make the transition to the new rules for intercountry adoption: NCFA helps to ensure sound intercountry adoption practice by providing educational resources, such as manuals, seminars, and briefings, to enable adoption agencies to make the challenging transition to the new system.

• Representing the concerns and interests of the parties to intercountry adoption: NCFA helps to ensure that the collective and specific-case interests of prospective adoptive parents, foreign orphans, and adoption agencies are served well by the new system. Because of its leadership position, NCFA is often able to move stalled cases and ensure that legitimate, under-served adoption concerns are represented.

• Communicating changes in adoption policy and procedures: NCFA is a valuable resource for communicating changes in adoption policies and procedures to adoption agencies and parties to adoption. The key US government agencies, the Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues and the Citizenship and Immigration Services, turn to NCFA to help make sure the adoption community is able to manage these changes, whether due to US policy or to events in sending countries.

• 'Diplomacy' for sound adoption practice: NCFA meets with representatives of foreign governments to discuss timely issues facing the international adoption community and serves as a resource for sending countries.

FOR THE GOOD OF ALL ADOPTIONS: NCFA also has important priorities in the areas of adoption statistics, tax policy, privacy, and agency membership, which benefit all adoptions.

• Adoption Factbook IV: Widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive resources on adoption, the fourth edition of NCFA’s flagship publication, Adoption Factbook IV (2007), includes adoption statistics and research compiled by NCFA and unavailable elsewhere.

• Making adoptions more affordable by repealing the tax credit’s sunset: Though the enactment of the adoption tax credit has been a great achievement of the pro-adoption movement, the work is not complete until the credit has been made permanent.

• Promoting the adoption assistance program with corporate leaders: Many more companies can make adoption more affordable for their employees by using the tax benefit that gives employers a tax credit for providing adoption-related benefits.

• Other tax policies that make adoption more affordable: A federal proposal to allow tax-free deductions from IRAs for adoption expenses and various state-level adoption tax credit and deduction proposals also deserve support.

• Mutual consent and the option of privacy in adoption: Adoption policy and practice should not empower one party to adoption to receive identifying information or unilaterally impose contacts without the consent of another party. NCFA therefore opposes laws that provide to adult adopted persons, without birthparents’ knowledge and consent, unqualified access to original birth certificates or other documentation that identifies the birthparents. NCFA supports state-level mutual consent registries, which facilitate the exchange of identifying information and contact between birthparents and adult adopted persons, when both agree. NCFA also supports laws that provide adopted persons access to non-identifying birthparent medical, genetic, and other health-related information.