The Adoption and Safe Families Act was
signed on November 19, 1997. This law says that the health and safety of
children should be the main concern of adoption agencies. They should also
focus on making sure that they move children from foster care into permanent
homes very quickly.
This
act helps young children who are in foster care and need a permanent home. With
this act, more children are being put in homes instead of having to live in
foster care until they turn eighteen and age out. If a child is in a home that
puts them at risk they should be taken out of that environment. With this act,
the federal government puts pressure on child protection agencies to work more
quickly to make good decisions about removing children from families and
reuniting them with their families. If social workers and family courts decide
that a child should not be put back into their home environment, this act also
helps speed up the process for the child to be placed in foster care or a
permanent adoptive home.
When
a child is taken out of their home, there are specific things that need to be
taken into account when deciding if the parental rights should be terminated.
When considering the last 22 months, if the child has been in foster care for
at least 15 months, they should not be put back into their homes. If the courts
decide that an infant has, by law, been abandoned, then they must be taken away
from their parents. Adults’ parental rights will be terminated if
they are found guilty of injuring or killing one (or more) of their children.
When
there is a child that is being placed into their new permanent home, a hearing
will take place. This act also helps to make sure that these hearings are done
quickly so that the child does not have to stay in foster care for too long
while waiting for a hearing. Once the hearing has taken place to determine
where the child should be placed, there are strict time limits on when the
child should be placed in their new home. This new home could be with their
parents, a relative, or a foster home.
If
the family court decides that the child should be reunited with his or her
family, there are many services available to that family. They can go through
counseling, substance abuse treatment, mental health services, and assistance
for domestic violence. This will help the agency (and all the rest of us who
depend on professional child protection workers to prevent child abuse and
child murder in our society) feel comfortable with placing the child back in
their home with their parents.
The adoption agencies receive
incentive payments from the state so that the agencies can place these children
in permanent homes. They get paid about $4,000 dollars per foster child that
they place. With these incentive payments, agencies have made $20 million from
government pay-outs since the law was enacted. These incentive payments help to
provide the children with any service they might need before being placed in
their new home.
The
Adoption and Safe Families Act helps keep children in the safest environment
for them. If the child has to be taken out of their home, then this makes it an
easier and faster process for putting them in their permanent (adoptive) home.
If the child will eventually be put back in the home with their parents, then
this act also makes it easier and faster to be put back into their home.
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