The Surrey County Council (in the UK) is now offering the same maternity pay as birth mothers to adoptive mothers, in order to allow them time off to bond with their children without suffering financial hardship. At the same time, this move is also seen as a way to remove barriers to adoption and thus [...]
The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) is looking for submissions for their 39th annual conference, to be held in Toronto, Ontario next August 7-10, 2013. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, November 2, 2012. From the NACAC website: NACAC encourages adoptive and foster parents, child welfare professionals, adoptees, birth parents, former foster youth, [...]
The Children's Bureau released a new Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) report for 2011 (October 1-September 30, 2011). According to the report: In 2011, there was a continued trend toward fewer children waiting for adoption (104,236 children, down from 109,456 in 2010 and from 133,682 in 2007).During the reporting period, parental [...]
As of August 1, the new Safe Place for Newborns law in Minnesota went into effect. Since 2000, Minnesota has had a Safe Place for Newborns law that allowed a mother (or her official representative) to bring her newborn infant to a hospital within 3 days of birth for the purpose of relinquishing her rights [...]
For many children in foster care or those adopted from foster care, being separated from one or more sibling is unfortunately a common experience. Although the sibling relationship is the longest relationship any person will have to another family member, about 70% of the children in foster care also have another sibling in care. Because [...]
One of the new laws that went into effect last Wednesday was regarding unreasonable child restraint. Although we've posted on this in the past (Criminal Neglect Penalties for Unreasonable Restraint of Children added to the Vulnerable Adult Bill), I recently saw an article that discussed this new law as a policy change for general child [...]
Photo by Chris Wilson for the Journal Sentinel The abuse of children who have been adopted by their adoptive parents is particularly tragic, considering that adoption is supposed to be the safe haven for children who have already experienced the traumatic dissolution of their birth families. A recent case of the abuse of internationally adopted [...]
The Children's Law Center of Minnesota has published a module entitled Critical Advocacy Tools For Attorneys Helping Foster Youth Clients Achieve Positive Outcomes During and After Preparation for Adulthood, written by Staff Attorney Julia Hillel Larsen. The Children's Law Center represents many youth in court hearings and works to make sure their clients are getting [...]