Today’s guest blogger is Steve Mincey.
Minnesota’s Adoption Bill
The article I will be reviewing is “The Minn. Adoption bill up for Senate” published on March 12, 2013 on MPR News by Sasha Aslanian. This article discusses a new proposed bill to increase Minnesota’s adoption rate from foster care. The current bill in place gives a family seven hundred dollars to keep a child in foster care versus three hundred dollars to adopt the child. The concern over the adoption rate is due to the fact that Minnesota has the second lowest adoption rate in the country. For the average American, who is not familiar with foster care, this article provides a glimpse into the system.
Aslanian speaks to the Department of Human Services Lucinda Jesson and the Executive Director of the Council on Adoptable Children to discuss the disparities between the adoption and foster care rates. The author also interviews Randy Ruth the President of the Minnesota Foster Care Association. He gives an opposing viewpoint to suggest his organization isn’t satisfied with the new proposal.
Aslanian talks with several key people who are involved with adoption and/or foster care, which helps the average reader, better understand the varying viewpoints of the new bill. In addition, the article includes an opinion from Brenda Reedy who is an adoptive mother already in the system. Many citizens may not understand why the money aspect is crucial to the well-being of adoptive children. Of course we all know that it takes money to raise a child but not everyone realizes the special services an adoptive child may need. Reedy states, “What many people don’t know about raising kids that come out of the foster care system is that it can be much more expensive. You don’t realize all the therapy you’re going to need.” (Aslanian, 2013) This leaves the reader with a valid concern from a person who has truly experienced the system and why money is so crucial to the wellbeing of adoptive/foster children.
Although this article gives several viewpoints to help the reader discern the real issues at hand, some opinions appear biased and make them difficult to assess. It would have been helpful to interview several families in both adoption and foster care to see what concerns they have and if in fact money is a key factor from determining whether the child would be kept in foster care versus adoption. The real truth lies within the families who are actually in the system. In addition, the myths that were promoted in the article were that MN has the “second-lowest” rate of adoption in the nation (Aslanian, 2013) and that there continues to be a struggle to find placement for older children.
In summation, I believe that it is essential to provide families assistance needed to care for children who have been adopted. The points in the article was made clear, however, I feel there could have been more details on how the additional funds were going to increase the adoption rate in MN and provide assistance for those in need. This could have been achieved by providing statistics on how many children need services. In addition, concrete data on how these services can definitely help adoptive families.
Reference: Aslanian, S. (2013, March 12). Minn. adoption bill up for Senate hearing. Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/03/12/politics/adoption-from-foster-care-bill-senate-hearing