Adoption always an option
By Beverly Long, Program Development Mgr, KCSL
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
November is National Adoption Month with Nov. 19 being designated as the official National Adoption Day. It is a day of celebration for adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize the adoptions of children from foster care. Since 2000, more than 35,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption day. Families, adoption advocates, policymakers, judges and volunteers come together to celebrate adoption in communities, large and small, all across the nation. What a wonderful day that will be.
“While there has been an increase in the number of foster care adoptions, there are still far too many children waiting in foster care for families to adopt them. It is unacceptable that any child should not have the opportunity for a safe, loving and permanent home,” said Renette Oklewicz, director of the Freddie Mac Foundation and member of the National Adoption Day Coalition. “National Adoption Day is a collective national effort to raise awareness about the significant need for foster care and adoption, and a very important way we help improve the lives of children in foster care around the country.” Nearly 114,000 children are in foster care nationwide awaiting adoption. In the state of Kansas, there are around 900 children in foster care waiting for a “forever family”. In Lyon County’s jurisdiction, there are approximately 20 children without an identified resource for permanency; awaiting adoption. Many of these children have been in the system for a while and the highest percentage of children available for adoption is between the ages of 8 and 13.
What many of us take for granted is something that so many children hope for, dream for, long for; a family to call their own. So why do children go into foster care and ultimately end up eligible for adoption? The reasons vary as much as the individual personalities and needs of the children. Through no fault of their own, children enter foster care because of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment. Many of them move to different resource homes, usually over three times while in the system and are often separated from siblings. Each year, nearly 26,000 youth nationwide will end up leaving the system when they turn 18 with no family to support them in the future.
All children deserve to live in a safe and nurturing home. Sometimes that does not happen. For one reason or another, the home and family that they were born into cannot provide for them the safety and the care that they need. Reintegration with the birth family is always the first priority of the courts and the child placing agencies; however that is not always obtainable. Families crumble and are not always easy to put back together. For this reason, we then have children without a forever family.
Think about a time that you were in limbo. Waiting for a call on a potential job offer, waiting on that special someone to call, waiting in a hospital for the doctor to come and tell you the news. Those are all very temporary situations that cause us anxiety. Think about a child who lives in that limbo every day for several years, waiting on their birth parent to do what they need to do, waiting on the courts and the child placing agencies to follow through with services and case plans, waiting on a new forever family to step forward, wondering where they will live next and how long they will get to stay and who they will call Mom or Dad.
Since its founding in 1893, adoption has been a core service of the Kansas Children’s Service League. Over the years, available programs have changed, but our commitment to helping children find loving, stable families has always been the same. Today, KCSL offers from Heart to Home, a private infant adoption program; Adoption Search services for former KCSL infant adoptees and birth families; and it manages Adopt Kansas Kids, a statewide recruitment and awareness initiative for children in foster care needing adoption. We work collaboratively with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services and local state contract agencies that facilitate foster care and adoption services.
Currently there just under 250 children who are on the Adopt Kansas Kids website and there are approximately 75 professional photographs in the Klicks for Kids Heart Gallery, a traveling photo gallery featuring children awaiting adoption. These are two examples of the efforts put forth in regards to finding forever families for some of the 900 awaiting children.
You may wonder then, how can I help. What can I do to become an adoptive resource for children? Here are a few options. You can go through the PS-MAPP (Partnering for Safety and Permanence-Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) classes or DT (Deciding Together) classes to become a foster or adoptive family, then complete a home study and background checks, and if interested, become foster care licensed through the State of Kansas. For this you would need to contact a local child placing agency such as KCSL, Catholic Charities, TFI, St. Francis, KVC, or Youthville. If you wish to adopt an infant, KCSL has the From Heart to Home infant adoption program as well. There is also “Kinship Placement” that can be facilitated for family members or close family friends for temporary and sometimes permanent placement of children that you already have a relationship with. You can also volunteer to be a court advocate for children through the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) program or by participating in the CRB (Citizens Review Board) through the 5th Judicial District Court Services program. Training and background checks for these programs are also required.
For more information on the children or how you can become involved in the adoption process, you can call (877) 457-5430; go to www.kcsl.org; www.adoptkskids.org; or find us on facebook at www.facebook.com/AdoptKansasKids.
To obtain more on the statistics in the state of Kansas, go to www.srs.ks.gov/agency/cfs/Pages/ChildrenServedinSRSCustody.aspx.