National Adoption Center Policies

The National Adoption Center's Board of Directors and Staff have developed policy position on the following issues:

Adoption assistance provides families willing and commited to adopt a child with special needs with the financial means to do so.

The Center believes that all children with special needs should be eligible for adoption assistance regardless of the income of their birthparents or previous adoptive parents. Additionally, the Center believes that a family must be able to obtain adoption assistance even when a child's special needs have not been determined before the adoption is finalized, but develop later.

Finally, the National Adoption Center advocates that adoption assistance agreements be reviewed and adjusted over time to realistically reflect and meet the child's needs.

The National Adoption Center believes that employers should address the needs of all employees who are building a family, whether through birth or adoption, by offering an equitable benefits policy. The costs of adopting, as well as the need for bonding and adjustment with a new child, parallel the experience of those who give birth. In addition, completing an adoption is often time-consuming and emotionally taxing, and can impinge on work time and productivity.

Our recommended best practice for an adoption benefits policy contains the following components:

• Financial reimbursement to cover these and other reasonable costs: agency or homestudy fees; medical expenses of the child and/or birthmother; temporary foster care fees; legal fees; transportation costs; immigration fees in the case of international adoption.

• Leave policies comparable to those offered to birthparents, to include paid leave in addition to sick, vacation and personal leave time.

• Adoption Resource and Referral Services, including consultation and written information that will save an employee work time in completing the adoption process.

This policy has been developed as a means of communicating a "best practices" model and will be available to the media and to employers requesting information about the establishment of an adoption benefits plan.

We believe that every child has the right to a loving, nurturing and permanent family, and that people from a variety of life experiences offer strengths for these children.

Therefore, it is the policy of the National Adoption Center that no person should be denied consideration in the adoption process solely based on marital status, sexual orientation, lifestyle, disability, physical appearance, race, gender, age, religion and/or size of family.

For many children, an adoptive home cannot be located in their own county or state, and recruitment efforts must include a nationwide search for a permanent family. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 recognizes the importance of going beyond geographic boundaries to place a child and prohibits denying or delaying a child's adoptive placement when an approved family is available outside of the child's jurisdiction.

The National Adoption Center supports this law and will actively advocate for all public and private agencies to comply with the act. It is the policy of the National Adoption Center that no individual or family should be denied the right to adopt a child because they do not reside within the jurisdiction of the child.

The National Adoptive Center believes that families who are interested in adopting U.S. waiting children are a valuable resource. When all agencies from across the country share access to their approved families, everyone benefits -- the waiting children, the families and agencies.

The Center believes that a family is entitled to receive a copy of its completed homestudy promptly. Further, an agency must release an approved homestudy either to the family or to another agency that requests it.

The homestudy should be considered valid in any jurisdiction in the country for a minimum of one year.

The National Adoption Center believes that a well-written child description is critical in finding a permanent family for a waiting child or sibling group. Its purpose is to "introduce" the child to potential adopters. Therefore, it is the policy of the National Adoption Center that a description of a waiting child should always:

In addition, the Center believes it is important to consider that a child description is intended for the general public and is not intended to replace an in-depth presentation about the child to a selected, potential adoptive family.

This policy statement applies to all types of child specific recruitment including the Internet, photo listing books, flyers and other print media.

The National Adoption Center believes that it is an inalienable right of all citizens, including adopted adults, to have unencumbered access to their original birth certificates. In keeping with this position, we believe that copies of both the original and the amended birth certificate should be given to the adoptive family at the time of finalization unless specifically denied by the birthparents. In any case, the National Adoption Center advocates that the adoptee, at age 18, be granted access to his/her original birth certificate.

The National Adoption Center also supports an adult adoptee's unencumbered access to all medical and historical records.* These records should be given to adopting families prior to finalization.

*Historical records refer to that information acquired about the child before coming into his/her final adoption placement. Such information includes, but is not limited to, foster care placements, childhood photos, information about siblings, number of moves before adoption, reason for entering foster care, details of school history and related school documents and any early history of development which may includes pertinent medical records.

The National Adoption Center believes that society benefits from intact families, including those created through adoption. While all families experience stress, families who have adopted, particularly those who have adopted children with known special needs, often have additional issues for which they need help.

Information and Referral
Parent Support Groups
Therapeutic Support
Case Management
Crisis Intervention
Search/Reunion Assistance
Community and Internet-based Education and Support
In-home Services for Children, Commonly Known as "Wraparound Services"
Respite Care
Residential Placement

The National Adoption Center believes that the availability and accessibility of post-adoption services are vital to adoptive family preservation and advocates that all adoptive families be informed of
post-adoption services.

The Center further believes that states and adoption agencies should be required to develop and provide post-placement support services to families. To that end, all efforts should be made to ensure that existing funding streams are utilized by states to the fullest extent possible and, if necessary, that funding be increased in order to help meet the need.

The National Adoption Center believes that every child should have a permanent and loving family. The longer a child remains without a parent (s), the more damaging it is to his or her identity, self-esteem and chances of growing into productive adulthood. It is our goal to find a loving home for each child as quickly as possible.

The Center does not discriminate because of race or ethnicity when considering adoption opportunities for children. In compliance with the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act, effective October 1995, the Center does not delay or deny to any person the opportunity to become an adoptive parent solely on the basis of their race, color or national origin.

Sibling Adoption

The National Adoption Center believes that siblings play an important role in the healthy development of children. Sibling relationships influence a child's ability to develop basic skills and promote socialization. Because of the unique lifelong nature of the sibling relationship and the pain experienced by children deprived of their siblings, the National Adoption Center actively recruits families for small and large sibling groups and encourages agencies which seek to separate siblings to consider other alternatives. In the rare cases when siblings must be separated, Center staff encourages families to maintain significant, ongoing contact among the children involved. Finally, we advocate strongly for sibling placements and speak out when inappropriate separations are planned.

Approved by the Board of Directory - December 1987

Use of Adoption Exchanges

The National Adoption Center believes that all U.S. children available to be adopted and needing a new placement should be visible to social workers and families from around the country. The Adoption and Safe Families Act, passed in November of 1997, supports this belief. It states that "case plans for children must document the steps an agency is taking to find a permanent family for a child, including child specific recruitment efforts such as the use of state, regional and national exchanges, including electronic exchange systems."

In order to carry out this mandate, the Center believes, therefore, that all waiting U.S. children should be listed on all appropriate state, regional and national exchanges. In addition, families who have been approved to adopt by a licensed agency should be involved actively in searching for a child that would be a suitable "match" for them and also should be registered on all appropriate state, regional and national exchanges.

Approved by the Board of Directors - December 1998

Policy Statements