The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released its latest study September 2008, which offers recommendations to increase the number of prospective adoptive parents for children in foster care by welcoming gays and lesbians. This report, Expanding Resources for Waiting Children II: Eliminating Legal & Practice Barriers to Gay & Lesbian Adoption from Foster Care.
The 50 page report offers recommendations and general findings building on the Institutes earlier research found in the 2006 Study, Expanding Resources for Waiting Children: Is Adoption by Gays and Lesbians Part of the Answer? which stated that a national ban of gays and lesbians from fostering puts the total costs to states at $87 million to $130 million (considered to be a conservative number).
The report noted that since the early 2000, many states have enacted or attempted to enact legislation to ban gays and lesbians from fostering or adopting. This is usually done by using broad language, like prohibiting unmarried couples from fostering or adopting. However, there are states that have passed laws that allow joint or second-parent adoption for gay and lesbian parents.
General Findings
Children are waiting for permanent homes.129,000 children are waiting adoptive homes. Approximately 25,000 children age out of the system without a family for support. These children are at risk for poverty, homelessness and early parenthood. The report stated that adoption of children from foster care brings an estimated savings annually of $3.3 and $6.3 billion nationally.
Gays and lesbians are an important resource to these children. Numerous studies show that gays and lesbians are often more willing to parent special needs children.
Research shows that children do as well with gay/lesbian parents as those raised by heterosexual parents. There is little long-term research on the outcomes for children raised by gays and lesbians, however studies dating back 25 years show that children raised by homosexual couples do as well as those raised by heterosexual couples.
Mainstream professional organizations support gay and lesbian adoptions. Many leading professional organizations, 13 to be exact, have issued formal statements for gay and lesbian adoption.
There is an economic cost to excluding gay and lesbian adoptive parents. A national ban on foster care by gay and lesbian couples would add about $87 million to $130 million a year. The cost to individual states would range from $100,000 to $27 million, depending on the population.
State Law and Policy
The Findings:Most foster children are adopted by their foster parents, excluding gays and lesbians from fostering lowers the number of adoptive homes for children.
- State laws banning gay and lesbians from fostering or adopting can negatively affect the number of adoptive families for waiting children.
States that do not allow joint or second parent adoptions leave children at a disadvantage.
The legal status of parents should be recognized across state lines.
The Institute Recommends:
All adults are evaluated based on their ability to care and support a child in foster care and not on their sexual orientation.
Rescind laws that prevent gays and lesbians from fostering and adopting. This will increase the number of families that may be an appropriate match for waiting children.
It is in the best interest of a child that states allow or recognize simultaneous adoption of the two parents in a couple, with disregard to sexual orientation. This allows the child to receive rights and benefits from having two legal parents.
All states should acknowledge the adoption decrees issued by other states, without regard to the sexual orientation of the adoptive parents.
Agency Police and Practice
The Findings:The extent to how welcoming and sensitive an agency is to different families varies by agency.
Policies used to asses traditional families may not be appropriate for assessing gay and lesbian families.
Practices for preparing traditional families for adoption or foster care may not appropriately prepare a gay and lesbian family for adoption or foster care.
To serve different populations, agencies need culturally competent staff.
The Institute Recommends:
Agencies need to make their commitment to non-discrimination and inclusion of all qualified families highly visible.
Issues of sexual orientation should be addressed in the assessment process. The agency should provide the gay and lesbian couple the opportunity to consider the impact adoption will have on different issues within their family, such as the degree to how "out" the couple is in the community.
PRIDE and MAPP or other training curricula for foster and adoptive families should be evaluated to see if they meet the needs for gay and lesbian couples preparing to become foster or adoptive parents. Agencies need to also reach out and develop relationship with organizations and services that can provide supports to gay and lesbian families.
Agencies need to recruit diverse staff of social workers, supervisors, and other who can bring expertise and personal experience to the agency. Agencies should train staff to develop expertise in working with a full range of families.
