A report released this week by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute recommends a significant overhaul in the way transracial adoptions are handled in the United States. The Institute's primary concern - a concern shared the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the Child Welfare League of America, and others - is that, while transracial adoption of foster care children is encouraged, adoptive parents are rarely equipped to handle the challenges associated with it.

"Of the black children adopted out of foster care, about 20 percent are adopted by white families. The Donaldson report said current law, by stressing color blindness, deters agencies from assessing families' readiness to adopt transracially or preparing them for the distinctive challenges they might face."

Critics of the report believe that allowing race to be any kind of factor in adoption will cause it to become the primary, if not the only, factor. Source: The Buffalo News

Labels: foster_care, trans-racial, recommendations

Posted By: Aspen Education Group