Click
here to view our matrix of current list of adoption
legislation in progress.
Families for Orphans Act
The Need
UNICEF estimates 143
million children live as orphans. Some have lost both parents; others
are at risk of being orphaned. Millions more live outside the
scope of available census data; on the streets, in temporary care or
unregistered institutions. Deprived of a basic of human right, these
unknown children are denied the nurturing needed to thrive as children
and later as members of our global society. They lack the physical and
emotional safety that only a permanent family can provide. Perhaps most
importantly, they are deprived of the love needed to realize their full
human potential.
A Gap
Exists
Efforts by the aid
and development community are currently focused on survivability:
nutrition, housing, education and medical care. Community development
programs only indirectly prevent family dissolution and do not
appropriately address the needs of children living outside of permanent
parental care. A continuum of care is needed to ensure that children
mature into productive members of the world community. This continuum
lacks the programs, funding, focus and leadership needed to move these
children from survivability to permanent family life. The focus on
survivability creates a gap between surviving in temporary care and
thriving in a permanent family.
This gap only
increases the world orphan crisis and leads to the continuing
deterioration of the world’s social fabric. Evidence based research, in
the U.S. and internationally, clearly supports the need for permanent
family life in preventing incarceration, suicide, mental health
disorders and deterioration of physical health. In addition to assuring
the human right to a permanent family, this research also points to the
validity of expanding aid and development efforts to include permanent
family life.
Within U.S.
strategies, four hurdles impede efforts to ensure a permanent family for
every child.
-
Currently U.S.
programs are disconnected, are without an overriding policy or goal
and discount the basic human need of a permanent family. Programs
exist in a ‘silo’ structure, which often results in
counterproductive and mutually exclusive programs.
-
·A
lack of proactive diplomacy results in reactionary initiatives,
which address problems and not the cause. Further, U.S. agencies and
officials lack the authority and resources needed to engage foreign
governments.
-
While developing
countries are actively seeking assistance with the development of
sound public policy and support for permanency programs, U.S.
expertise, leadership and support are restricted by current U.S.
mandates and structure.
The
Solution
The Families for
Orphans Act overcomes these barriers by establishing the Office of
Orphan Policy, Development and Diplomacy. The office, headed by an
appointed Coordinator will promote and support the preservation and
reunification of families; and the provision of permanent parental care
for orphans. The primary functions of the office as related to
family preservation and permanent parental care are:

ICARE Act (Intercountry
Adoption Reform)
September
2007
- The latest information about the ICARE (Intercountry Adoption Reform)
Act, can be accessed
here.

Natural Born Citizen Act
On February 25,
2004 Senator Don Nickles (R-OK), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) introduced a bipartisan bill (S. 2128) granting
children born abroad to U.S. citizens, or adopted abroad by U.S.
citizens, the same rights as native-born children including the right to
run for President of the United States.
Note:
This bill has recently been introduced and is now in the Senate
Committee on the Judiciary. JCICS will monitor its progress and
update our website if and when it is passed.

Adoption Promotion Act of
2003
The Adoption
Promotion Act of 2003 (H.R.3182)
extends the Adoption Incentive Program for another five years and focus
greater attention on finding adoptive families for older children in
foster care. The legislation was passed by
Congress on November 17, 2003 and by
President Bush on December 2, 2003 and is now Public Law No:
108-145.
This bill
authorizes $43 million per year in performance-based incentives to
states that are successful in increasing the number of children adopted
from foster care. The bonus program, first created as part of the
Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, has contributed to the
substantial increase in adoptions in recent years--from 31,000 in fiscal
year 1997 to approximately 51,000 in fiscal year 2002.
Despite recent progress made, many more children are in need of adoptive
families. At the end of fiscal year 2002, 532,698 children remained in
foster care, and 116,653 of the children in foster care had adoption as
their permanent placement goal. About half of the children waiting to be
adopted are over the age of nine. Today, national data show that a
child over the age of nine is more likely to remain in foster care
through his or her 18th birthday than to find an adoptive home.
The Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 will help to change that statistic by
encouraging
states to focus greater effort on finding adoptive families for older
children in foster care.
New Adoption Law Website
The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital
University Law School, located in Columbus, Ohio, released the nation’s
first comprehensive online compilation and synthesis of the law of
adoption. This new e-tool, available at
www.adoptionlawsite.org, provides free access to the adoption
related statutes and regulations, as well as the key cases and articles,
from every U.S. state and territory, along with federal and
international materials.
To read the Center's press release,
click here.

|