The Challenges of Transracial Adoption

2050 Words5 Pages

To the thousands of children in foster care, adoption means being part of a family. Adoption signifies a chance to be loved, wanted, and cared for properly. Every year thousands of children enter the foster care system. In the year 2010 alone, 245,375 children entered foster care, of that number over 61,000 were black. An astounding 30,812 black children were waiting for adoption in 2010 (AFCARS). With so many children needing homes, it would seem their adoption would be open to any and all loving families, yet this is not the necessarily the case. Transracial adoption, which traditionally alludes to black children placed with white families, is riddled with difficulties. While transracial adoption can be a successful solution, many obstacles are encountered in each step of the process.

Prior to the 1990’s adoption guidelines dictated that raced be used as a deciding factor in adoptions. It was generally considered “good practice” by social workers to place a child based on physical characteristics including skin color, as well as expected intellectual ability, social status, as well as religious preference (Kennedy 450). It wasn’t until 1994 when the Multiethnic Placement Act was put in place. This law prohibits agencies that receive Federal funding from delaying or denying the placement of a child on the basis of race, color, or national origin of the adoptive or foster parent of the child involved. The MEPA act was amended in 1996 with the Interethnic Placement Provisions (Long 6). The intentions of the revised MEPA-IEP consisted of decreasing the amount of time children waited to be adopted as well as facilitating the recruitment of both adoptive and foster parents who can meet the unique needs of those children awaiting...

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...CC. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. .

Espejo, Roman. Adoption: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 2002. Print.

Hansen, Mary E. "Transracial and Transcultural Adoption." Child Welfare Information Gateway. American University Washington, June 2006. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.

Kennedy, Randall. Interracial Intimacies. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.

Long, Jane K. "Information Packet: Domestic Transracial Adoption." Www.hunter.cuny.edu/socowork/nrcfcpp. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.

McManus, Maureen. "Issues In Transracial Adoption." Umbc.edu/~mmcman1/. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. .

Silverman. "Transracial Adoption." Http://statistics.adoption.com/information/interracial-adoption-statistics.html. 1993. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.

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