Red Tape and Expense Slow Adoptions

Abstract

''Given what has happened in the world of adoption today, my parents probably could not have been able to afford to adopt me,'' she said. ''I might have found a wealthier home, but I couldn't have possibly found a more loving one.''

Ernesto Loperena, the executive director of the New York Council on Adoptable Children, said that children in New York often wait six years in foster homes before being adopted. Four thousand children in New York City are now waiting for adoption; last year, however, just over 900 children were adopted. Mr. Loperena said more were not adopted primarily because of adoption agency workers who ''often have ingrained ideas about what constitutes an ideal family'' and because of the difficulty in ''getting families through the system.''

LEAD: The expense of the adoption process and a morass of red tape are preventing children from finding homes, witnesses told a Congressional panel Tuesday.

The expense of the adoption process and a morass of red tape are preventing children from finding homes, witnesses told a Congressional panel Tuesday.

As a result, children are spending years in foster care, especially when they have special needs.

Faith Daniels, a correspondent and a co-anchor for CBS News, said at a hearing by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption that Federal help was needed to make the adoption process easier.

Ms. Daniels was born in a home for unwed mothers, spent six months in an orphanage and was adopted at the age of 7 months by Steve and Mary Skowronski of Washington, Pa.

''Given what has happened in the world of adoption today, my parents probably could not have been able to afford to adopt me,'' she said. ''I might have found a wealthier home, but I couldn't have possibly found a more loving one.''

More than 140,000 children are adopted each year, according to Federal statistics. More than 280,000 children are supported by Federal and state foster care funds; 36,000 of them are waiting for adoption.

Social service agencies also face the growing problem of children who carry the acquired immune deficiency virus, said Sister Maureen Joyce, the executive director of Community Maternity Services in Albany. She said these children, who often languish for months in hospitals, ''will need services for the rest of their lives.''

About 2 million couples and about 1 million single people are trying to adopt, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ernesto Loperena, the executive director of the New York Council on Adoptable Children, said that children in New York often wait six years in foster homes before being adopted. Four thousand children in New York City are now waiting for adoption; last year, however, just over 900 children were adopted. Mr. Loperena said more were not adopted primarily because of adoption agency workers who ''often have ingrained ideas about what constitutes an ideal family'' and because of the difficulty in ''getting families through the system.''

Agencies are usually reimbursed each day for each child in foster care, he said, which leads to children's staying in foster care much longer than necessary.

''There's no fiscal incentive for the agencies to promote adoption or promote reunification with biological parents,'' he said.

Representative Patricia Schroeder, Democrat of Colorado, said the cost of adoptions was $5,000 to $10,000 and could go much higher. The expense is not tax deductible.

She said she supports legislation to assure an unpaid leave of absence for parents after the adoption of a child. In addition, she said, families should not be barred from adoption because both parents work.