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Registration now open!
2008 National Adoption Conference "Surviving and Thriving in Volatile Times" Click here to register today! Senate Finance Committee Approves Chairman’s Mark of Senator Grassley’s (R, IA) Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act The House of Representatives passed a similar bill in June. NCFA supports the swift passage of these important measures and urges the Senate and House to bring their two passed bills into agreement for signature by President Bush.
What should government do when laws regulating a positive practice are broken – enforce the laws more effectively or suspend the practice altogether? Normally the government increases enforcement and continues to allow the legitimate practice to continue. But in the case of international adoptions from Vietnam, the U.S. government is precipitating the indefinite suspension of adoptions, rather than working effectively with the Vietnamese government to prevent abuses and punish abusers while still processing legitimate adoptions. Recent arrests of traffickers in several provinces show that the Vietnamese government is capable of strengthening enforcement. When NCFA traveled to Vietnam earlier this year and met with adoption officials, they pleaded for the U.S. government to work with them on investigations and enforcement. But our government has for the most part declined. America is the world leader in international adoption. Our response to a country that has problem areas in its adoption system should be to demand ethical adoptions and effective enforcement, yes, but also to be a partner with the country in making that happen. Instead, the U.S. approach has been to blame Vietnam and let the system fail. After recent public and congressional pressure, there have been some renewed efforts from the Department of State (DOS) at the eleventh hour, but it appears to be too little too late. As the leader in international adoption, America should be pro-active in educating countries of origin on legal and ethical adoption practice. DOS and Citizenship and Immigration Services have rightly been concerned about Vietnamese officials in some locales who indiscriminately characterize children’s entry into the system as abandonment. Why not partner with the Vietnamese government and adoption professionals to conduct trainings for Vietnamese practitioners on what makes for a legitimate relinquishment and why it is generally preferable to abandonment? In July, Vietnam estimated that when the agreement expires on September 1, there will be many hundreds of American families without referrals left hanging, whose adoption dreams would be dashed. The number of families without referrals equates to a comparable number of Vietnamese orphans who would not be adopted. During an indefinite suspension thousands of orphans would lose their chance for a family through adoption. Those who will suffer the most from the indefinite suspension of Vietnamese adoptions are the thousands of orphans who could have been adopted but now will not be. It is tragic for these vulnerable children that the U.S. government has not been able to manage this situation in a way that allows legitimate adoptions to proceed.
Congressional Letter to Department of State Urges Interim Agreement with Vietnam to Avoid Disruption of International Adoptions by Americans 149 members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 7 urging her to negotiate an interim Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Vietnam that allows adoptions from Vietnam by Americans to continue while addressing concerns regarding the adoption system in Vietnam. The signers agreed that “systematic reform and more effective safeguards are needed to prevent abuses” in the Vietnamese adoption process, and urged the State Department to “work with the Vietnamese Government to implement proactive measures designed to guard against abuse.” Furthermore, however, the letter stated that “signing an interim agreement with Vietnam is consistent with your goal of moving toward a Hague-compliant system” in Vietnam, and that “it is not in the best interest of children to remain institutionalized or homeless during the period of transition” to a Hague-compliant system. NCFA applauds these Members of Congress for addressing the need to prevent the imminent disruption of adoptions from Vietnam. NCFA joins them to continue to urge that the State Department work expeditiously on behalf of Vietnamese orphans. (Click here to see full text of letter.) Now Available: The Whole Life Adoption Book If you're thinking about adopting or have already adopted, this book offers encouragement and practical information to help you succeed as an adoptive family.
With wisdom and compassion, this powerful book addresses the needs and concerns facing adoptive parents, offering encouragement for the journey ahead. Click here and purchase your copy today! House Passes Fostering Connections At the urging of child welfare organizations and advocates nationwide, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Fostering Connections to Success Act (HR 6307) yesterday, June 24, in Congress. National Council For Adoption (NCFA) supports this bill, which was introduced by Representatives Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Jerry Weller (R-IL), because it provides for a wide array of reforms to benefit children and their interest in adoption. These reforms include reauthorizing and increasing adoption incentives to states through 2013, providing for states to inform prospective adoptive parents regarding eligibility for the adoption tax credit, and stipulating that states conduct reasonable efforts to place siblings together. The bill will now move to the Senate for consideration. NCFA thanks and congratulates Representatives McDermott and Weller, the bill’s 26 other co-sponsors, and the full U.S. House of Representatives for their attentiveness to the concerns of child welfare organizations and advocates and their swift passage of the Fostering Connections to Success Act. NCFA hopes that the Senate will also recognize the positive steps this bill takes toward addressing the child welfare system’s urgent need for reform, and pass this bill into law. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) Gathers Support for Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Support Act and Pursues Co-Sponsorship Introduced on May 20, 2008, Senator Charles Grassley’s Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Support Act proposes a number of positive legislative changes that would benefit the 510,000 children in foster care. If enacted, this bill would extend through 2013 the Adoption Incentive Program, whereby the federal government allocates financial rewards to states that have increased the number of children adopted from their foster care system. It would also increase adoption incentive payments by establishing 2007 as the program’s new “base year” against which future performance would be measured. The bill would make all children with special needs adopted from foster care eligible for federal adoption assistance payments by exempting them from current income eligibility requirements. The bill would also establish relative guardianship as a permanency option for those children for whom courts have ruled that neither reunification nor adoption are viable permanency options, and allow states to receive federal reimbursement for assistance payments made to relative guardians. Finally, the bill would allow the federal government to allocate unobligated funds from the Adoption Incentive Program to states that increase the number of children exiting foster care through relative guardianship. Click here to read Senator Grassley’s appeal to his colleagues for co-sponsorship, which contains further information on the Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Support Act and its supporters.
About one half of the states have enacted putative father registry laws, which regulate the extent to which an unmarried, uninvolved biological father can undermine a birthmother's decision of the birthmother to place a child for adoption. Generally, these statutes establish a timeframe within which a possible, or “putative,” father must register with an identified state agency to have any right to notice of proceedings to terminate parental rights or not to consent to placement of the child for adoption. Some statutes require the putative father not only to demonstrate that he is, in fact, the biological father, but that he is also committed to the birthmother’s and child’s best interests. For example, putative father laws sometimes require a demonstration of financial support to the birthmother, beginning during the pregnancy. Read more about state putative father registry laws: NCFA appreciates the efforts of Katy Braden, NCFA 2007 summer legal intern, and the expert research and analysis contributed by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, especially Andrea Vavonese, Juliane Sullivan, Ian Shavitz, Daniel Yonan, Natalie Roisman, Robert Leonard, David Hedgepeth, Deborah Bone, and Mary Ellen Moltumyr.
The National Council For Adoption is lending a helping hand to the producers of an adoption documentary for the successful and popular MTV’s True Life series. Previous True Life documentaries have dealt with substantial subjects such as autism, schizophrenia, and war-weary veterans returning from Iraq. The adoption documentary will follow three or four young unwed birthmothers on video as they go through difficult and emotional decisions in developing adoption plans for their babies. Read more.
Alexandria, VA – May is National Foster Care Month, and the National Council For Adoption (NCFA) and Wal-Mart are jointly launching the Families For All public awareness campaign to inspire American families to consider what they can do to help children in foster care. Today there are more than a half-million children in foster care in the United States who need a safe and loving home, including 129,000 children who are waiting to be adopted. The Families For All public awareness program is designed to help Americans realize that these children need and deserve a family to call their own and that everyone can play a role in making that happen. Read more.
On Wednesday, April 16, the National Council For Adoption hosted its Adoption Hall of Fame 28th Anniversary Awards Celebration. This year’s event was held at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia from 6:00 pm -10:00 pm and featured NCFA’s National Adoption Spokesperson, country music artist Rodney Atkins, winner of the 2007 Academy of Country Music's "Top New Male Vocalist” Award. Recently, Rodney was nominated for 6 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards: Top Male Vocalist, Album of the Year (as an artist and producer), Song of the Year “Watching You” (as an artist and as a writer), and Video of the Year “Watching You”. Read more.
National Council For Adoption Launches National PSA Campaign To Educate Public About Adoption Television, Radio, and Print Public Service Announcements Direct Viewers to the New Educational Web Site iChooseAdoption.org March 10, 2008 – Alexandria, Virginia – “Sometimes choosing adoption is being a good mother.” This powerful message of hope is the focus of the National Council For Adoption’s new iChooseAdoption Public Awareness Campaign, created for women facing unintended pregnancies and all those who may lack sensitive, accurate information about adoption. “We want to increase public understanding and awareness of adoption and create a more pro-adoption culture, in which everyone, including women facing unplanned pregnancies, can consider adoption freely without fear, bias, or misunderstanding,” says Thomas Atwood, president and CEO of the National Council For Adoption (NCFA). “To do that we must promote a culture that respects and appreciates birthmothers, honors their decision-making process, and supports their choice of adoption.” Read more. To view the iChooseAdoption PSAs, click here. To support NCFA's Infant Adoption Revival Project, click here.
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released a report on Monday calling for reverting to the inclusion of race as a factor in selecting adoptive and foster parents for children in foster care. The National Council For Adoption, while agreeing with some of the report’s findings, argues that this recommendation if enacted would turn back the clock on transracial adoption by making transracial placement decisions vulnerable to subjective and ideologically driven considerations. Implementation of this ill-conceived policy recommendation would cause the child welfare system to backslide to the bad old days of racial discrimination in child placements, and lead to delays in and denials of placement for many minority children in foster care. Read more Click here to listen to NCFA president and CEO, Tom Atwood, on The Kojo Nnamdi Show or click here to read Tom Atwood's testimony on the Multiethnic Placement Act before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Click here to read a Washington Post editorial that shares NCFA's position on this issue. Department of State Reports Third Consecutive Decline in Intercountry Adoptions The U.S. State Department has released the official number of orphan visas processed in 2007. The new statistic marks the third consecutive decline in the number of annual intercountry adoptions. Click here to view the statistics. Click here to learn about NCFA's intercountry adoption educational program for prospective adoptive parents and adoption professionals, "The Intercountry Adoption Journey: Hague-Compliant Training from NCFA.
Bella the movie is now available on DVD. Click here and purchase your copy today!
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• NCFA Teams with Wal-Mart and Rodney Atkins to Inspire Better Care for Children in Foster Care • Senator Grassley Announces Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Support Act • NCFA Inducts Five Adoption Heroes into Adoption Hall of Fame • 3/10/08 - NCFA Launches National PSA Campaign To Educate Public About Adoption • NCFA’s Vice President of Government Relations Testifies before the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support to Highlight the Need for Federal Foster Care Reform • Rodney Atkins' Fourth Hit From Single CD Tops Chart; Ties Country Music Industry Record • 10/3/2007 - NCFA hosts Families for All National Parent Recruitment Summit • Rodney Atkins Named National Adoption Celebrity Spokesperson • 9/27/2007 - Guatemala to cease U.S. adoptions • 9/27//2007 - NCFA applauds passage of Higher Education Amendment to benefit children adopted from foster care •9/21/2007 - NCFA president testifies before U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the Multiethnic Placement Act •Adoption Factbook IV reports rise in domestic and intercountry adoptions, despite further decline in infant adoptions NCFA calls for greater flexibility for states in spending federal foster care dollars |
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NCFA celebrates Hague Adoption Convention ratification and urges continued vigilance to ensure that children in need of families have access to international adoption November 20, 2007 – The U.S. Department of State Office of Children’s Issues announced that on November 16 President Bush signed the U.S. instrument of ratification of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. The United States will officially join the Hague Adoption Convention on December 12, 2007, and the convention is expected to enter into force in the U.S. on April 1, 2008. Thomas Atwood, president and CEO of the National Council For Adoption (NCFA), reiterated NCFA’s long-standing support for the Hague Convention. “NCFA celebrates this important milestone in the history of intercountry adoption.” As global ambassador for adoption, NCFA has been involved in developing and promoting the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption since its early drafting, in order to protect children, birthparents, and adoptive parents, while providing for intercountry adoption in the best interests of children. “We are pleased that President Bush has signed the convention and we congratulate the Department of State on this major achievement,” said Atwood. Atwood continued, “For the sake of orphaned children around the world, hopefully, we can now expect growth in international adoptions between the United States and other Hague countries that have been reluctant to work with America before we had fully ratified. Hopefully, too, other non-Hague countries will now join the convention.” A country of particular concern is Guatemala, which provided families for more than 4,000 children in 2006 through international adoption by Americans. Intense international pressure is currently being applied to Guatemala to come into full Hague compliance, including from the U.S. Department of State. “NCFA supports reforms to make Guatemala’s international adoption system Hague-compliant," said Atwood, "but cases in-process during the transition should be allowed to be completed. And ultimately the true measure of the reforms’ success will be that many thousands of Guatemalan children continue to have families through legitimate intercountry adoptions.” Click here to read the statement from the U.S. Department of State.
NCFA is proud to partner with the following organizations:
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