The Training Process

The Making a Commitment to Adoption Curriculum advances the concept of empowerment and the belief that knowledge is power. This perspective requires that the training process itself be based on the principles of empowerment.

The training design is therefore based on the following process:

• The training builds on the integrity and experience of the participants.
• The training is experiential and cumulative.
• The process will focus on opportunities for engagement, integration, and closure that accompany knowledge and skill building.
• The training will recognize the realities and constraints of the system with which the participants are involved.
• The training will be focused on enhancing participants' ability to make decisions about adopting. To do this the training process will emphasize self assessment; stress participant control of the outcome of the training for his or her decision making; create support groups or networks during the training; provide participants with access to literature and other resources; honestly disclose potential problems or challenges; and attempt to create meaningful, lively relationships in the session.
• The training will serve as a beginning point for further learning, not as the completion of the learning process.

 

 

 

 

Definition of Adoption

Adoption is a means of meeting the developmental needs of a child by legally transferring ongoing parental responsibilities for that child from birth parents to adoptive parents, recognizing that in the process a new kinship network is created that forever links those two families together through the child who is shared by both. This kinship network may also include significant others, such as foster families, both formal and informal, who have been a part of the child's experience.

The Adoption Process - The Parents

1. Adoptive Parents Think about fostering or adopting and discuss with family, friends, explore ways to get information
2. Contact agency, Get materials from agency
3. Have family consultation Agency and prospective parent agree about continuing process
4. Complete application
5. Attend NOVA classes
6. Decide want to adopt
7. Attend Making the Commitment to Adoption classes
8. Decide type of child want to adopt
9. Participate in completion of family assessment/homestudy
10. Receive foster home license and/or information from agency about certification for adoption
11. Discuss possible child(ren) for placement with adoption staff
12. Gain as much information as available about children(ren), seeking expert input if needed
13. Start pre-placement visits
14. Parents and agency worker plan placement
15. Sign placement agreement and information disclosure form
16. Child(ren) move(s) into home
17. Work with agency worker after placement (post placement period) in adjusting to the new family situation, for help in meeting the child's needs, getting needed resources, and planning for the time when the worker will no longer be involved.
18. Discuss adoption assistance with worker
19. Complete Adoption Assistance Application Agree with worker on finalization of adoption
20. Contact lawyer to file adoption petition in County/Juvenile court
21. Cooperate with attorney in signing appropriate forms for adoption finalization
22. Finalize adoption in circuit court after child is in home at least six months
23. Get new birth certificate(s) for child(ren) and final decree from lawyer
24. Check with agency about starting adoption assistance
25. Seek services for child and family after adoption is finalized as needed
26. Complete Adoption Assistance Application annually, if required

The Adoption Process - The Child

1. Child reported to HHS (Health and Human Services) as abused, neglected, abandoned.
2. Agency determines if allegations are founded.
3. If allegations are founded, agency makes determination whether to provide family preservation services or place child.
4. If child needs placement, HHS files petition for custody in Juvenile Court.
5. If court sees need for protection of child through placement, HHS awarded temporary custody of child.
6. Child Placed in foster care.
7. Agency develops service plan for permanency for child with birth parents.
8. If birth parents want adoption, agency takes voluntary relinquishment of parental rights which gives HHS the right to consent to adoption.
9. If parents do not relinquish their rights and there is a preponderance of evidence that the parents abandoned, abused or neglected the child, HHS is awarded Guardianship for the Right to Place.
10. The agency works with parents for reunification of child with family according to state and federal laws.
11. If parents unable or unwilling to correct the conditions leading to the child's placement or otherwise are unable or unwilling to care for the child, situation is discussed by adoption screening committee of Juvenile Court and agency representatives.
12. Worker discusses adoption with foster parents.
13. If case passes screening, petition filed for termination of parental rights in Juvenile Court.
14. Juvenile Court terminates parental rights if evidence warrants this and awards Guardianship with the Right to Consent to Adoption to HHS.
15. Worker begins assessment and preparation of child for adoption.
16. Worker discusses possible placement with child.
17. Child may have visit with birth parents to recognize change in their relationship and to prepare for relationship with new family.
18. Adoptive family identified.
19. Child and new adoptive family meet if foster family is not going to adopt.
20. Pre-placement visits with adoptive family initiated if foster family is not adopting.
21. Worker, family, child agree upon placement date.
22. Placement Agreement and Information Disclosure form signed.
23. Child placed.
24. Worker works with the family after the placement.
25. Family files adoption petition.
26. Agency, family and child agree to proceed with adoption.
27. Adoption finalized, child 14 and over consenting to adoption, after at least six months of placement.
28. Family seeks services for child and family after adoption is finalized as needed.
29. Family completes Adoption Assistance Review annually to meet child's special needs until child is 19 years of age, if required.

Key Players

Adoption Parents' Attorney - obtains necessary documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and files adoption petitions. Obtains final decree and new birth certificate for the child and provides them to the parents, sending copy of final decree and petition to HHS so adoption assistance may be initiated and Department's custody vacated in Juvenile Court.

Adoption Specialist - is responsible for managing adoption services state wide for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), train/consult with adoption staff.

Adoption Supervisor - supervises adoption workers.

Adoption Worker - prepares and assesses children for adoption, works as key member of team to select adoptive family for child, prepares family for placement, provides and facilitates post placement services, assists family in completing adoption assistance application, prepares legal documents for County/Juvenile Court, initiates adoption assistance, submits adoption decree to vacate HHS custody of child.

CASA Volunteer - Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers to work with Juvenile Court and HHS worker to ensure that appropriate plans are made for children.

Protection and Safety Intake Worker - investigates child abuse and neglect reports and places children in out-of-home care when necessary, writes reports and provides testimony for action by Juvenile Court in making decisions regarding temporary custody and guardianship matters.

Protection and Safety Ongoing Worker - works with children in foster care, works with birth parents and foster parents toward permanency plan for child, makes appearances in Juvenile Court to provide evidence related to abuse, neglect or abandonment and prepares information for adoption team meetings and provides information relative to termination of parental rights.

County Attorney - represents the people of Nebraska and the Department of Health and Human Services in Juvenile Court cases; may serve on adoption team.

Foster Parents - provide critical support, care and nurturing to foster child, provide information to agency about child, may assist in work to reunify child with birth family, may adopt children in their care, may assist in preparing child for move to new adoptive parents, may maintain contact with child after adoption.

Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) - represents child's interest in actions in the Juvenile Court; may serve on adoption team.

Income Maintenance Foster Care Worker - maintains information about child's adoption assistance, authorizes payment to service providers, parents, sends annual review form and review adoption assistance annually; refers families to specialized adoption staff for services.

Judge of the County Court - hears adoption cases and finalizes adoptions.

Juvenile Court Judge - makes judicial determinations regarding abuse, neglect and abandonment of children, custody, guardianship, and termination of parental rights, custody of children and adoption finalization.

Public Defender or Private Attorney for Parents - represents the parents of children referred to the Department and Juvenile Court because of abuse, neglect and abandonment.

Resource Development Worker - meets with families in home consultation and works with family in foster parent licensing and adoption approval process.

Common Issues in Adoption

Adoption is different than forming a family biologically. The adoption process differs from forming a family biologically and the social and family support may not be as available as they are to families formed biologically. Adopted children enter the family with their own history, genes, and set of circumstances that differ from that of the adopting family. Family dynamics are different for adoptive families.

Mastery and control relate to the sense of personal power that all people seek over their lives. For adoptive parents there may be challenges to mastery and control related to infertility and having strangers become involved in the most intimate decisions of their lives. Children also lose a sense of mastery and control because of all the decisions made in their behalf and the various circumstances they faced in coming into and being a part of the child welfare system.

Separation, loss and grief are experienced by all touched by adoption. For adoptive parents it may be the loss of control, the loss of being able to have children biologically, or the loss of the child they fantasized joining their family through adoption. Adopted children have lost their birth parents and perhaps ties to other significant people in their lives, their community, their culture and everything that is familiar to them.

Unmatched expectations of the adopted child and the adoptive parents are inevitable because the expectations that each person brings to the relationship usually have little in common. Each party to the adoption makes an emotional investment in it and expects some return on their investment.

Bonding and attachment are crucial to adoption. While the bond a child has with birth parents is unique, attachments between adopted child and adoptive parents can be formed. However, there are many challenges to attachment which relate to the earlier experiences of the child, including the type of parenting they received in early stages of development, attachments developed and subsequent trauma, separations and losses.

Entitlement is the sense that adoptive parents and adopted children have a right to one another. The legal right to one another is granted by the court. Entitlement, however, also has an emotional side. Adopted children and families are often challenged about their entitlement, both internally (questioning themselves about whether they deserve their child or deserve their family), and by society which does not sanction adoption in the same way as it sanctions biological families.

Claiming is the process by which the adoptive parents come to accept the adopted child as their own and as a full-fledged member of the family. Identifying similarities between the adopted child and adoptive parents and other family members facilitates acceptance of the child which gives the child the same status as a member of the family as other members. This may be difficult when there are differences in history, appearance, values, interests or behavior between family members.

Family integration identifies the challenge of bringing two different family systems together, that of the adopted child, and of the adoptive family, to form a new family system. Formal and informal rules of family living, which have developed over the years, must suddenly change. New patterns of family interaction and new family roles must be developed so that life can get back to where all family members know what to expect.

Identify formation is an issue for the adoptive family and the adopted child. Identity relates to one's sense of self that has identifiable boundaries and value. Identity is rooted in family history. For a child with a history different than other family members this can present challenges. The family also seeks to find a new identity as an adopted child gains membership and everyone comes to know what being an adoptive family means. Identity is formed, both consciously and unconsciously, through experiences, interaction with and exposure to other people, and by making decisions concerning who one is and what one will be.

What is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?

FAS is not a single birth defect. Instead, it's a cluster of related conditions, including:

• Characteristic facial shape or appearance (such as small eyelid openings, smooth skin surface between nose and upper lip)
• Small head size
• Retarded growth before and after birth
• Mental retardation
• Short attention span
• Behavioral problems

Babies with fetal alcohol effects (FAE) have some but not all of these characteristics. More recently, physicians have used the term "alcohol-related birth defects" to describe babies and children who have problems related to prenatal alcohol exposure but who don't meet the criteria for fetal alcohol syndrome.