There’s No Place Like Home

Momentous 25th ‘Adoption Day in Court’
Celebrates Children Leaving Foster Care for Families

For two children ages 5 and 10, a woman who has been their mentor will become their mother. A boy, 10, who endured a rocky time after his guardian died, will now grow up with his sister, 7, and infant brother, 10 months, in an adoptive home. Four siblings, ages 7 to 12, that include a set of twins, will get a married couple as their new parents.
These are some of the 28 youngsters who will leave the child welfare system to join 22 forever families at the annual Adoption Day in Court November 19, 10 a.m. to noon, at the Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Avenue NW. On this day, legal proceedings to finalize adoptions are open to the public in hopes of raising awareness, tugging heartstrings, and recruiting more adoptive homes for children who remain in foster care.

Adoption Day in Court this Saturday will be the momentous twenty-fifth such celebration in the District. Eleanor Turner, Adoptions program manager who has worked at CFSA for 45 years, remembers that the spark to start the event came from a manager in the District’s child welfare program. In the early 1980s, Evelyn Andrews was chief of the Adoption Resources Branch in the Family Services Administration, then under the DC Department of Human Services. Andrews first heard about the Adoption Day idea at a conference in Ohio. Later, she attended an Adoption Day celebration as part of a social work conference in Wisconsin. Returning to DC, she began extolling the benefits in persuasive letters to Judge Bruce Mencher, then presiding judge in the Family Division of DC Superior Court. The letters generated dialogue that evolved into planning, and the first local Adoption Day took place in a courtroom in 1986. Turner recollects eight or 10 children receiving final adoption decrees at the initial ceremony. Ever since, the Court and CFSA have collaborated on the annual event.

In the last quarter century, adoption has undergone significant changes, many mirroring increasing openness in American society in general. Orphanages have given way to family foster homes, now a primary source of adoptions from the public system. About 60 per cent of children adopted from CFSA get their permanent home with people who formerly fostered them. Celebration has replaced stigma, and adoption procedures once shrouded in secrecy are now transparent. “Years ago, only certain social workers handled adoptions, and a child’s ‘regular’ social worker couldn’t know any details,” recalls Turner. In addition, what was once only for married couples is now open to single men and women and same-sex couples. Inter-racial, inter-ethnic, and inter-faith adoptions raise nary an eyebrow. Experience has shown that people from all walks of life can provide the security, nurturing, guidance, love, and permanent homes that help children thrive.

Perspectives about adoption continue to evolve. Recognition that everyone deserves a family, and no one is ever “too old” to be adopted is spreading in child welfare. Locally, over the past three years,

DC Adoptions from Foster Care FY 11 109 Past 25 years (1986-2011) 5,000
Eleanor Turner

assigning the goal of Alternative Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (APPLA) has declined in favor of continued pursuit of legal permanence for older youth. One of the finalizations scheduled for Adoption Day this week will allow a 20-year-old to leave foster care for a family.
What has not changed over the years is the team effort that makes adoptions possible. The delicate matching of children and youth, who may be skeptical, with prospective parents who can meet their special needs requires sensitivity, skill, patience, and experience. Social workers, their supervisors and managers, attorneys for children and parents, legal advocates, and judges all play key roles. “But the team is even broader,” says Sandra Jackson, acting deputy director, CFSA Agency Programs. “People at CFSA recruit and train prospective foster and adoptive parents. They conduct the home studies, which are very important. Others at CFSA issue the licenses. Referrals for health and well being services to help ensure children are ready for adoption go through Clinical Practice. By the time a child is adopted, a host of professionals contributed to that permanence.”

The District has 163 children and teens waiting and hoping to be adopted. For information about adopting from CFSA, people may call 202-671-LOVE.