Grand jury raises adoptions concern

INCENTIVES: The panel says misunderstandings have birth families afraid of losing their children.
07/08/2002
By DAVID SEATON

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
RIVERSIDE - Child welfare officials must do a better job battling a rumor that social workers receive extra pay for rushing children into adoption, the Riverside County Grand Jury concluded.

The grand jury said it found that through interviews and media and Internet articles, some people think the law creates a bounty on new adoptions and a disincentive to keep troubled families intact.

The grand jury recommends better informing social workers of the laws and regulations so they can better communicate with clients who hold this view.

Counties do receive "adoption incentives" for boosting their adoption rates, but the bonuses are not aimed at taking children from their parents, the investigative body determined.

Rather, the money must be used to pay for post-adoption services, such as counseling and transportation for the new parents.

"The presumption that we would take children to get money for post-adoption services is pretty absurd," said Dave Demers, deputy director of public social services.

Barbara Harlow said she complained to the grand jury that a social worker was pushing the adoption of her grandson, who had been taken from his birth mother. Harlow said she wanted custody of the boy, now 3, but a juvenile court judge approved adoption by a couple last month.

The social worker "couldn't tell me why I couldn't pick up my grandson, other than these people were on a waiting list for two and half years," said Harlow, who lives south of Corona.

The county's adoption rate has soared since the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.

At that time, tens of thousands of children across the country were bouncing around in foster care, Demers said, with no plans for a permanent, stable home.

The 1997 law shortened the time birth parents accused of neglect or abuse were given to reunify with their children. It also gave states and counties $4,000 to $6,000 for every adoption above the previous year's total.

Since then, public adoptions in Riverside County soared 448 percent to 377 adoptions in fiscal year 2000-2001. The overall state figures increased 110 percent to 7,125.

The county received $600,000 last year for its dramatic increase in adoptions. The total budget for Child Protective Services is $73 million, Demers said.

Some observers argue that child-welfare laws do create financial incentives toward adoption and away from family preservation.

Richard Wexler, executive director for the National Coalition for Child Protective Reform in Washington D.C., said the federal government spends 10 times more on foster care than on programs to keep kids out of foster care.

"Nobody's getting rich, but systematically, the financial incentives push counties away from safe, proven programs to keep families together and toward foster care and adoption," Wexler said.Reach David Seaton at (909) 368-9456 or dseaton@pe.com