Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)

A U.S. federal law passed in 1997 with the stated intent of improving the safety of children, supporting families, and promoting adoption and permanent housing for children who need them. Lawmakers claimed that ASFA signified a shift toward prioritizing children’s health and safety over the rights of their biological parents. However, many advocates want to repeal ASFA due to its provisions that have contributed to increased rates of family separation (e.g., termination of parental rights after children are in foster care for as few as 15 months; financial incentives for states that hasten the adoption of children in foster care, rather than emphasize reunification). These advocates say ASFA has had a detrimental effect on the children of incarcerated people, who are disproportionately BIPOC. In the U.S., Black children are 2.4 times more likely to have their parents’ rights terminated than white children. For more.

Aging out

When the state fails to reunite youth in foster care with their family of origin or place them in a permanent, adoptive home, young people are forced to exit the foster care system (i.e., when they turn 18 in most states, 21 in others). Those who age out often exit the foster care system lacking the support of an adult and without the basic information or skills required to navigate adulthood (e.g., how to open bank accounts, budget, apply for housing). This lack of support results in significantly worse housing, mental health, medical, financial, employment, and education outcomes for those who age out compared to their peers. For more.

Child Maltreatment

Defined by federal law as neglect or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse of children caused by parents or caregivers. A majority of child maltreatment cases don’t involve abuse, but instead are a direct result of poverty (e.g., missing school, not keeping up with medical care). Child welfare investigations are also impacted by racial or other forms of bias (e.g., Black mothers more likely reported for drug-positive newborns than white mothers).

Child Welfare System

A group of services designed to promote the well-being of children. The system is built to ensure safety, achieve permanency, and strengthen families. For more on how the system works, see this factsheet from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau.

Domestic Adoption

The process of a citizen and/or lawful permanent resident of a country adopting a child with citizenship from the same country (e.g., an American adult adopting an American child).

Family of Origin

Biological parents, siblings, extended family, and caregivers. (Note: Biological parents are sometimes called “birth parents” or “first parents” but should never be referred to as “real parents,” a term that is offensive and invalidating.)

Foster Care Adoption

A form of adoption where a child is placed with a foster family/parent with the expectation that the child will become available to be adopted by that same family/parent, after a court has terminated the parental rights of the child’s guardian(s).

Group Home

A group home is a congregate residence intended to serve as an alternative to a family foster home. Group homes are licensed and staffed to provide care for several children at the same time. Many states have phased out the use of group homes due to their poor conditions, higher rates of abuse, increased isolation, and worse outcomes for youth living in them compared to those placed in family foster homes. Also called a short-term residential therapeutic program (STRTP). For more.

Guardianship

 A legal term that denotes when someone is appointed by a court to be the legal guardian of a minor. More information on guardianship and how it relates to foster care and adoption here.

Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

A U.S. federal law passed in 1978 in response to large numbers of Native American children being separated from their parents, families, communities, and tribes by state child welfare and private adoption agencies – due to the racist belief that Native American parents were unfit to raise children and reservations were unfit places to raise them. Research found that 15-35% of all Native children were being removed from and 85% of these children were placed outside of their families and communities – even when fit and willing relatives were available. According to the United Nations, this practice of “forcibly transferring children of (an ethnic or racial) group to another group” constitutes genocide. To combat this crisis, ICWA mandates that caseworkers make several considerations when handling child welfare cases involving Native children – read more about them here. For coverage on how the ICWA is being challenged in more recent years, listen to the This Land podcast Season 2.

Note: “Indian” here is referring to a U.S. legal term. However, using the term to describe Native American and Indigenous people is considered offensive and outdated.

International Adoption

The process of an adult adopting a child from another country (where they do not have citizenship). Some countries have limited the number of children that are available to be adopted internationally, and others have eliminated it altogether.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Physical, verbal, psychological, economic, or sexual violence committed by a current or former partner. While domestic violence is committed by any member of a household toward another member of that household (e.g., father abuses son, wife abuses husband), IPV encompasses violence involving partnered people regardless of whether they live together. Most IPV portrayals feature straight women in relationships with men, but people of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations can experience or commit IPV. LGBTQIA+ people experience IPV at comparable rates but are less likely to report it due to stigma, lack of resources, and perceived power balance in same-gender relationships.

Kinship Care

The care of children by approved adult relatives, members of their tribe, or close family friends. When children are removed from their homes, kinship care minimizes the trauma of separation and increases stability by maintaining connections to family and community. For more.

Mandated Reporter

A professional who the state requires to report suspected abuse or neglect of children, older adults, and/or disabled people to authorities (e.g., child welfare agencies, police). Who is considered a mandated reporter can vary state-to-state, but they typically include social workers, healthcare professionals, teachers, childcare providers, and law enforcement.

Neglect

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) – U.S. federal legislation – groups “child abuse and neglect” together, describing them as “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caregiver that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” However, neither CAPTA nor the federal government have defined “neglect” on its own. This ambiguity has created varying state definitions, and it has perpetuated disproportionate enforcement of BIPOC parents and guardians by child welfare agencies. Depending on the state, neglect may include excessive school absences, inadequate care (e.g., medical, psychological), and unmet basic needs (e.g., poor hygiene). Neglect is the most common form of maltreatment reported in U.S. child welfare investigations, and it’s often directly related to poverty (e.g., parents unable to afford childcare while working multiple low-wage jobs/long hours; children playing unsupervised outside of an urban residence). For more.

Open Adoption

The modern standard for adoption in which adoptive parents hold all rights but exchange some identifying information (e.g., names, medical history) with families of origin and have the option of contact (e.g., visitation, phone calls).

Parental Rights

The federally recognized right for parents to direct the care, custody, and control of their children. The Supreme Court determined that the government shall not interfere with this right unless the parent is proven “unfit.”

Permanency

As it relates to child welfare, permanency describes when a child is discharged from foster care (i.e., reunified with their family of origin, legally adopted, or placed in the care of a legal guardian) in a permanent and stable living situation (e.g., housing, safety, nutrition, healthcare). For more.

Private Adoption

Also called independent adoption. A form of adoption when the birth parent(s) and the adoptive parent(s) make an arrangement for adoption through an intermediary (e.g., lawyer, physician, facilitator) rather than a licensed adoption agency. Private adoptions aren’t centrally tracked by any agency in the U.S. and aren’t legal in every state. Some advocates criticize how private adoptions can take advantage of birth parents (e.g., poor transparency, fewer legal protections, lack of counseling) and the way they commodify babies (e.g., white adoptive parents pay more for white babies than BIPOC babies). Private adoptions can be open adoptions (i.e., allow contact between adopted children and their families of origin), but this is not always the case. For more.

Relative Adoption

 A form of adoption for anyone biologically related (e.g., grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, adult sibling) to a child open for adoption. The relative becomes the legal parent and accepts all legal responsibilities and obligations related to raising that child to adulthood.