Adoption is Different... | 9.1.1 Key Concepts in Adoption | 9.1.2 The Adoption Decision | 9.1.3 Best Practice in Casework
Attaining permanency - that lifetime commitment of a family - for the child in temporary substitute care is a fundamental goal of professional child welfare practice. Permanency infers the realization of safety, stability, sense of belonging, and emotional security for the child which are essential to the mastery of developmental tasks that lead to mature adulthood. When permanency cannot be safely achieved through reunification with birth or legal parents, permanency planning efforts should focus on adoption as a preferred alternative. The legal and emotional commitment potentially afforded by adoption generally make it the child's next best opportunity for permanency.
As defined by Reitz and Watson:
"Adoption is a means of meeting the developmental needs of a child by legally transferring ongoing parental responsibility for that child from the birth parents to the 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."
This definition acknowledges that forming a family through adoption is inherently different from forming a family biologically or from the experience of fostering. The fact of the child's biological past poses issues for the child and the adoptive family with which they, and the professionals that help them, must grapple. Although commonly thought of as a legal end in itself, the impact of adoption is lifelong, particularly from the perspective of the adopted person. The ongoing task of self-discovery in which all humans engage is complicated for the adoptee by loss - of birth family connections and history - that comes with separation from their family of origin. The kinship ties of the adoptee to their birth families and other previous caregivers are often physically severed, and yet retain psychological significance for the child. Helping the child and their prospective adoptive family to acknowledge losses, to manage the child's reactions to losses as manifested behaviorally at different developmental stages, and to develop secure attachments to one another, are common and critical tasks that confront the permanency worker.
Engaging in adoption work literally means planning for a child's lifetime. And how well a child's permanency worker attends to the work involved in this planning can have a lifetime impact on that child. The ability to perform this work well is in part derived from understanding several key concepts important to child welfare work in general (see "Definitions and Principles of Permanency Planning"), and adoption work specifically. The following eight key concepts, identified by Reitz and Watson, will be addressed throughout this text.
· Bonding and attachment are activities engaged in by child and caregiver crucial to the child's healthy emotional development. Bonding refers to the unique, biological tie between child and parent, primarily the birth mother, that begins with the onset of pregnancy. Attachment is a psychologically rooted tie between individuals formed over time. While the bond a child has with the 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 child's early experiences, including the type of parenting received, early attachments and subsequent traumas, separations and losses.
· Claiming is the process by which adoptive parents come to accept the child as their own, and by which adoptive parents and siblings come to accept the adopted child as a full-fledged member of the family. Identifying similarities between the adopted child and the adoptive parents and other family members facilitates acceptance of the child, giving the child the same member status in the family accorded other members. The child must also claim the adoptive family in order to fully integrate into that family. This process may be complicated by ambivalence, or by differences in history, appearance, values, interests, or behavior between the adopted child and other family members.
· Entitlement is the sense that adoptive parents and child have a right to one another. Legal entitlement comes with the granting of the adoption decree. Developing a sense of emotional entitlement comes more slowly and must be nurtured. There are several factors, both internal and external to the adoptive family, that can inhibit its development. Prospective adoptive parents "share" responsibility for the child with the child welfare agency. Adoptive parents may fear eventual reunification between the child and their biological family. Or the adoptive family and child may encounter ambivalence toward adoption by the community, extended family, or feel ambivalent themselves.
· Family integration identifies the challenge of bringing two different family systems together - that of the adopted child, and the adoptive family - to form a new family system. Formal and informal rules of family living, which have developed over the years, suddenly change with the introduction of a new family member. New family roles and new patterns of interaction must develop and, over time, settle into predictable expectations for and among all members of the family. Negotiating sibling relationships may be especially difficult, and may require significant time and attention by the adopting parents to ensure their positive development.
· Identity formation refers to the process of self-discovery, and the development of one's sense of self, that all of us engage in through the course of our lifetimes. The search for self is especially complicated for the adoptee: "When you live with your biological family, you have guideposts to help you along. You can see bits of your own future reflected in your parents, pieces of your own personality echoed in your brothers and sisters. There are fewer such clues for someone who is adopted." (Brodzinsky et al, p. 13.) Often most difficult for the adoptee is the negative self-image created out of the perception of "being given away" by their biological parents.
· Mastery and control relate to the sense of personal power that all people seek over their lives. Adoptive parents may face challenges to their sense of mastery and control from their experiences with infertility and having strangers become involved in the most intimate areas of their lives. Adoptive parents must transition through a period of shared control over the child with the child welfare agency. The experiences of children who come into the child welfare system can provoke difficulties in their ability to develop a healthy and age appropriate level of control over their lives. Some children who live through these experiences struggle mightily, and continuously, with their caregivers for control.
· Separation and loss are the universal experiences of adoption, and grief is the "...normal and adaptive response to the experience of loss." (Ibid., p. 11.) Loss is experienced by the adoptive parent unable to have a child biologically, or whose adopted child is not the child they fantasized would join their family through adoption. The adopted child experiences the loss of birth family and perhaps others with significant meaning to them. They often need help acknowledging their losses, and permission to grieve for them.
· Unmatched expectations are the inevitable result of the child and adoptive parents each bringing expectations to the relationship that have little in common. The parents may have expectations about the child's appearance, personality, capabilities, behavior or how well they will integrate into the family, that the child cannot meet. The child may bring unrealistic expectations about joining a family permanently and how their life will change as a result. Each party feels they have made an emotional investment in the adoption and looks forward to a return on that investment. The abandonment of original expectations represents yet another loss to be grieved, and the need to develop alternative emotional satisfactions.
Although the explanations of these concepts refer specifically to issues faced by adoptive families, many of the issues raised are rooted in the child's early experiences, both before and after coming into the care of the child welfare system. Factors which can affect the child's later adjustment to adoption include: the type or extent of abuse and neglect experienced, the child's experiences around separation and loss of birth family and others, the quantity of losses suffered, and the quality of the attachments formed between the child, birth parents and substitute caregivers.
Many children involved with the child welfare system are significantly impacted, physically and psychologically, by their experiences or their biological history. Some may exhibit behaviors that make them difficult to live with or have other profound problems that make family living a significant challenge. When the parents of such children fail to make reasonable efforts or progress toward their return, workers may struggle with whether or not it is in the child's best interests to pursue termination of parental rights, questioning the child's "adoptability". As with much of our work, arriving at an informed decision on this issue comes with performing thorough, complete and ongoing assessments.
Although the child's behavior is often the presenting issue when considering their "adoptability", it is not necessarily central to the assessment except to the extent that behaviors tell us how the child attempts to get their needs met. Children with significant behavior problems can be successfully placed with adoptive families even when these resources are difficult to identify. The lack of a current resource should not preclude adoption planning, as there are prospective adoptive parents willing to accept a wide range of challenges presented by children, including those who have difficulties with attachment. Locating these families will require diligent and creative search and recruitment efforts on the child's behalf.
The child's behavior is often directly related to the quality of the attachments that the child has formed historically. Interpreting that behavior is an important part of an assessment of the child's attachments to significant others, in which the following kinds of questions need to be addressed:
· What is the quality of the child's attachment to birth parents?
· What observations have been made about how the child communicates needs, and has them met, both from birth parents and current caregivers?
· At what developmental stages has parenting been interrupted for the child?
· What developmental tasks for the child remain unmet?
· Can birth parents be engaged to give the child permission to "move on"? Can extended family?
· Does the current caregiver have sufficient information (about the child's background and anticipated future needs, post-adoption services, etc.) to make an informed decision about adoption?
· If they cannot adopt, will the current caregiver give the child permission to "move on" to an adoptive family and actively assist with the transition?
· What does the child understand about adoption, and have they been involved in the decision-making?
· Have all relatives and others significant to the child (daycare providers, former caregivers, teachers, church members, etc.) been explored as potential adoptive resources?
An important point is that the purpose of this assessment is less about determining if a child can form attachments, and more about learning enough so that appropriate interventions can be developed that promote or maintain attachments, help the child who has specific attachment needs, and help the child resolve their issues of loss. (Bayless, p. 4) This intervention may be particularly important for the child who states that they do not wish to be adopted. Such a statement should not be accepted at face value, but should be thoroughly processed to determine its basis. This statement may well be rooted in the child's fear of rejection, or of incurring additional losses of birth family or current caregivers. These are understandable and realistic fears that should be addressed openly and in a way that supports the child's feelings and past attachments, at the same time affirming their need and their ability to develop or accept additional family attachments. This will require that the child, and prospective adoptive family, acknowledge and accept some level of risk, and have a willingness to work through issues of loss and attachment, very likely with professional help.
Even with a great deal of work and professional intervention, it may be determined that termination of parental rights and adoption are not in the child's best interests today. However, this issue needs to be revisited and reassessed as long as the child is in temporary substitute care unless and until adoption has been "ruled out". That is, until it has been determined that diligent efforts to prepare the child for adoption and to identify a prospective adoptive resource have been exhausted. When adoption has been ruled out, other permanency options for the child must be explored. Once the decision is made to pursue termination of parental rights, however, the child is owed no less than for the worker to act on the belief that every child is adoptable.
To some extent, the ability of the child to "move on" and successfully attach to new caregivers depends on how timely, and informed, the decisions are that are made on behalf of the child from their point of entry into substitute care.
For many children, decisions made on the very day they are taken into the State's custody can forever change the quality of their life experiences, for good or ill. The majority of the children in the Department's care who are adopted are adopted by the foster or relative caregivers they had at the time of termination of parental rights (referred to as "conversion" adoptions). This fact places a difficult but important responsibility on the permanency worker to ensure that any placement of a child is with a family that can meet the unique needs of the child. To do so also requires accurate and timely decision-making with respect to case prognosis. The following points summarize key decisions important to permanency work and adoption planning:
· Determining whether it is in the child's best interests to proceed with an adoption plan, based on:
- The child's need for permanent care.
- The child's level of attachment and relationship to birthparents and current and past caregivers, and their ability to form new attachments.
- The child's understanding of adoption and their wishes.
· Early identification of cases appropriate for adoption planning, based on:
- Examples of parental unfitness that require consideration of expedited termination of parental rights.
- Permanency risk for family reunification.
- Failure of birthparents to make reasonable efforts or progress toward reunification.
- Parental willingness to consider a voluntary adoption plan.
· Determining the type of placement that the child needs, based on:
- The child's need for family connections, including placement with siblings, relatives and past and present caregivers.
- The child's individual characteristics or care needs and their implications for services.
- The characteristics of prospective caregivers.
· Selecting the best adoptive family for the child from among potential families, based on:
- The current caregiver's history of caring for the child including the legal consideration that must be given length of placement.
- The prospective family's willingness and ability to meet the challenges of adopting a particular child, including the child's need for ongoing connections with birth family or others significant to the child.
- The prospective family's willingness and ability to meet the challenges of adopting a particular child.
- Consideration of the birth family's wishes, as long as these are not in conflict with applicable law (e.g. IEPA).
- Consideration of the child's wishes.
· Determining the readiness of the child and family for adoptive placement, based on:
- Provision of all known background information about the child, in writing, to the prospective family.
- Assessment of the family's capacity to anticipate and manage the child's needs over time.
- Preparation of the child for adoption, including involvement of the current caregiver in the preparation process and giving the child "permission" to move to the new placement.
- Assessment of transition visits and the relationship forming between the child and prospective family.
· Determining the readiness of the child and family for adoption finalization, based on:
- Assessment of the adjustment of the child and family to one another.
- Observation of the family's ability to meet the child's needs.
- Development of a plan to meet the post-adoption service needs of the child and family.
- Fulfillment of the legal requirements to finalize the adoption in court.
The ability to arrive at these key decisions requires continuous assessment of the birthparents, the child's needs, and the caregiver's potential for an adoptive plan. All of these decisions represent critical decisions that require supervisory approval, and the input of all members of the Child and Family Team. Comprehensive and ongoing assessment is one of the tenets of sound clinical casework practice, and lays the foundation for informed decision-making.
The importance of the permanency worker's role in carrying out best practice in their casework cannot be overemphasized. It will have lifelong implications for the child and, performed well, can make a lasting contribution to the child's well-being.and their successful achievement of permanency with a family, regardless of the initial case goal.
Casework activity in protective services and permanency planning rarely proceeds in an orderly, linear fashion from the child's placement in temporary substitute care to a successful permanent outcome. Human behavior and the complexity of factors involved in these cases generally ensure a non-linear route. However, if the permanency worker's focus is on achieving permanency with the sense of urgency mandated by law and the child's sense of time, the ongoing process of assessment can guide timely decision-making and casework activity. As the worker's assessment of parental behavior indicates that reunification is unlikely, assessment for adoption should occur concurrently. Best casework practice performed from the outset facilitates the kind of information gathering needed to develop a permanent plan for the child, and lays the groundwork for adoption preparation.
Preparation for adoption effectively begins with the initiation of the comprehensive assessment at case opening. This initial assessment should yield a wealth of family background information important not only for determining causative factors for abuse and neglect, but for planning for the child's future needs as well. Obtaining this information early in the life of the case is important because birth family members may no longer be available when adoption becomes the goal for the child. Thorough and ongoing assessments then "drive" the kind of services offered birthparents, child, and current caregiver. Complete documentation of parental efforts and progress, and of the agency's efforts to engage parents in services, will either support a reunification plan, or determine whether the case is "court worthy" if involuntary termination of parental rights becomes necessary.
The manner in which services are offered birthparents can facilitate adoption planning. Services should be directed not only at deficits in parental knowledge or behavior, but build on strengths as well, particularly in terms of the parent-child relationship. Enhancing their attachment may not only encourage parents to work toward reunification, but potentially provides the child with the basis from which to form attachments with prospective adoptive parents should reunification not be possible. Furthermore, birthparents who are more engaged with their child, and the child's current caregivers, may be more invested in participating in the formation of an adoption plan for the child if they conclude they cannot care for the child themselves. Family meetings are a method of facilitating engagement of birthparents, and encouraging teamwork on the child's behalf with extended family and substitute caregivers. Finally, services provided the child and caregiver are aimed, in part, at working through the child's sense of loss, helping the caregiver understand and respond to the child's behaviors, and encouraging their mutual attachment.
The following sections describe, in detail, how to bring a case to successful culmination through adoption. This description is largely organized around work permanency workers will perform with each member of the "adoption triad": child, birthparents, and adoptive parents.
Adoption is Different... | 9.1.1 Key Concepts in Adoption | 9.1.2 The Adoption Decision | 9.1.3 Best Practice in Casework