Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / February 2004

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1982262,00.html

Role of income in adoptions questioned
Child advocates say Adams blocks placements for financial reasons

By David Olinger
Denver Post Staff Writer


Post / Brian Brainerd
Deborah Cave of the Colorado Coalition of Adoptive Families reads to her
daughter at their Louisville home. Cave says foster parents are the main source
of permanent homes for kids in government custody but that because the families
often have modest incomes, there’s a "prejudice" against having them adopt.

His foster parents are the only parents Angel knows.

At the age of 2 months, he was taken from a drug-using mother. Her parental
rights were terminated before his first birthday, not long before she was
murdered.

But Angel's foster parents quickly grew to love the baby boy and decided to
adopt him. That's when another roadblock appeared in his path to a permanent
home.

The Adams County Department of Social Services, Angel's guardian said in court
papers, raised concerns about the adoption because of the family's income and
the number of children in the home.

While advocates say that the department sometimes discourages low-income
families from adopting children, Adams County's social services director,
Donald Cassata, says that's not true.

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Cassata and other county directors say issues such as family income, family
size, ages of adoptive parents and the number of bedrooms in a home all can
become part of a complicated decision to act in a child's best interest.

Some advocates contend that using income as a factor in adoptions can harm
foster children because a majority of them are adopted by foster families that
may have meager incomes. Besides, federal regulations forbid income-based
discrimination in adoption decisions.

People familiar with Angel's case say his adoption is moving forward again.

But the head of an alliance of adoptive parents is among those who remain
concerned about Adams County's policies.

"It is illegal to use means testing to determine whether a family would be
eligible to adopt a child," said Deborah Cave, president of the Colorado
Coalition of Adoptive Families.

Cave, who has adopted two foster children herself, said foster parents are the
main source of permanent homes for children placed in government custody.

"In Colorado, over half of children in foster care are adopted by their foster
parents," she said. "Foster families are a huge resource. If a county does not
acknowledge that, they're doing a disservice to children in their care."

According to Cave, many children adopted from foster care have special needs,
such as long-term treatment for a disability, which leads to negotiations over
government support payments to the adoptive parents.

Because foster parents often have modest incomes and may remain home to provide
child care, "I think sometimes there's a prejudice against having foster
parents adopt," she said.

Cassata said he is proud of his department's adoption record. The department
completed a record 153 adoptions last year, he said, and found permanent homes
within 12 months for nearly all children placed in foster care.

"We're always looking for the family that's in the best interest of the child,"
he said. "I think we're serving these kids well. We're serving families who
want to adopt well."

Cassata said his department does not set income or family-size standards, but
those subjects could become part of a discussion concerning the child's best
interests.

"It isn't that income is the issue. It's do families have appropriate
resources?" he asked.

"Some foster families may have six children already in their homes, and they
may have limited resources where they're dependent on what they just get from
subsidies or from the monies they're earning as foster parents. And then they
want to adopt a seventh child. I certainly want to see, is this the best
opportunity for this child?"

In Colorado, social services officials say the needs of foster children guide
all decisions, but policies and potential subsidies for foster parents desiring
to adopt children vary somewhat from county to county.

In Denver and Boulder counties, administrators say family income and family
size rarely become issues in proposed adoptions.

Denver does not consider income in choosing adoptive families, according to
human services manager Roxane White, but does consider whether the home has
enough bedrooms to accommodate another child.

Lorraine Granado, a community activist in Denver, said that rules about
bedrooms sometimes translate, however, into decisions that move children into
the foster care system despite the willingness of relatives to raise them. "The
barrier," she said, "has to do with the space requirement."

"Income would be considered only if a family was in extreme debt" and therefore
unable to provide appropriate care, said Melisa Maling, who supervises Boulder
County foster care and adoption programs.

In Jefferson County, "we definitely factor the number of children in the home
and family income into a decision" on a foster care adoption, human services
spokeswoman Jennifer Watson said. "We do want the family to have enough money
to meet the basic needs of the child."

In Adams County, Angel became a foster child in November 2002 "due to ongoing
drug use" by his mother and has lived with his foster parents since he was 2
months old, according to court records. A court terminated his mother's rights
to him last July, and she "was subsequently found murdered," according to a
motion filed in December by guardian Mary McWilliams.

"He has bonded with the foster family. This is Angel's family, the only family
he has ever known," she wrote, and his adoption was recommended by his
guardian, a county review team and the county adoption supervisor.

Yet Cassata and a top assistant would not consent because of the foster
parents' income and family size, the guardian wrote in a court motion.

She asked the court to compel an explanation or issue an order that the
department "is acting in a manner that is harmful and detrimental to this
child."

Cassata said he has now signed the consent form and estimated he raises
questions about only 5 percent of the adoptions reaching his desk. McWilliams
declined to comment, saying the adoption is not final yet.

Jeff Koy, a staff attorney at the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, said he
has encountered similar problems as an Adams County guardian.

"It's something I've been told myself by representatives of the department," he
said - that "the number of children in the home and the income of the family"
were issues in adoption cases.

He said he generally opposes "placing any per se restrictions on adoptions"
because foster children need and deserve stability.

"In a system where there's already immense impediments, policies that create
additional obstacles to children developing nurturing and healthy long-term
relationships aren't a good idea," he said.

One Adams County foster mother, who asked not to be identified because of a
pending child-placement case, said Cassata personally told her he didn't want
foster parents or "people with a lot of kids" adopting children, and "he wants
people with six-figure incomes."

Cassata denied making such comments to a foster parent.

According to Nancy Hammer, a former agency supervisor, Cassata told his
employees "at various times that people shouldn't adopt unless they had enough
money. ... At one point, he said we should only want middle-class people to be
adoptive parents."

Hammer, who left in October 2000, said current employees tell her Cassata
continues to discourage adoptions by foster parents with meager resources.

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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown