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CHANGE #03-2009
FEBRUARY 2009
The Division of Social Services is committed to providing family centered services to children and families to achieve well being through ensuring self-sufficiency, support, safety and permanency.
The vision of the Division is that all programs administered by the Division will embrace family centered practice principles and provide services that promote security and safety for all.
"Adoption is the method provided by law to establish the legal relationship of parent and child between persons who are not so related by birth, with the same mutual rights and obligations that exist between children and their birth parent."1 The primary purpose of adoption is to help children whose parents are incapable of assuming or continuing parental responsibilities to legally become part of a new permanent family.
Adoption agencies are charged with establishing permanence for children, therefore, if adoption agencies in the state are to render the best possible services, each staff member must understand Systems Of Care (SOC) principles and have the conviction that an appropriate home can be found for any child who needs to be adopted and that the agency is responsible for enabling this. To accomplish this goal, agencies must provide for the diligent recruitment of potential adoptive families that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the state for whom adoptive homes are needed. The agencies must provide prospective adoptive parents equitable access to the preparation and assessment process.
The selection of a family must focus on the needs of the child being placed, while recognizing that each child and family will have individual strengths. To be successful placement services must include assistance to the child and the adoptive family in the process of their integration as a new family.
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For questions or clarification on any of the policy contained in these manuals, please contact your local county office. |
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1 Child Welfare League of America, Standards for Adoption Services, Revised Edition, page 11.