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INFERTILITY   ADOPTION   POST-ADOPTION   FAMILY TREE   Adoption Resource Central    Heart of Adoption Articles to inspire   International adoption guide   You can order Family Helper publications		ACO counts the cost of foster care: $40,000 a year BY ROBIN HILBORN, Family Helper editor
		(Sept. 1, 2003) In the Fall 2003 Adoption Roundup, the Adoption Council of Ontario (ACO, www.adoption.on.ca) wrote that Ontario, "once a leader in adoption legislation, policies and practices, is now far behind." In the article "Every Child Deserves a Permanent Loving Family" ACO's position is that "it makes no sense emotionally and economically to keep children as Crown wards who could be adopted by loving families." Keeping a child in foster care for one year costs about $40,000; children suffer from having to move from one foster home to another about every two years. Providing a permanent family through adoption would be a cost-saving measure in both fiscal and human terms. According to the May 2002 "Report Card on Adoption" by the Adoption Council of Canada, there are over 66,000 Canadian children in foster care. About 22,000 are permanent wards of the provincial governments and await adoption. Less than 1,700 of them are adopted annually across Canada. ________________________________________ You may reproduce this item with the credit: "Source: Family Helper (www.familyhelper.net)"