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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		Ontario to change domestic adoption law BY ROBIN HILBORN, Family Helper editor
		(Apr. 2, 2004) The Ottawa Citizen reported April 2, 2004 that the Ontario government is planning to overhaul adoption laws to try to find families for more of the 8,864 children now wards of the state. The Citizen said that Dr. Marie Bountrogianni, minister of Children and Youth Services, www.children.gov.on.ca, would try to increase the number of adoptions of Crown wards at least 15% in the next year. She would do this in part by changing the Child and Family Services Act (CFSA) to make more Crown wards eligible for adoption. In Ontario now, about three-quarters of Crown wards aren't eligible because they are the subject of court orders which allow access by their parents. She would change CFSA so birth parents can keep in touch with their children after adoption (an "open" adoption). On March 22, 2004 Minister Bountrogianni wrote to the 52 Children's Aid Societies in Ontario, giving them targets to meet on the number of adoptions. The Toronto Star reported March 22 that the minister is asking CAS's to improve their performance by increasing adoption rates 10% to 20% over current levels, depending on the region and other factors affecting when children can be placed for adoption. The number of Crown wards in Ontario rose to 8,864 in December 2003, up from 7,935 a year earlier. (Crown wards don't return to their families; they live in foster homes.) Crown ward adoptions, however, average 650 annually. This compares with about 700 international adoptions each year to Ontario. For more, see Adoption Council of Canada, "Ontario to Change Domestic Adoption Law", www.adoption.ca/news/040407onlaw.htm Children's Aid Societies in Ontario cared for 18,126 children as of March 31, 2003. 44% of them, or 7,975, were Crown wards in foster care. For more statistics, see the PDF file, Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, "CAS facts, April 1, 2002 - March 31, 2003, Revised July 2003", www.oacas.org/resources/CAS%20Facts%20Ap02Mar03.pdf For more on domestic adoption, see the Family Helper publication, "All About Domestic Adoption", www.familyhelper.net/fh/fhdom.html ________________________________________ You may reproduce this item with the credit: "Source: Family Helper (www.familyhelper.net)"