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INFERTILITY   ADOPTION   POST-ADOPTION   FAMILY TREE   Adoption Resource Central    Heart of Adoption Articles to inspire   COUNTRY NEWS The latest from specific countries   You can order Family Helper publications   Robin's GLOSSARY of adoption terms		Ontario law ought to increase domestic adoptions BY ROBIN HILBORN, Family Helper editor
		(Mar. 27, 2006) A new Ontario law will let more foster kids find permanent adoptive homes. The major change is that the law will allow Crown wards with access orders to be adopted. There are 9,000 Crown wards in the care of Ontario's 53 children's aid societies. Only about 10% of them are adopted each year. The Ontario legislature passed Bill 210, the Child and Family Services Statute Law Amendment Act, 2005, on Mar. 27, 2006. It provides two ways to allow more children to gain permanent families: * Adoption with openness -- A judge may order that the mother of a child in care of a children's aid society have the right to visit or contact her daughter. This court-ordered access would not prevent the girl from being adopted, as it does today. Birth families and adoptive parents could form a voluntary "openness agreement" spelling out the amount of contact between child and birth family. Such "open adoptions" have been the norm in private adoptions for years. A judge could also make an "openness order" so the child could continue to have some kind of communication with a member of their birth family (for example, a sibling or grandparent). * Permanent arrangements other than adoption -- Other permanent arrangements are possible. Older children in foster care may not want to be adopted, but stay with one foster family; the foster parents could become the legal guardian. Aboriginal children could keep important cultural and family ties through customary care: being placed in the custody of extended family or with a member of the child's community or band. The new law also proposes: * Consistency. People who want to adopt a child in Ontario will see an application process which is consistent for both public and private adoptions. They won't have to undergo multiple home studies. * A provincewide internet registry to help match available children with prospective parents. * Support to parents -- programs and services -- after an adoption is complete. Details and background are in the March 27, 2006 ministry news release. ________________________________________ You may reproduce this item with the credit: "Source: Family Helper (www.familyhelper.net)"