Does race affect caring?

The following editorial appeared in Wednesday’s Washington Post.

A report from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute does a good job of pointing out the deficiencies of the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA), the law governing transracial adoptions and foster care assignments. Despite the law’s passage in 1994, African American children continue to be disproportionately represented in the foster care system and stay in public care longer than white children. The requirement that states recruit foster and adoptive parents who reflect the diversity of the children who need homes has been virtually ignored thanks to inadequate funding. But the New York-based organization’s call to remedy these problems by junking the prohibition against routinely using race as a factor in placements is wrong.

Let’s not forget why Congress believed it was important to pass MEPA. Previously, judgments about the best interests of children were left to social workers, many of whom viewed transracial placement as a “last resort.” States had different standards: Some required racial or ethnic matching; others put a time limit on pursuing such matches before a search had to be widened. Such targeted placements led to delays that left children languishing in foster care.

The Adoption Institute argues that NOT taking race into account is keeping African American children in foster care longer than need be. The National Association of Black Social Workers, which endorsed the report, has long argued for “preserving families of African ancestry.” Citing studies that transracially adopted children face identity and discrimination issues their parents might not be able to address, the Adoption Institute wants prospective parents to receive training and counseling in the challenges that children of color can face as they get older. It argues that MEPA prohibits this. Not so.

The guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services states, “Prospective parents should be offered, typically through training provided by an agency, information sufficient to confirm or broaden their understanding of what types of children they might most appropriately provide a home for.” In addition, prospective parents must undergo an assessment in which their ability to parent a child of a different race and the needs of that child are plainly stated. This information then becomes part of the overall assessment that social workers use to choose the best home for a child. MEPA makes it clear that considerations of race and ethnicity must not become a “routine” part of the placement process.

The ultimate goal of adoption placement is to find a permanent home for a child in need. That home must have three precious elements: love, care and security. Prospective parents of any race can supply them.