All applicants should have an equal opportunity to apply for the adoption of children, and should receive fair and equal treatment and consideration of their qualifications as adoptive parents, consistent with state and federal laws. Applicants should be assessed on the basis of their abilities to successfully parent a child needing family membership and not on their race, ethnicity, culture, income, age, marital status, religion, appearance, differing lifestyle, or sexual orientation. Applicants should be accepted on the basis of an individual assessment of their capacity to understand and meet the needs of a particular available child at the point of the adoption and in the future. When consistent with the child's best interest, the agency providing adoption services should honor the birth parents' request that a family of the same race or ethnic background adopts the child. The child's adoption, however, should not be denied or delayed if the agency is unable to recruit adoptive parents of the child's race or culture and adoptive parents of other cultural or racial groups are available.
All children deserve to be raised in a family that respects their cultural heritage.
In any adoption plan the best interests of the child should be paramount. All decisions should be based on the needs of the individual child. The adoptive family selected should demonstrate an awareness of and sensitivity to the cultural resources that may be needed after placement.