Why the Current System Works Badly. The current design of public agency child welfare fails to guarantee that no child will be forgotten. It has five principal flaws. There is a bias toward reunifying children with biological parents, no matter how abusive or neglectful. Although the 104th Congress tried to eliminate delays in adoptions based on race, policy and practice are often quite different.
Every child is adoptable.
Private agencies nationwide are recruiting families for children of all racial backgrounds and ages and with every type of disability. Thus a severely handicapped child may be included in the same category as a child who is biracial or has a sibling. Experiencing foster care can be ruinous, especially for youngsters who leave the system at age 18 without having been adopted. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that nearly 17 percent of inmates of local jails are former foster children. But the social costs of foster care s failure can extend years after a child leaves the system.