The two Senators are hosting the forum in an effort to study ways to facilitate adoption in New Hampshire, by identifying current obstacles and challenges faced by NH citizens and child placement agencies, and discussing potential improvements to the adoption process in the state. We're inviting members of the public and adoption professionals to what we hope will be a productive discussion about what some of the problems are and how to ease the adoption process.
Adoption can literally make a world of difference to a family and to a child.
If there are unnecessary barriers that impede adoptions from taking place, we need to look at how to fix them. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as from New Hampshire's 11 private adoption agencies, have been invited to the forum. Barnes and Francoeur also hope to hear from people who have been through the adoption process and can use their experience to help inform legislators. Francoeur and Barnes believe the forum could yield ideas for legislation to address some of the obstacles to adoption. They are both currently co-sponsors of House Bill 289, an act implementing procedures for a hospital to assume care and custody of an abandoned child and creating an exception to the crime of endangering the welfare of a child.