Adoptions Gone Awry: Enhancing Adoption Outcomes Through Postadoption Services and Federal and State Laws Imposing Criminal Sanctions for Private Internet Rehoming

Abstract

The federal government should invest in adopted children who make up the future of the country and are in dire need of rehabilitation and therapy because of their past circumstances. If the government steps in to rescue vulnerable children from inadequate or abusive birth parents by removal, it should also intervene when adopted families are faced with behavioral problems of adopted children that the adopted parents cannot address on their own. Postadoption services need to be accessible and effective to ensure the success of adopted families. Assisting families in crisis postadoption will lower the instances of dissolution and rehoming and keep adoptive families intact. In cases in which postadoption services fail, uniform federal legislation is necessary to make it a federal crime to advertise children for adoption on the Internet without proper certification and state legislation is required to make it a crime to pass on adopted children to strangers without judicial consent, to dissuade Internet rehoming. Internet rehoming of adopted children should be a serious crime as it is tantamount to child trafficking.© 2014 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Key Points for the Family Court Community: Postadoption services need to be more accessible and more narrowly tailored to the needs of adoptive families to ensure the success of adoptions. Better postadoption services create better adoptive families and adoptive parents will not reach the point of dissolution or private Internet rehoming. Adoptive parents should be provided with information regarding all available postadoption resources after adoption is finalized and a government Web site should be created that lists all available resources. The federal government needs to provide funding to states that specifically target postadoption services. A uniform federal statute is required to punish parties who use Internet forums to avoid government oversight and privately rehome their adopted children. States should enact laws that criminalize the unauthorized interstate placements of children.