ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the rights of children in need of adoption and of the people who adopt them. It addresses the responsibilities of home study and placing agencies to their clients—in this case, both to the child and to the family that adopts him or her. The chapter describes the clients’ rights and agencies’ responsibilities with important solutions and strategies. It presents the recommendations for the role that governments can play in improving policies and practices in international adoption. Children of any age for whom adoption is deemed to be the best solution should be placed with adoptive parents in an expeditious manner. To increase the chances of adoption success for non-infants, interventions that socialize children into family living should be in place before older children are adopted either domestically or internationally. Prospective adopters have the right to be treated with respect and have their strengths and limitations taken seriously as potential adopters of a particular child or children.
