ABSTRACT

Most states had policies that emphasized that foster care was a temporary arrangement, and foster parents were warned not to become too attached to their foster children, as they would not be permitted to adopt them. According to Meezan and Shireman, these policies resulted from the following concerns: a need to maintain a pool of foster parents and preserve the integrity of foster care. The Model Adoption Act stipulates that factors such as length of time in care and the foster parent-child relationship should be considered in determining priority consideration for adopting. The majority (60") of these unplanned foster adoptions were with minority families. Four of the families were White, 4 were Hispanic, and 2 were African American. The foster family had previous experience with sexually abused children and was willing to take abused children under the age of twelve. After four hospitalizations, L a Hispanic male infant, was placed in foster care with a White couple in their mid-fifties.