From Foster Care to Adoption

Filed Under GLBT Parents, Legal, Life | April 17th, 2008 

Gay Family NewsNew York (PRWEB) — New York Law School’s Justice Action Center and the Center for Adoption Policy will convene some of today’s leading experts on adoption policy at the Fifth Annual Adoption Conference, “Waiting in America: Foster Care to Adoption” on Friday, April 25 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. at the Law School.

“Children need permanent, loving families,” Dr. Diane B. Kunz, Executive Director of the Center Adoption Policy, said. “But potential adoptive parents don’t always know how to connect with the children who need them. With this conference, we hope to break down barriers between communities in order to ensure that unparented children find the permanency that they deserve.”

This year’s conference will focus on the structural, legal, and societal barriers that delay adoption for children in the American foster care system who need families, and suggest measures to address problems that impede the formation of adoptive families for children in care.

The four panels topics of the conference are: What We Have Studied, What We Are Learning; The Legal Dimension; What We Can Do Better: Improving the Lives of Our Children; and Immigration Alternatives for Children Who Are Adopted or in Foster Care. Some of the issues that will be discussed during the scheduled presentations will be promoting successful special needs adoptions, adopting in the U.S. and navigating the public child welfare system, and if recent limitations on international adoption will provide opportunities for children needing to be adopted in the U.S.

“We are pleased to collaborate with the Center for Adoption for the fifth year in a row to gather the legal, education, and professional community at the Law School to discuss the important issues pertaining to adoption,” said Chris Kendall, Associate Director of the Justice Action Center.

This event is open to the public. Cost of attendance is $25 and registration is required. Attendees who are employed by a certified foster care placement agency may attend the conference at no charge. To RSVP and for more information, please contact LaToya Nelson at 212.431.2191 or lnelson@nyls.edu.

For more information, visit: www.nyls.edu/adoption.

Source: New York Law School