Ontario plans more flexible adoption process for 9,000 crown wards.

TORONTO -- The Ontario government announced plans to reform the province's adoption system so that more children can find a safe, secure family. Children and Youth Services Minister Marie Bountrogianni said, "The current system is too rigid," as she announced plans to make "adoption more flexible for individual children and friendlier for parents." Approximately 9,000 children are Crown wards in the care of Ontario's children's aid societies, but current legal and structural barriers make three-quarters of them ineligible for adoption. Proposed changes would make adoption more flexible and provide a wider range of options so that more children can be placed with a family on a permanent basis. The proposed changes are part of the government's plan to reform Ontario's child protection system so that more children and youth in the care of children's aid societies thrive in safe, stable, supportive homes. The plan includes:

* allowing more children to be adopted while keeping important ties to their birth family and community;

* creating more legal options beyond traditional adoption so children and youth can be placed in a permanent home;

* simplifying and standardizing the application process, creating a province-wide registry to help match available children with prospective parents and supporting families after an adoption:

Currently fewer than 10 per cent of 9000 Crown wards are adopted each year. These are some of the barriers to adoption

* Three-quarters of their birth families have a court-ordered right to visit or contact them. (However most don't contact their children.)

* A Crown ward whose parents have court-ordered access cannot be adopted unless their birth parents giye up all rights to them leaving the children in an indeterminate status, without legal or emotional certainty.

Proposed changes would enable the child to maintain contact with his or her his/her family (including siblings and grandparents), culture and community and still be adopted by a caring, stable family.

Where adoption is not a suitable option because of special needs, children's aid societies would have the flexibility to tailor their response to the needs of each child.

The government is changing the adoption application process so prospective parents do not undergo multiple assessments and will have an application process that is consistent for both public and private adoptions across Ontario. To give families who adopt a child through a children's aid society the support they need, societies will be able to help more families in need with programs and services.

The ministry will help to train workers to strengthen the capacity find a permanent homes through adoption or another permanent solution. While maintaining the high standards of safety and protection, children's aid societies will change their intake process so that they can better match their response to the needs of each individual child and family.

The government's plans have received the approval of the Adoption Council of Ontario.