REPORT: LAW TAKES KIDS FROM PARENTS FEDERAL RULE ENCOURAGING `UNNECESSARY' ADOPTIONS.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

A nearly 10-year-old federal law that provides financial rewards to states and counties that increase the number of children adopted out of foster care is tearing families apart, a report released Friday said.

The study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found that flaws in the Adoption & Safe Families Act, combined with a growing number of incarcerated parents, is permanently separating children from their parents.

Under the law, states are required to terminate the parental rights of children who have been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months.

States also get $4,000 for every child adopted beyond their best year's total, plus $4,000 for every child 9 and older, and an extra $2,000 for every special-needs child adopted.

This year, the federal government awarded states $11.6 million.

In Los Angeles County, more than 20,000 foster children have been placed in adoptive homes in the last decade.

``Far too many children are at risk of being permanently separated from their mothers whose worst crime may be drug addiction,'' said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center.

Los Angeles resident Robin Madison, who admitted to a cocaine addiction and a shoplifting disorder, said four of her five children were placed in foster care while she was in jail after violating her probation when she shoplifted toys last Christmas.

While she was in jail, Madison said her fiance cared for the children, but a social worker decided to place them in foster care with the biological father's aunt in Apple Valley.

Madison said she has completed all required parenting and drug treatment classes and has been drug-free for two years, but officials still won't return her children, who are now up for legal guardianship.

``It's wrong because people can change,'' Madison said. ``There is treatment for people like me who have been through abusive relationships, been on drugs and have kleptomania.''

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of minor children with an incarcerated mother nearly doubled.

Today more then 1.5 million children have a parent in prison. Nationwide, 518,000 children are in the foster care system.

``What these adoption bounties do is encourage a rush to terminate parental rights when it is not necessary, and therefore they have helped create a generation of legal orphans,'' said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va.

``There are about 50,000 adoptions of foster children per year. It's also important to note that 10 to 20 percent of those adoptions at some point are likely to fail.

``(The federal law) encourages quick and dirty and slipshod placements. And if the child comes back into foster care, the state doesn't have to give up the bounty. In fact, they can place the same child again and collect another bounty.''

Since 1996, 20,752 adoptions of children under the care of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services have been finalized, according to DCFS statistics.

``Children deserve more than just safety,'' DCFS Adoption Division Chief Diane Wagner said. ``They also deserve permanence and stability in their life.

``The department tries to place children who must be removed from their parents' care with relatives whenever possible. In addition, relatives are given preference for adoption as well.

``We strongly encourage open adoptions when it is appropriate and the maintenance of the child's ties to their birth family.''

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

[phone]