RE: recruitment of minority foster/adoptive parents

["PRITCHARD, ARNIE" <ARNIE.PRITCHARD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Dr. Waite, 

	Thanks for your reply.  MEPA actually may be more in line with your
views than one would think just from my request.  Our mandate (which comes
from the court-appointed monitor who has some oversight over the agency) is
only to look at the pool provision of MEPA, which requires the diligent
efforts to recruit foster and adoptive parents.  Other provisions of the
Act, however, actually forbid agencies to use race as a criterion in
matching kids with adoptive parents or foster parents- which was a common
practice in many places before the Act was passed.  So the general thrust of
MEPA is A)try to make sure that you recruit good parents from different
elements of society but B)don't prevent or delay placements because you are
looking for the "right" race. It may or may not be effective, but the
overall priorities seem reasonable to me. 

						Arnie Pritchard 

-----Original Message-----
From: dw432@columbia.edu [mailto:dw432@columbia.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2002 3:37 PM
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
Subject: Re: recruitment of minority foster/adoptive parents


Arnie--
     Interestingly, this policy (of placing like kids with like 
parents) is nothing new. I just finished a book "The Lost Children of 
Wilder: the epic struggle to change foster care" written by NYT 
writer Nina Bernstein that gives a moving synopsis of failed policies 
in the US foster care system (especially here in NYC). Why not focus 
more on quality control of caring, nurturing parents (which has been 
shown to all important to child development) instead of emphasizing 
racial/cultural/religious orientation?
--Doug Waite, MD

Quoting "PRITCHARD, ARNIE" <ARNIE.PRITCHARD@po.state.ct.us>:

> 
> 
> 
> The Connecticut Department of Children and Families is
> planning an
> evaluation of its efforts to comply with the "pool provision"
> of the
> Multi-ethnic Placement Act of 1994 (MEPA).  The pool provision
> requires any
> child placement agency receiving federal funds to make
> diligent efforts to
> recruit a pool of foster and adoptive parents who are
> ethnically similar to
> the children whom the agency is trying to place. In practice,
> this means
> efforts to recruit and retain foster and adoptive parents from
> ethnic
> minorities, especially African-Americans and Hispanic/Latinos.
> 
> We would like to know of any studies either of 1)efforts to
> recruit minority
> foster/adoptive parents in general 2)specifically, studies of 
> efforts to
> comply with the pool provisions of MEPA.
> 
> Thank you for your attention.
> 
> 						Arnie Pritchard
> 						Quality Assurance 
Division
> 						Connecticut DCF
> 



Doug Waite, MD
New York City