Adoption News

 Legislators to review foster care adoptions

legislative committee plans to dig into allegations concerning state foster care adoptions and termination of parental rights, state Rep. Tom Burch said today.

Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services “is getting overly ambitious about severing parental rights in some cases,” said Burch, D-Louisville, co-chair of the General Assembly’s Interim Health and Welfare Committee.

Burch said initial testimony is likely to begin at 1 p.m. June 21 in Frankfort. Mary Henderson, a Lexington woman who recently regained custody of her four children after a Fayette Circuit Judge denied a Cabinet request to terminate her rights, said she would be among the first to testify.

The state’s office of Inspector General is investigating whether, under federal pressure to increase the number of Kentucky foster children who are adopted, some administrators in the Cabinet are inappropriately recommending to courts that the rights of biological parents be terminated.

One social worker in Hardin County has been placed on paid leave pending investigation of her actions, and Inspector General Robert J. Benvenuti III said other suspensions and criminal prosecutions could result.

Meanwhile, in Lexington today, about 20 people attended a rally in Triangle park in support of biological parents whose children had been removed by the Cabinet for Families and Health Services or who were in danger of having their parental rights terminated.

Cabinet officials say they requested the Inspector General’s investigation, although they think the majority of cases are handled appropriately.

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	Did You Know?
	Most adoptive parents are two parent families Most adoptive parents are two parent families aged 31 to 40. A growing number of parents are aged 41 to 49. Most parents attended or completed college. Children can be adopted from other countries Adopting children from all over the world has become something U.S. residents and citizens have been doing more and more when starting or expanding their families. Over 20,000 inter-country adoptions are taking place per year in addition to the more than Adoption assistance is available Monthly or one-time only subsidy payments to help adoptive parents raise children with special needs. These payments were initially made possible by the enactment of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272) which provided Federa