Adoption and Safe Families Act

Overview

One of the most dominant themes in children’s rights is that parents retain plenary control over them. The government historically protected parental rights by limiting intervention in families. As children’s own rights increased, especially the right to protection from harm, their rights potentially clashed with those of their parents. Even when the government intervened to protect children, the intervention was limited due to the need to respect parental rights, which sometimes had the unfortunate result of having children live in prolonged temporary arrangements while efforts were made to reunify family members. It was not until the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, in 1997, that the federal government began to more forcefully promote timely permanency planning and placement for children in foster care and emphasized the importance of children’s safety and well-being during the permanency process. Despite these efforts, similar concerns remain, likely because...