Fixing DC's System

A recent article reports that “a federal court has given D.C. two weeks to come up with a plan to fix its adoption system or risk it going back into receivership.” Although the article does not directly point out the ways in which the city’s system is “broken,” it does assume a correlation between it and the currently low rates of both permanent placement and adoption. The number of adoptions in Washington D.C. has dropped by 50 percent between 2005 and 2007, and the trend looks to continue this year. The article provides an account of a couple who attempted to adopt a teenaged foster child and, faced with unreasonable challenges and frustration, was unable to bring the child into their home. If D.C.’s system is in fact preventing children in foster care from finding homes with ready and capable families, then it does indeed need “fixing.”