Adoptions plagued by racial bias
By Enrique Rangel | A-J AUSTIN BUREAU
Sunday, October 25, 2009
AUSTIN - Over the years a good number of childless American couples have traveled to China, Guatemala, Romania and other faraway countries to adopt a child.
But children in Texas' Panhandle and Southern Plains as young as a few weeks old and as old as 20 may wait three years to find families - longer than the state average of two years
Data from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services shows that in 2008 there were 6,375 children waiting to be adopted in the state. Of those, 174 lived in Lubbock County, 64 in Randall County and 26 in Potter County.
Johana Scot doesn't like those numbers.
"The problem is that we take too many kids away from their homes," said Scot, executive director of the Parent Guidance Center, an Austin-based advocacy group.
Scot and other critics of Texas Child Protective Services believe the agency is too quick to remove children from their parents or other relatives if social workers suspect abuse or neglect.
More children would stay with families if social workers were to spend more time on child abuse prevention, Scot said.
Instead, "the Family and Protective Services are very adversarial in their approach," she charged. "They say 'we're going to take your kids away and terminate your parental rights.' They take the kid and ask questions later."
Social workers remove disproportionate numbers of non-white youngsters from families suspected of abuse or neglect, according to state records. The children wait longer to find new homes than white children, according to records.
Black and Hispanic children account for more than two-thirds of all Texas youngsters waiting for adoption, according to Family and Protective Services figures.
Half of the 174 children waiting for adoption in Lubbock County last year were Hispanic, even though the county's Hispanic population is 30 percent. > read complete article <
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