Word: older
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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While public agencies concentrate on special-needs children, private agencies remain the traditional vehicle for finding healthy infants. These have historically been clubby, starched places; singles were not at the top of the selection list, nor interracial, gay, handicapped or older couples. While their policies are gradually changing -- especially in helping place older or special-needs kids -- many still primarily serve a specific religious group...
Though one major study shows that most older adoptees -- even those ten and above -- flourish within their new families, for special-needs children suffering the effects of mistreatment or prenatal drug use, the future may depend crucially upon how quickly they can be brought into a stable, attentive home...
Faced with a shortage of couples for the growing numbers of special-needs children, adoption officials have been forced to discard orthodox notions of what constitutes a family. Two years ago a White House task force recommended that states eliminate barriers to adoption by singles like Mazzafro, working couples, older people and the physically handicapped. "We've had situations where married veterans have been encouraged to adopt special-needs children, but when they show up in a wheelchair, they are shown the door," says Mary Sheila Gall, who headed the group. "We had to change the system...
...baby chase is on. Would-be parents must be relentless and infinitely flexible. Many turn to open adoption, some allow the birth mother a continuing role in their family. Meanwhile, burgeoning numbers of children who are older, not white, or handicapped wait and wait for a family and a home...
Advertising Production Director: Pamela Older...