The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) requires foster care agencies seek to terminate parental rights when a child has been in foster care for 15 out of the most recent 22 months, so that children can be freed for adoption in a timely manner.
ASFA is often ignored by both agencies and local courts, leaving children in foster care and without a permanent family to provide love, care, and security. 27% of children (more than 100,000 each year) remain in care more than 24 months, in part due to loopholes. For example, children in kinship care can remain foster children their entire lives.
We ask that the existing ASFA law be enforced, with penalties applied when the law is ignored, and that the loopholes be further restricted to free children for adoption when parents fail them.