Kasz216 said:
mrstickball said:
Kasz216 said:
HappySqurriel said:
From my (very limited) understanding, up until the child is "school aged" they are in high demand but after that demand (essentially) disappears ...
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You could be right, really just the point is that there is plenty of demand for adoption... it just doesn't seem that way due to all the kids.
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Generally, its very difficult to adopt up to about 2 or 3 years old. After that, the desire to adopt drops off - especially when it is a baby of a minority ethnicity.
A good example of our adoption system is told to us by Tony Dungy, former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He and his family have adopted multiple children in their lives. When they went to adopt their first boy, the case worker told them it would take 3 years and cost tens of thousands of dollars. When she asked what age they wanted for their white baby (the Dungys are black, FWIW), Tony and his wife told the worker that they simply wanted to adopt, and any child of any race was fine. The case worker's response was "We thought you wanted a white baby. If you are okay with a black baby, you can take one home today.'.
Here is a whitepaper on adoption statistics from 1957-current. According to their data, less adoptions take place today than in 1970, despite the fact that US population has increased considerably: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/13653_Chapter3.pdf
Of course, the crest being the year before Roe v. Wade was introduced.
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That's an espiecally amusing story if you know anything about tony Dungy.
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It is. The story came from his book I bought 'Quiet Strength'. Read the entire thing on a flight from Ohio to Eugene, Oregon.
Although it is entirely anecdotal, it denotes the state our adoption system is in if someone with as much influence and cash as Dungy cannot adopt a 'white' baby without significant amount of cost and red tape. Additionally, it makes no sense why there would even be a notable cost to adopt an unwanted child. Last I checked, doing such saved the state money, not the opposite.
