Practices Adoption Services

Standard of Excellence for Adoption Services:
Openness in Adoption

The agency providing adoption services should recognize the value of openness to all members of the adoption triad, but should allow determinations concerning the degree of openness in an adoption to be made by the parties to the adoption on an individualized basis.
Openness in adoption has the potential to benefit all members of the adoption triad. The degree of openness in the relationships between birth and adoptive families should be arrived at by mutual agreement based on a thoughtful, informed decisionmaking process by the birth parents, the prospective adoptive parents, and the child, when appropriate.
Decisions about the degree of openness should be based on respect for the rights of all individuals involved in an adoption.
(Child Welfare League of America Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services, 2000. Section 1.17, p.17)
When adoption is being considered as an option, counseling for birth mothers, birth fathers, and other family members can clarify the options within adoption and the consequences of each option. Counseling also provides an opportunity for members of the birth family to explore the various level of openness that are possible in adoption and the extent to which they may desire openness if they make the decision to place their child for adoption. In all instances, birth parents and other family members should receive counseling to help them understand the grief and loss inherent in adoption.
(Child Welfare League of America Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services, 2000. Section 2.1, p. 28)
The agency providing adoption services should advise birth parents who are making a plan for the adoption of their child that information related to their identities may be disclosed to the child at some point in the future.
Many birth parents may express an interest in having their identities disclosed to the child whom they place for adoption at the time the child reaches adulthood. The agency providing adoption services should obtain, in writing, the birth parents' interest in having such information provided and should retain the birth parents' written statement in the adoption record.
Some birth parents, at the time they make the decision to place their child for adoption, may express a desire to have their identities withheld from their child. The agency providing adoption services should advise the birth parents that under current law in all states, courts may order the opening of sealed adoption records and allow adopted adults access to identifying information.
Laws sealing adoption records are being re-examined in many states, and the possibility exists that adopted adults may have increased access to identifying information in the future. As a result, agencies should assist birth parents in understanding that it is not possible to assure them that their identities will be protected from the children they place for adoption.
The birth parents' desire to have their identities shared or withheld from the child they placed for adoption may change over time. The agency providing adoption services should inform the birth parents that they may at any time communicate to the agency any changes in their desires in this regard.
(Child Welfare League of America Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services, 2000. Section 2.8, p. 32)
When appropriate, some level of contact between birth parents, other relatives, and the child after adoption should be considered. Openness after adoption, however, should not be used as an incentive to obtain the birth parents' agreement to voluntarily relinquish the child.
(Child Welfare League of America Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services, 2000. Section 2.9, p. 34)
Education about and consideration of the benefits and challenges of openness in adoption should be an integral part of the home-study and preparation process for all adoptive applicants.
Adopted individuals, birth families, and adoptive families are best served by a process that is open, honest, and supportive of the concept that all information, including identifying information, may be shared between birth and adoptive parents. The degree of openness in any adoption should be arrived at by mutual agreement based on a thoughtful, informed decisionmaking process by the birth parents, the prospective adoptive parents, and the child, when appropriate. Educating applicants during the homestudy process about the range of openness in adoption provides them with time to explore their attitudes and possibly expand the level of openness with which they will be comfortable in adoption.
(Child Welfare League of America Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services, 2000. Section 4.12, p. 60)
The agency providing adoption services should support efforts to ensure that adults who were adopted have direct access to identifying information about themselves and their birth parents.
The prevailing legal practice in the United States prohibits adults who were adopted as children from obtaining access to their original birth certificates or to identifying information contained in their adoption records.
The practice of sealing records has come under scrutiny as the benefits of openness in adoption for the adopted individual, birth parents, and adoptive parents have come to be understood. The interests of adopted adults in having information about their origins have come to be recognized as having critical psychological importance as well as importance in understanding their health and genetic status. Because such information is essential to adopted adults' identity and health needs, the agency should promote policies that provide adopted adults with direct access to identifying information.
This trend toward openness has already been recognized by the Indian Child Welfare Act (P.L. 95-608). Under that Act, courts must unseal records for American Indian children, on request, and provide information necessary for the adopted individual to ascertain his or her tribal affiliation and membership. Such information may include the names of the adopted child's birth parents.
(Child Welfare League of America Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services, 2000. Section 6.22, p. 87)

All members of the adoption triad are affected by the adoption and as such should be consulted as to their desires, needs, and capacities in determining the level of openness in their particular adoption plan. To provide such opportunities agencies should make available a broad spectrum of options which may range from closed placement to open adoption. Selection and utilization of these options is dependent on the birth parent, the prospective adoptive parent, and the child if he or she is of age or ability to make such a decision.

Child Welfare League of America-First Biennial Assembly Resolution, 1986. Adoption Resolution #3