What is the Adoption and Safe Families Act?

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 is a federal law that works to protect the safety of children, help them find permanent, loving homes, and strengthen the adoption system in the United States. In the state of Washington, the ASFA requires the Department of Social and Health Services to initiate the termination of parental rights when a child has been in foster care for 15 out of the past 22 months. The law also promotes timely permanency for children and encourages states to make all reasonable efforts to prevent, remove, and reunite families. The ASFA is designed to help states streamline their adoption processes and provide greater safety to children in the foster care system. It encourages recruitment, training, and placement of foster and adoptive parents and provides financial incentives to states that work to increase adoption rates. In addition, it assists in the development of more efficient procedures for states to use in the adoption process, such as home studies, background checks, and reviews of potential adoptive parents. The ASFA also works to reduce the amount of time children spends in foster care. It requires states to set timelines for court proceedings related to adoption and require states to move quickly to ensure children are placed in stable homes. The law also establishes requirements for the development of case plans for foster children, sets limits on the time children may spend in foster care, and requires periodic reviews of the care of foster children.

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What is the Adoption and Safe Families Act?

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