CAFCA Adoption Committee Minutes

September 7, 2006

Attendees: Melissa Maile-Catholic Charities, Megan Alldritt-Catholic Charities, Adrienne Elliott-Adoption Options, Carol Lawson-Adoption Options, Erin Jones-Lighthouse Adoptions, Eve Anderson-Bethany Christian Services, Peg Long-CAFCA, and Kurt Olsson-LDS Family Services.

Follow-up from Previous Meeting: Kurt sent an email to Dana Andrews requesting an agency letter regarding the ability to approve families for adoption prior to receiving the FBI results and requesting clarification of the timeline and fees/fines involved in records preservation compliance. Kurt also contacted Maggie Spain with Carol’s contact info. They had already spoken about the potential interview of a birth father. Carol has since spoken with that father, Brandon, who has agreed to be interviewed in anticipation of a piece released in November – National Adoption Month. Kurt will communicate that agreement back to Maggie (Kurt has done this). Those members that attended the meeting regarding SAFE updates & addenda reported that the tone of the meeting was very cooperative and some good solutions came from that. The state will clarify the distinction between these two tools, provide a single reporting template that will work for both, and instruct agencies when to use each. Erin circulated the rates that COA uses for accreditation fees. Some comparison was made to Colorado’s fee structure. Peg was certain that Colorado would end up being a lower fee overall.

2006-2007 Legislation: The group discussed the need to tie any potential legislation to the interests of children and to be able to demonstrate the impact (on children and families) of passing vs. not passing the legislation. While the expedited relinquishment clean-up bill will be good for kids, we have not yet emphasized the potential impact clearly enough to convince a sponsor (let alone a committee). Kurt will revise the fact sheet and suggest a more appropriate bill title. Members are welcome to review that fact sheet, review the bill, and make suggestions to Kurt at olssonkl@ldsfamilyservices.org.

Peg presented her research on the judicial discretion for adoptive applicants with criminal records. Felonies charges recorded in Colorado (committed by adults) cannot be expunged, but can be sealed under very restrictive circumstances by a court order upon review of the evidence. In consideration of this and other factors, the group agreed that:

• This legislation would be worthwhile to create more available homes for the permanent placement of Colorado’s waiting children,
• We should not use the expungement/sealing of records as a standard for discretion,
• We should create specific, very limited exceptions to the current list of exclusions that would be based on certain criteria (i.e., amount of time between offense and application for adoption, a clean record since that time, current circumstance, etc.),
• These exceptions should be made in both the adoption statute as well as child care licensing (to apply to both adoption and foster care),
• Complete disclosure to the family (of the increased risk of the inability to finalize the adoption) should be made by the agency when approving a family that falls within such an exception, and
• Some mechanism should be provided or applied to getting approval from the court for placement of a child in the home – specifically approving the exception to the criminal background exclusion – so that the child would not be at increased risk of placement disruption because the agency believed the exclusion applies only to discover the judge disagrees. (Perhaps the approval of placement upon petition for adoption could include a specific approval of the exception to the criminal record exclusion.)

Peg will get these, and the factors involved in a previous attempt, to Fofi and the potential bill sponsor.

Public Relations: In addition to the November birth father interview already discussed, Kurt offered the use of PSA’s produced by LDS Family Services to further spread the messages about adoption that the committee is interested in promoting. While LDS Family Services is named as the sponsor of the announcement, the committee could still select those messages that are compatible with our purposes. We watched three 30 second spots. The first was a little girl picking petals off a flower saying “My Mom loves me, my Mom loves me, my Dad loves me… They all love me.” Another was a birth mom writing in her journal and describing her motives for planning to place her child for adoption. The third was a birth mother, a year after placing her child for adoption, receiving a letter and pictures from the adoptive family. She sees the birthday party, the gift she sent to him, and then says that she picked out his best gift a year ago when she gave him a mom and a dad. All of them have the phrases “Adoption: It’s about love,” “I didn’t give him/her up, I gave him/her more,” and “A message, from LDS Family Services.” These were just three of about a dozen that could be used. Please respond with any feedback to Kurt about whether or not these would be appropriate for use by the committee.

Next Meeting Date:  The next committee meeting will be held on Thursday, November 9^th  9:30-11:30 at LDS Family Services, 3263 Fraser St., Suite 3 Aurora, CO 80011.

September 7, 2006

Kurt Olsson, LCSW

Adoption Committee Chair