The purpose of this research is to examine the Los Angeles County Department of Adoptions in the terms of its environment, history, scope, adaptability, funding, personnel, policies, and related legislation. It will deal specifically with recent changes in scope, organization, policy and mode of operation. Since its inception in June of 1949, the department has been highly effective in placing children in adoptive homes. Its efficient services have been extended over the last decade to benefit Los Angeles' children and parents in many new ways. These will be discussed in some detail below.
The Department of Adoptions is located in Los Angeles County. Aside from its central office, it has six other branches arranged strategically throughout the county. Los Angeles County covers over four thousand square miles and has over seven million inhabitants. Within this immense area, the County Department of Adoptions (CDA) offers complete adoption services to natural and adoptive parents as well as homeless children. Because of the size of the area it serves, the CDA is the largest adoption agency in the nation. It is also considered by many to be the most progressive.
The department was founded in order to handle the immense number of adoptions brought about by the baby boom which followed in the wake of the second World War. Applications for adoption were being made and processed in a haphazard fashion and it was difficult to keep a record of all the activity going on in that area. The sale of babies on the black market was common and needed the control of an organized adoption agency which would discourage that unethical and costly process.
The agency continued to grow and improve its services. However, until recently, the majority of children who benefitted from its service were Anglo. Recent legislation effecting it has enabled the CDA to meet more efficiently the needs of minority and other hard-to-place childr...