L.A. County Department of Adoptions

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

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aiding their cause. They work with churches and other groups giving speeches and showing films to draw public concern. CDA representatives actively contact community and business leaders for support in their endeavors. These methods have been highly effective. In the calendar year of 1976, 734 children were placed. Of these, 228 were under two years of ago and 124 were over ten. The rest fell between those ages. The children were from varied ethnic backgrounds, although they were predominantly Anglo. Of the adoptive parents ninety were single persons. Sixty-nine percent of the children had been referred by the Child Welfare Services as children who were unlikely ever to be reunited with their biological parents or relatives. Thirty-five percent of the adoptive families were able to receive grants under the AAC. These successes saved the county a great deal of expense which would otherwise have been incurred by continued support of the child, whether in foster homes or orphanages. It became possible for single parents to adopt in 1965. The person who is desirable is one who has exhibited the ability to cope with life. The lonely individual or the compulsive giver is not encouraged to take a child. The child need

Category: Government - L