Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)

Links to resources to assist in understanding how the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) affects adoption planning. ASFA (P.L. 105-89) mandates shortened timelines for achieving permanency. To meet these timelines, most States have come to rely on concurrent planning. This is a type of permanency planning in which reunification services are provided to the family of a child in out-of-home care while an alternative permanency plan is made for the child should reunification efforts fail.

Adoption Dynamics: An Update on the Impact of the Adoption and Safe Families Act Wulczyn, Hislop, & Chen (2005) Analyzes adoptions from foster care using data from Chapin Hall Center for Children's Multistate Foster Care Data Archive to understand what effect, if any, the Federal law has had on the proportion of children admitted to foster care who were later adopted and on the time needed to complete those adoptions.

Child Welfare Reform in the United States: Findings From a Local Agency Survey
Mitchell, Barth, Green, Wall, Biemer, Duerr, Berrick, & Webb
Child Welfare, 84(1), 2005
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Examines the effect of Federal legislation, including ASFA and welfare reform legislation, on child welfare service delivery.

Concurrent Planning: Tool for Permanency (PDF - 213 KB)
National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning (2000)
Best practices for implementing concurrent planning for children in foster care.

Foster Care: Recent Legislation Helps States Focus on Finding Permanent Homes for Children, but Long-Standing Barriers Remain (PDF - 440 KB)
U.S. General Accounting Office (2002)
Report on the impact of ASFA on States.

Major Federal Legislation Concerned With Child Protection, Child Welfare, and Adoption

Training for Managers and Supervisors to Enhance Their Capability to Understand and Implement ASFA: Final Report
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service (2004)
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Activities and outcomes of a federally funded project that developed a competency-based curriculum to help child welfare managers and supervisors successfully implement the requirements of ASFA.

	Related Information Gateway Topics Achieving & maintaining permanency: General permanency resources Achieving & maintaining permanency: Medation for permanency planning Systemwide: Federal laws

Updated on March 19, 2010