Summarizes laws enacted by states across the United States in response to the Adoption and Safe Families Act (AFSA) of 1997, which seeks to expedite the process of placing children with permanent families when they cannot return home, emphasizes child safety, and promotes adoption when appropriate for the child. In addition, AFSA requires states to make reasonable efforts to find permanent homes for children who cannot safely be returned to their families, and it also accelerates the time frame for permanency hearings. This searchable database is accessible from the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Web site, which provides information and policy updates on both state and federal legislation in a range of areas, including human services, health, education, juvenile justice, labor and employment, and economic development. The AFSA database enables users to make state-by-state comparisons of existing legislation pertaining to adoption. In addition, the database can be searched by key provisions of the AFSA, including permanency hearings, assurances of child safety, clarification of reasonable efforts, termination of parental rights, criminal records checks, and health insurance for special needs children. Users also are given telephone numbers and addresses for obtaining further information.
