The U.S. child welfare and foster care systems have both received considerable criticism. These criticisms include, for example, that 'if a child survives foster care, it's not because of the system, it's despite the system and if the nation had deliberately designed a system that would... abandon the children who depend on it, it could not have done a better job than the present child welfare system.

This article argues that Florida's ban on lesbi-gay adoption is inconsistent with ASFA (Adoption and Safe Families Act). Excluding lesbian and gay individuals from eligibility to adopt children directly conflicts with ASFA's mandate to quickly find safe, permanent homes for children in foster care. Repealing the law that bans lesbi-gay adoption would help Florida meet ASFA's goal by increasing the number of potential adoptive parents and, therefore, the likelihood of finding permanent homes for children. Following this Introduction, Part II give a cursory overview of the history and development of foster care and adoption in the United States and Florida, and then briefly highlights the history, policies, and rationales behind AFSA. Part III argues that repealing the ban on lesbi-gay adoption is consistent with ASFA. Part III then addresses the validity of arguments against repealing the adoption ban. Finally, Part IV recommends that Florida repeal its statute banning gays and lesbians from adopting children and discusses why alternatives other than repealing the ban will not work.

The overarching theme of this inter-disciplinary article is to present and clarify issues pertaining to the adoption of African American children by White American parents. More specifically, the purposes of this article are: to review relevant literature and research regarding the transracial adoption debate; explain the legal aspects and practice of transracial adoption; and discuss the implications for counseling practice and potential implications or concerns for counselors.

In this article, the authors examine the crisis in the explosion in the number of children in the foster care system in the United States; and in particular, the effects on African American children. The article applies the interdisciplinary tools of law and counseling to analyze current structure and policy of transracial adoption and its implications for African American children.

The authors argue that transracial adoptions and the color-blind approach, which is encouraged and required by federal statute, do not serve the best interests of the majority of African American children in foster care who are awaiting permanent homes. Rather, the two-pronged approach of increased recruitment of African American, non-kin adoptive families in addition to an in-depth focus on kinship care and adoption will more readily decrease the number of children living in foster care.