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Reuniting Birth Families
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COAC of Texas, Inc. is a non-profit organization of citizens concerned
about the children who wait for permanent homes. COAC Reports, our
newsletter, is published six times a year and is partially funded by a grant
from the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services,
Membership dues are paid to local branches and include a subscription to
COAC Reports. Newsletter subscriptions are $5.oo per year.
Agency dues are $18.oo per year. To subscribe to the newsletter, email
us, or send your name, address, zip code and phone number to: COAC of Texas,
P.O. Box 14932, Austin, Texas 78761. Or to the Treasurer or
Chairperson of the branch of which you wish to join.
Join the COAC email list.
Find out how here...
Need a Support Group for your Area?
Several areas of the state have no support groups for adoptive parents. If you would like to form a group or need information about how COAC can help you form a group, please contact Clara Flores, the state President. We would like to help groups form in the Dallas, Tyler, West Texas and other areas of the state. Let us know how we can help.
Texans looking for child care or educational services for children now have a new tool to help their search. More...
College Financial Aid
On Thursday, September 27, 2007 President Bush signed into law the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (HR 2669), the bill that includes the Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act amendment, making it possible for teens in foster care to be adopted without losing access to college financial aid.
Under this new law, youth who are adopted after their 13th birthday will not have to include their parents' income in the calculations for determining their need for financial aid.
More...
New Websites Showcase Youth Voice/
Need for Reform
Two new Web sites showcase the experiences and insights of young people who have been in the nation's foster care system and make the case for reform in their own words.
The My Story Project, created by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio features video of former foster youth sharing their experiences and emphasizing the types of system reforms that can make a difference for the children and young people in foster care today. More...
Band Together, a project of FosterClub, is a comprehensive advocacy site designed by former foster youth for current and former foster youth, parents and others to mobilize and call for reform of the foster care system. Young people are banding together to make a difference for their peers who have suffered abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
More...
Alaska Senate Passes Safe Haven Legislation
On January 19, the Alaska State Senate passed House Bill 29, also known as the Safe Haven for Infants Bill. The legislation allows for the safe surrender of infants under 21 days old at designated Safe Haven locations throughout the state. Infants can now be relinquished to physicians, law enforcement officers, hospital employees, and emergency medical or fire department staff.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is expected to sign the bill. Once it has been signed into law, Alaska will become the latest of 49 states to enact this important child welfare safeguard, leaving just Nebraska and Washington, D.C. without Safe Haven policies.
Foster Care Reform Legislation
Adoption Subsidy Update
Fix Foster Care Now highlights need for increased child abuse and neglect prevention services More...
Words to live by...
Learn about becoming a licensed foster/adoptive parent.
Check out the foster children awaiting adoption on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange Website.
Child Sexual Abuse: The Adult's Role in Prevention
Web Links in the
Spotlight...Check out the latest links and information on
Adoption.
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DSHS Registry Helps Reunite Adult Adoptees with Birth Parents, Siblings
Texas Department of State Health Services News Feature:
December 27, 2007
For some, it is a medical need to know. For others, it is the desire to put life’s jigsaw puzzle pieces together. For these and other reasons, adoption information provides answers to long-held questions about lives and families. In Texas, adoption records are confidential and court records sealed. People usually have little or no information about their birth parents, siblings or children placed for adoption.
But for those looking for information, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) offers a chance to be matched with birth family members. The Texas Vital Statistics Central Adoption Registry can reunite adult adoptees with birth parents or siblings who sign up looking for each other.
“The registry is unique in that we have the authority, without a court order, to view a sealed file and confidential record,” said Patricia Molina, DSHS program administrator for the registry. “This ability allows us to match two biologically related people. A match occurs only when an adopted person and the birth parent or a biological sibling voluntarily register.”
Once a match is made, a letter is sent to each person with the results. But before information is exchanged, everyone is required to complete a one-hour counseling session that educates and prepares them for the reunion. DSHS will help people find a counselor.
“The counseling will help identify a support system as the reunion progresses, whether the husband, wife or other children will be supportive, what they see as the best and worse outcome from a reunion and what they want the outcome to be,” Molina said.
After the counseling session, each person prepares a personal history with photographs such as baby pictures, school and family photos. The biographies are then shared with each participant at the same time that the identifying information is exchanged.
“These biographies establish a foundation for the reunion,” said Molina. “People may see that they look like their birth mother or have the same nose or chin as a sibling.”
Molina said that there are stages to a reunion, often beginning with a honeymoon phase. She said that people may need to set boundaries and outline how far they want the relationship to go. Some people, she said, may decide at some point to end the relationship.
“Adoption is a life-long process,” Molina said. “Some people may want to know more as they grow older, often starting with wanting to know only medical history but later wanting contact.”
Although the adoptive parents are not a part of the registry, adoptees are encouraged to share information with their adoptive families.
The DSHS registry, which began in 1984, has registered more than 8,100 people looking for one another, including adult adoptees, birth mothers, adult siblings and birth fathers. About three times as many adoptees are registered as are birth mothers. “We make about 20 to 30 matches a year,” Molina said.
For a person to become a part of the Central Adoption Registry they must:
- Have been adopted in Texas or have been born in Texas and adopted in another state
or
- Be the birth parent or sibling of an adoptee
- Be 18 years old or older and
- Provide proof of age and identity with a copy of a birth certificate and a valid government-issued photo ID.
To get an application, write the Central Adoption Registry (MC 1966), P.O. Box 149347, Austin, TX 78714-9347; call (512) 458-7388 or toll free (888) 963-7111, ext. 7388; or download an application online at
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/vs/reqproc/adoptionregistry.shtm
Cost to be in the registry is $30 but may be waived or reduced.
Read Governor Perry’s Opinion Editorial on Adoption
(From The Connection, May 5, 2007, Texas Health and Human Services)
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