To serve and protect the family Adoption and Safe Families Act “The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997” (ASFA), is a major change in the “federal child protection policy” in over the years. It brought a lot of changes in the fostering care system most of it is even followed today (Karnes, 2015). The law highlights that the main concern is the health and safety of the children. Few of the provisions made under law are: 1. Agencies and the courts go without any reasonable efforts that were in force before. In situations where the state was required to make the reasonable effort to help and prohibit the removal of the children from the homes and to make many reunite back to their homes where they belong. Except in cases where the parents has abandoned their child or caused manslaughter, murder or assault or had their parental rights been terminated (Lercara, 2016). 2. Termination of Parental Rights (TRP) must be filled by the states, if the child has been in any foster for more than 15 months. Court has the right to exempt cases of the TRP if is not in the favour of the child (Mallon & Hess, 2014). 3. To encourage more and more children to be taken away from the foster homes, states are obliged to receive $4,000 in relation to the “federal funds” for per child who has been adopted after a certain number that is specified and an amount of $6,000 for any more children who are adopted under special needs. After the fourteen amendments in matters in relation to home, the constitutional provisions give substantial difference to the independent unit of the families to make their own decision. However, there have been situations where the government has to interfere in the independence of the families (Munson & Bent-Goodley, 2014). Such interferences are obvious in the foster homes for the welfare of the children, the main object of the foster is to look after the children and ultimately make them reunite to families who are willing to take care of them (Nelson, 2016). The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) are severely departing from the establishment of their goals. The number of black children is very high; their population consists of a great percentage in the foster home. The ASFA focuses on the federally mandate actions that cause damage which cannot be repaired for black families. The ASFA has decreased the values in keeping or maintaining the bond between the black children and their families (Phillips & Mann, 2013). Legislation must be made to directly address the problems that are being faced by the foster homes (Raghavan & Alexandrova, 2015). For years’ people have stereotyped behavior and have looked down upon people due to the color of their skin. Such comments have led ASFA in removing the black children from the homes in order to bring stability in their lives. Equal Protection and Procedural Due Process Limitations of the ASFA There are procedural challenges faced by the constitution for the termination of the parental rights. Black families are the ones who are mostly affected by the modified parental termination provisions of the ASFA. Discriminations is present because the legislation has a different impact on black people as opposed to other races. In the case of Washington v Davis, it was found that hopes of substantial claims were deflated (Tefre, 2015). There is a great difference which can be seen in relation to the racial grounds in foster homes. It also causes economic discriminations. The outcome of the Davis case was that the Supreme Court stated that the “Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” was not able to focus on the impact of the racial grounds can be explained based on non-racial grounds in that case, the law will not be regarded as unconstitutional. In another case of Brian v Sundquist, the Tennessee District Court observed that there was an impact of racism in the foster care services in Tennessee (Wlad, 2014). The unconstitutionality of the ASFA’s due to its very different affect it has on the poor is being supported by the Supreme Court as the outcome of the case, M.L.B. v S.L.J. The court stated that termination of the parental rights could be compared to criminal punishment. This is not considered like the loss of custody, instead the terminations of the parental rights are irrevocable and as a result there is loss of the most fundamental relationship. Historical Issues and Social Problems In the historical point of view, the state intervention in protecting children due to the color has been the subject of recent developments. The institution of slavery broke down black families and paid more attention to the fostering of black children who were removed from their birth parents. These small children were taken away from their parents and sold away to do hard labor, the slave community was liable to ensure that they took good care of these children. Once these children were free from slavery due to the thirteenth amendment they were not appreciated into the formal child welfare system (Whitt-Woosley & Sprang, 2014). Black children were secluded from the orphanage, in the late of nineteenth century which was made to save the immigrant children. Further, Jim Crow law highlighted that it prohibited black children from being cared by the institutions which were of the white society that would place the child to their adoptive home. Although such racial laws were removed, yet the black children were not given access to most of the child welfare institutions because they were considered to be undesirable to the white adoptive parents. Few colored orphan asylum existed but were mostly overcrowded and considered inferior. It was only in the late twentieth century that provisions were made by the child welfare systems to allow blacks people to participate in those places that had been reserved only for the whites. Conclusion The ASFA underestimates black families and their bonds with their children. In order to achieve stability in the lives of these children the legislation can terminate parental rights and make the scope for adoption as their priority instead of reuniting them. The ASFA also provides financial incentives to terminate the rights of black parents and to put up their children for adoption but no financial support is given to them in relation to reuniting them to their families. The child welfare system should consider all the ineffective measures made by the ASFA that have affected the black community. A shift has been made where the focus of the legislation is towards the social ills. These ills are the main cause that trouble foster care. The child welfare system must focus its effort on the families and their preservations and their reunification and not in permanently serving the relationship between black children and their parents. Reference Lists: Karnes, L. J. (2015). The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997: A Policy Analysis. Lercara, B. (2016). The Adoption and Safe Families Act: Proposing a “Best Efforts” Standard to Eliminate the Ultimate Obstacle for Family Reunification. Family Court Review, 54(4), 657-670. Mallon, G. P., & Hess, P. M. (2014). Child Welfare for the Twenty-first Century: A Handbook of Practices, Policies, & Programs. Columbia University Press. M. L. B. v. S. L. J. 519 U.S. 102 (1996). (n.d.). 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