News Release
The Department of Human Services announced today a new initiative to more quickly and efficiently finalize adoptions for children in foster care who are legally-free. The DHS Legal Services division has created an Adoption Unit whose sole function is to assist prospective adoptive parents as they manage and finalize the adoption process for children in state custody.
"When we first considered this concept, we recognized there was an opportunity for an attorney to get directly involved as soon as the child became available for adoption," says DHS General Counsel, Ron Baze. "By utilizing attorneys directly employed by DHS, prospective adoptive parents are provided assistance from counsel much earlier than they would get with most privately-retained attorneys."
The Adoption Unit will get involved as soon as the child becomes available for adoption. This allows the attorney to not only ensure each step of the adoption process is timely completed but also be available to act as an intermediary between the adoptive parents, the DHS workers, and others involved in the adoption process, including the courts.
"Another added benefit is DHS Adoption Attorneys have timely and complete access to records and DHS personnel that are otherwise not available to an attorney in the private sector," said Baze.
Attorney Scott Raybern is the agency's first attorney hired within the DHS Legal Services Adoption Unit. Raybern's background is in child welfare as well as time served as an Assistant District Attorney and working within DHS in its Office of Inter-Governmental Relations and Policy.
"I am incredibly excited about this opportunity to work directly with the permanency and adoption workers," said Raybern. "My job is to assist both the workers and the prospective adoptive parents as we complete the adoption process and get kids to a permanent placement as quickly and as smoothly as possible."
Prospective adoptive parents still have the option to use a private attorney if they choose. And while the vast majority of adoptions involving DHS are uncontested, in the event more than one party seeks to adopt the same child or children, the DHS Adoption Unit will not get involved and the parties will have to retain their own private counsel.
"This Adoption Unit is an opportunity to get children out of foster care and into permanent and loving homes as soon as is absolutely practical," said Baze. "And if we can get kids into their new homes sooner than they would get there without our help then this will be a worthwhile effort."
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