ADOPTION ASSISTANCE AND CHILD WELFARE ACT
Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act.A 1980 federal statute whose purpose was to
force states to use reasonable efforts (1) to avoid removing children from their homes, (2) to
reunite families when children had been removed because of abuse or neglect, and (3) when
reunification failed, to terminate parental rights and place the children in permanent homes.42
USCA §§ 620 et seq.; §§ 670 et seq. • The Act provided funds for foster-care placement, Child
Protective Services, family preservation and reunification, and foster-care reform to states
complying with the Act. Its aim was to prevent the unnecessary removal of children from homes
and to hasten the return of children in foster care to their families. It has now been essentially
overruled in philosophy by the 1997 enactment of the Adoption and Safe Families Act. See
ADOPTION AND SAFE FAMILIES ACT. [Blacks Law 8th]