There is a lot more involved with a private adoption than people know, so it's not that easy of a solution. I'm not disagreeing with you, but wanted to add what I feel is a more viable solution.
An option that is available is voluntary placement in foster care. A biological parent can voluntarily place their child in foster care with their local (DSS, DFS, CFS, whatever agency administers children's services in that state) and not be charged criminally (unless there is something to merit criminal charges, obviously.)
Justia Free Databases of US Laws, Codes & Statutes
law.justia.com
LDSS isn't just there to intervene and involuntarily place children in foster care. There are a lot of reasons voluntary placements may occur and LDSS is there to either help the parent achieve whatever goals are needed for the child to return to the home or to seek an alternative means of permanency through adoption or legal guardianship. One of the benefits to this is that the LDSS bears the cost of the child's care up to and potentially after the adoption, so it's a less-costly alternative to a private adoption.
Voluntary placements can turn into neglect proceedings on down the road if the parent doesn't take steps to meet their goals, and then there could eventually be an abandonment petition to terminate parental rights so the child can be freed for adoption, but those actions take time and depend on many different variables; in the meantime, the child is safe and being cared for by a foster parent. It's important to note that charges of neglect and abandonment under family court law is not the same as being charged criminally -- if someone places their child in foster care and then, for example, doesn't complete substance abuse treatment so the child can safely return to their custody, no one is arresting them and sending them to jail. If they leave the state and fail to maintain contact, abandonment proceedings are held to terminate parental rights, not to charge the person criminally.
I rarely see any information about this option mentioned on these threads, or shared with the public in any noticeable way. I fully get that it takes a parent being proactive to choose to voluntarily place their kid in care, and chances are that a parent who is willing to leave their kids with bad people is probably not going to take the steps to reach out to LDSS on their own, but maybe if more people knew it was an option we'd see less cases like this.
MOO.
