Nashville Scene: Laws Focusing on Adoption and Foster Care Find Success in Post-Roe Climate

This year’s state legislative session was a big one for foster care and adoption reform.

Three laws passed bringing forth a substantial list of changes meant to expedite the adoption process for children in the foster care system. Timing was ripe, with the reality that Tennessee’s abortion ban, which went into effect last year, will lead to more children in state custody. Local advocates and those with lived experience hope to strike a balance to provide more stability for these kids, foster parents and birth parents, while acknowledging the trauma implicit in the experience….

The Adoption Project, which launched in 2022, was active in writing the legislation. Another piece of the puzzle to the success of this legislation, says co-founder and adoptive parent Jeremy Harrell, is that many organizations that focus on adoption and foster care don’t have the bandwidth for advocacy. 

“They are just doing all these really, really great things, but they’ve all been operating in a system that really could be better,” Harrell says. “Nobody has had the time or resources to dedicate specifically to the policy side of it. That’s what we do.”…

Harrell and The Adoption Project hope to drive additional legislation while taking into account the trauma that comes with children separated from their birth families to begin with. Read more from the Nashville Scene >>