Many potential adoptive parents have experienced heartbreak, anxiety, and other issues that may be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthened and the quality of services improved. Despite the attempts of foster care system agencies within the guidelines of the "Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997" (ASFA) to find suitable homes and families for foster children, many remain in a host family. “Too often, child welfare policy and the agencies responsible for it – offices that respond to child abuse and neglect, oversee foster care placements, and seek to reunite children with their parents parents to find adoptive families – are out of sight and out of mind, except for fleeting moments of tragedy, such as the death of a child.” The goal of juvenile courts and child welfare agencies is to protect and make decisions in the best interests of children. The ASFA Act was signed by President Bill Clinton. On November 19, 1997, after being approved by the United States Congress earlier that month. This law was the most significant child protection legislation in twenty years. States have moved to interpret the law as requiring biological families to stay together no matter what, but the law has focused on children's health and safety concerns and shied away from a policy aimed at reuniting children with their biological parents without taking into account their previous abuse. ASFA's lead sponsor, Republican Sen. John H. Chafee of Rhode Island, said, "We will not continue the current system of consistently putting the needs and rights of birth parents first...It is time to recognize that some families simply cannot and should not stay together. .” This phil...... middle of paper ......disciplined and possesses the ability to solve problems.References:DeCataldo, K. and Carroll, K. (2007). Adoption Now: a joint initiative of the New York courts and child welfare system. Child Protection, 86(2), 31-48. Retrieved from the Professional Development Collection database. Copyright (c) 1999 West Virginia Law Review West Virginia Law Review, Winter 1999, 102 W. Va. L.Rev. 477, 13,457 words, STUDENT WORK: Changing the Law on Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings: A Period of Improvement?, Morgan E. PersingerCopyright (c) 2005 Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law, 2005, 12 Va. J.Soc. Pol'y & L. 371, 13986 words, CONFERENCE: THE STATE CONSTRUCTION OF FAMILIES: FOSTER PLACEMENT, TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AND ADOPTION: FROM ANTICIPATION TO PROOF: RESEARCH ON ADOPTION