'U' law prof. to work on Clinton's adoption initiative

There are currently about 450,000 children in temporary foster care in the United States, and Donald Duquette, a University clinical professor of law and the head of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic, plans to do something about it.

"This is serious," Duquette said. "These are the kids who end up in mental institutions and prisons."

Duquette plans to spend the 1997-98 academic year in Washington, working on Adoption 2002, an initiative started by President Clinton in February.

The main goal of the initiative is to double the yearly number of children adopted by 2002.

Clinton said in his initial proposal that he was "committed to giving the children waiting in our nation's foster care system what every child in America deserves - loving parents and a healthy, stable home."

But, Duquette added that some of these children have no home to return to.

"Large numbers of these kids will end up being rootless," Duquette said. "They won't have any permanent home. They will be in five, six foster homes. We can do a lot better for these children. I'd like to develop a strategy to do that."

Adoption 2002 focuses on changing how state governments handle adoption and foster care, offering federal assistance to move more foster children into permanent homes more quickly.

"One part of the initiative is to develop some guidelines for model state laws regarding foster care," Duquette said. "That is what I'm responsible for doing."

The initiative also will try to clarify laws that prevent the unnecessary removal of children from their families and break down racial and ethnic barriers to adoption.

Part of the strategy to accomplish these goals includes putting together an expert work group from across the country, Duquette said. This group will be divided into several smaller sub-groups, which will examine child welfare practice and focus on specific areas that need attention.

"This expert work group is a sounding board. They'll come up with ideas and review them," Duquette said.

One of the biggest problems facing children in foster care is the difficult court process required for a change in guardianship.

"What's happened up to now is that the courts have relied on the adversarial system," Duquette said.

This system relies on court confrontation to resolve differences, which he said is inappropriate when dealing with delicate issues such as adoption and foster care.

One of Duquette's goals is to replace the adversarial system with mediation and family group conferencing. "What it does is move the adversarial system into the background and try to work out ways to solve these family problems in a cooperative fashion. In some parts of the country this is really working well," he said.

Duquette is enthusiastic about the future of these reforms.

"There are a lot of serious problems, but there's going to be a whole new way to address them in three or four years from now. We're on the brink of some radical changes in how courts handle child cases."

Duquette plans to return to the University for the 1998-99 academic year to resume his previous position.

09-25-97