OAR 413-120-0620: Values

(1) Support and Safe Communication: Every healthy family requires support. Families created through adoption have different support needs than biological families in that the child is connected to more than one set of parent(s). One important aspect is the need for continued safe connection and communication between biological and adoptive families, to the extent that it is consistent with the health and safety needs of the child. (2) Collaboration: The child and their families benefit when the significant adults in their lives work collaboratively to identify and respond to the individual needs of the child. The significant adults for a child in foster care may include, but are not limited to: parent, potential adoptive resource, child welfare workers, CASA, attorneys, and others. (3) Empowered, Informed Decisions: Families, and individuals within them, are capable of making decisions about their lives. They should be empowered to make those decisions that affect the cooperative nature of an agreement for post adoption communication, whenever possible. In order for their decisions to be effective, they may need to be informed by a wide range of people and sources about a variety of adoption related issues. (4) Mediation as Tool: Mediation is a process that can play an important role in developing effective communication between those families seeking to participate in a cooperative adoption planning process. Qualified mediators can provide assistance in the cooperative adoption planning process by providing a safe and constructive atmosphere for effective communication. (5) Voluntary Commitment to Cooperate/Participate: Mediation is most successful when the adoptive resource and parent participate voluntarily. Their commitment to a cooperative planning process to support the lifelong safety and well-being of their child is an essential aspect of this success. It is these parent(s) who are the ultimate decision makers about this agreement and are responsible for maintaining the agreement throughout the life of the child. (6) No Coercion: The cooperative adoption mediation process is meant to be a tool that is used to achieve a result that is in the long-term best interest of the child. It is not meant to be used coercively for unilateral gain. (7) Flexibility: PACAs should be flexible in responding to the child’s maturity and developmental needs, or changes in the lifestyles of the parent and adoptive resource. Flexibility in these agreements will support the on-going nature of the cooperative relationship that is formed and fostered through the cooperative adoption process. (8) Benefits of the PACA for the child may include, but are not limited to: (a) Having knowledge and information about their birth family, (b) Having an ability to maintain birth family identity, (c) Having a good model of effective communication, (d) Having a realistic understanding of the circumstances of the birth parent(s), (e) Having a sense of well-being fostered by the adoptive resource and parent working collaboratively to support the needs of the child, (f) Having a better ability to process important life transitions as the child grows into an adult, (g) Having an opportunity to appropriately grieve the loss of the birth family, and (h) Having the permission of the parent to become a member of the adoptive family. (9) Benefits of the PACA for the adoptive resource may include, but are not limited to: (a) Having an understanding of who the biological family is; (b) Having an exchange of on-going information such as medical and other important life information; (c) Supporting the child’s need to be connected to the birth family; (d) Having the sense of accomplishment that is associated with positive cooperative relationships; (e) Helping the child to appropriately grieve the loss of the birth family; and (f) Having the permission and the support of the parent to help the child to become a member of the adoptive family. (10) Benefits of the PACA for the birth parent(s) may include, but are not limited to: (a) Knowing their child is in a safe and secure environment, (b) Having a better ability to process loss of a child and the transition to a new adoptive family, (c) Having an exchange of on-going information such as medical and other important life information, (d) Having the sense of accomplishment that is associated with positive cooperative relationships, (e) Being able to get on-going information about the life of the child, (f) Having a sense of closure related to the loss of the child, and (g) Having assisted their child to successfully become a member of the adoptive family.