TAPLINK

Support for
Pennsylvania
Adoptive & Foster Families

Taproot issue 49 - May 2005

Appellate Courts Favor Bonding

     Bonding outweighs kinship. Pennsylvania was among seven recent appellate court decisions stating that significant long term relationships matter more than blood ties in disputed adoption petitions. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of foster parents adopting a child instead of placement with the biological grandparents. The child was "failure to thrive" when she entered foster care and made dramatic gains while with the foster family. The court reasoned that the risks in moving the child from the foster home where she was secure and attached were too great.

     For a court to decide if bonding is critical it must first be able to recognize bonding when it occurs. The court needs to know when and how bonding occurs and what happens when it is interrupted.

    Bonding is a significant reciprocal attachment which both parties want and expect to continue and which is interrupted or terminated at considerable peril to the parties involved. Interrupting bonded relationships takes a heavy toll on human health and well being. Interrupted bonding has long been commonly listed as a major or contributing cause to psychiatric disorders in children. These include Reactive Attachment Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Adjustment Disorders, Learning Disorders and Developmental Delay.

 Bonding guidelines:

· Does the child identify him or herself with the foster family?

· Is the child perceived as a member of the foster family by the community at school, and among friends, neighbors and extended family?

· Has the child developed self-reliance and a trust of the foster family?

· Does the child make a significant attempt to attach to another family, including the birth family?

Bonds are meant to be permanent. Permanency is in the best interest of children.

(reprinted from Fostering Families Today, May-June 2004). Other courts with similar rulings were Missouri, Maine, Alaska, Kansas, Tennessee, and Indiana