Justice tries to encourage adoption of older children and adolescents

The adoption of children over 6 years of age and teenagers frightens some families in Brazil, but the courts have been trying to change this scenario. Cases of foster care with this age group are less frequent, but they do exist. Like the choice of journalist and producer Carla Coelho to adopt a 12-year-old boy, João.

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After finding out that she had difficulties getting pregnant and losing a baby, Carla and her husband Maurício decided to join the national adoption register. They followed the entire qualification process and defined the desired profile for adoption. Carla says that she wanted a white, brown or indigenous child up to 3 years and 11 months old, without disability, following the same preference as most applicants.

As the months went by and without finding the son or daughter she wanted so much, the journalist became enchanted by João, when she saw him for the first time at an event promoted by the foster home. “I saw João and felt that he was the son I wanted for myself”, she says.

To adopt João, Carla followed all the necessary procedures and discovered that he had three other brothers and an older one who was already independent. The process ran and she won custody of João in December 2017. “The other brothers were adopted [por outras famílias] and we were together in the step by step of this process. We walk together and the brothers communicate with each other, the older sister who had left the orphanage was welcomed into our house and we supported her with her studies so that she could get a job”, she explains.

Since welcoming João, Carla says that love has only grown over the years. And on the “prejudice” that many have in adopting older children or teenagers for fear of the “ready-made personality”, she reinforces the need for the “encounter”. “The big issue with adoption is the encounter, is you getting rid of the DNA paradigm,” she points out.

“The love of motherhood is greater than myself Adoption in adolescence is nothing more than motherhood, only with someone older. bear some consequences. With regard to the ready-made personality that many talk about, this has to do with the truths and the history that adults, children and adolescents will build from the encounter”, adds the journalist.

CNJ relies on active search to encourage late adoption

Currently, there are more than 33,000 qualified candidates in the National Adoption and Reception System (SNA), while just over 4,300 children are eligible for adoption. Despite the existence of almost eight times more suitors than children, the shelters remain overcrowded, due to the families’ preferences.

Most shelters have children over 8 years old, with siblings, some with physical or mental sequelae, characteristics that end up making adoption difficult.

“The account does not add up because the profile stipulated by the applicants, in the vast majority, is children aged 0 to 3 years. must have for other children and adolescents who want a home”, says Judge Noeli Reback, from the Court of Justice of Paraná, and executive director of the Brazilian Association of Magistrates for Children and Youth (Abraminj).

In an attempt to change this scenario, the National Council of Justice (CNJ) created, in 2019, the National Active Search tool, which makes photos and videos of children and adolescents eligible for adoption available to qualified candidates, when all possibilities of finding compatible families in the SNA were exhausted, both nationally and internationally.

The system has information on approximately 770 children. Since its implementation in 2019, 312 children have been adopted through the active search projects. The active search process follows standardized guidelines established by the CNJ. According to the norms, the information of a child or adolescent can only be disclosed if they express their desire to participate and with authorization from the judge responsible for the case. In addition, the platform only discloses the first names of the boys and girls, and the images are marked with the watermark of the CNJ and the CPF of the person who accessed the information.

Recently, the CNJ also released a manual that provides for voluntary delivery and adequate care for pregnant or parturient women who express the desire to give their child up for adoption. Giving a child up for adoption is provided for by law and is considered the best way for mothers who are unable (economically, psychologically, etc.) to care for and raise their children after childbirth, even avoiding having an abortion.

Late adoption incentive programs

Across Brazil, there are also a series of programs from the Childhood and Youth Courts that try to encourage late adoption. In the Federal District, the program was created in 2019 In Search of a Home to increase the chances of adopting children and adolescents who are still waiting for a family because they do not fit the profile desired by most applicants.

According to the DF Court of Justice, the adoption register in the Federal District alone currently has 509 families and 82 children and adolescents, which represents more than six qualified families for each registered child. The profile desired by those qualified, however, does not match that of those waiting to be adopted.

Of the young people who are now on the local adoption register, around 90% are over 2 years old. On the other hand, around 7% of the currently qualified families accept to take in children over 3 years old. Half of those waiting for adoption are part of a group of siblings, while 30% of families accept up to a trio of siblings. To balance this difference in profiles, the program of the 1st VIJ-DF gives visibility to these boys and girls and, with the help of the active search – the action of proactively looking for families in legal conditions to adopt –, it has provided the meeting between parents and children through adoption. Recently, the couple Raquel and Maicon adopted the brothers Zenilda, Kauã, Maria Francisca and Francisco Joaquim through the help of the program.

From 2019 to April 2023, four participants had the adoption process completed – a pair of teenage brothers, a 10-year-old girl with a disability and a 4-year-old child with cerebral palsy. Currently, 14 children and adolescents are in the process of being adopted through the program – including groups of siblings and young people with an age considered advanced by the classic adoption profile and/or with health problems.

In Paraná, Judge Reback highlights the pioneering application that was created to expand the active search of families for children and adolescents. The application is called a.dot and connects children from the National Registry of Adoption with families across the country. “As a.dot many children, who are not part of the defined profile, are no longer invisible and become known by potential suitors. And we have seen great advances in Paraná, including the adoption of 17-year-olds”, highlights Reback.

Families interested in adopting should go to the Juvenile Court to start the qualification process and participate in the Preparatory Course for Adoption Candidates offered by the Childhood and Youth Courts. Those interested in adopting adolescents, groups of siblings, children and adolescents with disabilities, chronic illnesses or specific health needs have legal priority in qualifying and conducting the adoption process.