PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — One of the 184 new Florida laws going into effect on Monday will help protect the privacy of foster children who are available for adoption.
Amanda and Bret Hendrickson married in 2010. Ever since, the couple has dreamt about growing their family.
“We had problems getting pregnant, so we started going to a fertility doctor,” Amanda Hendrickson said.
They tried several fertility treatments, including IVF and IUI’s.
“We lost six,” she said. “My tattoo shows six birds that represents our six angel babies.”
Tragically, after complications and emergency surgeries, Amanda Hendrickson knew having a child naturally posed a danger to her health. Through their loss, they moved forward in their passion to adopt.
They, like many families ready to open their homes, visited the Department of Children and Families online site, adoptflorida.org .
When asked about what they noticed, Amanda Hendrickson said, “All the photos and the stories about them.”
“They’re just kind of out there for basically general public,” Bret Hendrickson said.
Photos of vulnerable children as well as their bios, all accessible to anyone who searched this site.
“It’s weird,” Bret Hendrickson said. “It’s definitely weird.”
But that’s no longer the case as of Monday, as the Permanency for Children law goes into effect.
“The photo listings that exist, they’re not going to be available to families until they reached a specific milestone in the adoption process” said JR Minter, Advocacy Director with the Selfless Love Foundation. “They will be background screened, someone will have visited their home, done financials on them.”
The Selfless Love Foundation is a non-profit that guides families, like the Hendricksons, through the adoption process — as well as advocating for change.
“This is a huge step for Florida and honestly an example for the United States,” Minter said. “Florida is one of the first, if not the first to have a fully secure photo listing so they’re not publicly available.”
When potential adoptive parents gain their credentials, they will be able to log into a portal to see photos and bios chosen by the child.
“Those kiddos are being protected and they know that the people that are seeing them are safe to even adopt a child,” Amanda Hendrickson said.
There’s also good news for the Hendrickons. Selfless Love has connected them to their future adoptive son. The couple is going through the process now to make it official.
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