2012 Legislative Enactments Overview | December 2012 On This
Page State lawmakers enacted various policies aimed at improving
child welfare in their states. In 2012, at least 41 states
passed 257 or more enactments related to child welfare. These
enactments included policies on adoption, foster care, kinship
care, child protection, reporting child abuse or neglect, child
abuse prevention and training, oversight and administration,
courts, child fatality, Indian child welfare, termination of
parental rights, infant abandonment, funding, and child welfare
workforce. A majority of the enactments overlap in more than one
of these policy areas. Below is a summary of state legislation
by policy area. Click here to view the online searchable
database of 2012 enactments. At least 18 states enacted 23 or
more polices related to adoption. The adoption topics states
addressed include: legal requirements and court proceedings,
birth parent visitation, relative adoptions, punitive father
registries, financial assistance p