Jamaica to streamline adoption process with legal and administrative reforms

The Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, says planned amendments to adoption legislation, along with administrative changes at the Child Protection and Family Services Agency Child Protection and Family Services Agency, are expected to make the adoption process in Jamaica less burdensome and more efficient.

Dr. Morris Dixon made the comments during a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St. Andrew on May 6.

She said reforms are necessary to balance the rights of parents and children while addressing delays in the current system.

“We have to look at how we can make the process go quicker… We have a lot of children in State care and we all know that the best place for our children is in a home with a loving family,” she said.

She added that while the goal is to speed up placements, existing legal constraints under the Adoption Act limit how quickly changes can be implemented.

“So, we have to fix the law and then we have to fix administratively everything in the CPFSA to make it move more quickly,” she said.

Fostering framework to be introduced

A key part of the planned reforms will include introducing a formal framework for fostering, which the minister said currently does not exist in Jamaica.

Dr. Morris Dixon said the government is exploring a broader legislative overhaul that could consolidate adoption, fostering, and child care provisions into a single legal framework.

“One of the things we are exploring is rolling everything into the Child Care and Protection Act… so we’re looking at putting everything under that one umbrella,” she explained.

She noted that the proposed changes would likely result in a comprehensive piece of legislation, which would be reviewed by a Joint Select Committee of Parliament to allow public input and discussion.

The minister said the goal is to ensure that any reforms reflect national concerns while improving outcomes for children in state care, particularly by increasing the number of children placed in stable family environments.