Government Moves to Overhaul Adoption Law and Speed Up Child Placement in Jamaica

Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon says planned legal amendments, along with operational reforms at the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), should make Jamaica’s adoption system easier to navigate.

She said a formal structure for fostering is also central to the reform push.

Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew on Wednesday, Morris Dixon said the country must speed up placements while balancing parental rights and children’s rights. She said many children remain in state care and argued that children do best in loving family homes, but added that the current Adoption Act limits how quickly cases can move.

"So we have to fix the law and then we have to fix, administratively, everything in the CPFSA to make it move more quickly, so we’re going to do that … it’s really about facilitating faster adoptions in the country and also about adding a framework around fostering, which currently does not exist in our country," she said.

Morris Dixon also said Parliament will establish a joint select committee so more Jamaicans can weigh in on changes to the adoption process. She said one option under review is to place adoption and fostering provisions under the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA), creating one legislative framework. She described the proposal as major legislation and said public discussion will help shape any final amendments.