Private Re-homing

This hour on Focus, host Jim Meadows talks with reporter Megan Twohey about her series “The Child Exchange,” published last week by Reuters. In it, Twohey investigates what’s called “private re-homing,” a process by which an adoptive family hands a child over into another adult’s care without involving adoption officials or government agencies.

We'll talk with Twohey about how parents are able to transfer custody without state officials knowing what’s going on. She’ll tell us about a central Illinois woman who had her children taken away by social services but was still able to care for children after finding them through a chat group on Yahoo. We’ll also find out what has happened to a few of the children who have been unofficially re-homed through internet custody transfers.

Maria Gocke, Director of Adoption at Illini Christian Ministries, also joins us this hour on Focus. We’ll talk with her about why adoptive families sometimes try and find their adopted children new homes and what types of rules are in place to protect those children from being abused and neglected.