NEARLY EVERY PUBLIC and private agency handling infant adoption has prospective parent waiting lists, some as long as ten years. There are many willing families waiting even for difficult-to-place special-needs children. One organization reports receiving fifteen hundred inquiries every year from people interested in adopting children of various ages with mental or physical handicaps. And yet, of the nearly half million children in the foster care system right now, less than 20 percent are eligible for adoption.

For most foster children, foster care is only temporary. They may be in state custody only until a father finds a job, a mother finds a home, or a long-term family illness is resolved. In fact, many foster children are placed in care with relatives or family friends. "Most children," says one advocate, "have someone else who is related to them who's usually willing...