Policy Brief: Foster Care and Adoptive Parents in the Latino Community Foster Care and Adoptive Parents in the Latino Community Foster care and adoption are the most multifaceted areas of child well-being. Foster care involves placing children outside the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption, on the other hand, is the legal and lifelong process of establishing a parent/child relationship between biologically unrelated individuals (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child well-being are constantly evolving, and decisions made on a child's behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional well-being. In the child welfare system, there are a growing number of children in need of homes. This number is increasingly made up of minorities, including Latinos. With the enactment of the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, as amended by the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996, more opportunities were made available to Latino communities for fostering and adoption. However, due to a lack of adequate information and poor recruitment efforts in their community, the number of Latino families available for children remains low. The Latino population is the largest minority group in the United States. The cultural term Latino refers to individuals of Latin American descent. This population is made up of many different races and nationalities, such as: Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and other groups with Spanish ancestry (Arias, 2010). On average, Latinos are a younger population, with approximately one-third of individuals under the age of 18 (Committee for Hispanic...... middle of paper ......la, M. (2008). Nuestra Familia, Nuestra Cultura: Promoting and Supporting Latino Families in Adoption and Foster Care. Retrieved from http://adoptuskids.org/_assets/files/NRCRRFAP/resources/latino-tipsheet-packet.pdfOlsen, C.S., & Skogrand. , L. (. 2009). Cultural implications and guidelines for family life extension and programming with Latino and Hispanic audiences, The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues, 14(1) n1-2009 spring/olsen-. skogrand.phpPichardo, C.M. (2003). Latino Perceptions of Foster Care (Order No. 1416472, California State University, Long Beach). (305229342).Quintanilla, ML (2002)., 2(3).