Louisiana Requirements for Adoption Education
Option Hope was developed to fulfill existing state education mandates, which require appropriate adoption awareness in public and nonpublic secondary schools. The Louisiana Board of Education requires the following:
WHO?
A. Adoption awareness shall be required instruction for all high school students in public and nonpublic secondary schools in Louisiana.
What?
B. "Adoption awareness" as used in this Section means specific instruction on the benefits of adoption for families wishing to add a child, for potential adoptees, and for persons who are pregnant or who have a child for whom they are unable to care.
Required topics
The benefits of adoption to society.
The types of adoption available.
The difference between foster care and infant adoption.
Resources and agencies available for pregnant mothers, for parents, and to assist in the adoption process; and
Statistical data on abortion, adoption, and childbirth.
Age and grade appropriate classroom instruction relative to the state’s Safe Haven relinquishments law, Children’s Code, articles 1149-1160.