VICTORIA - British Columbia's child and youth representative says a government plan to increase adoption rates for young people in care is faltering.
Bernard Richard says in a report that he is disappointed that adoption rates have declined this year, especially for Indigenous children and youth.
He says the drop in adoption placements follows marked improvements starting in 2015.
His report says for the first six months of this fiscal year 84 children and youth in care were adopted and of those only 16 were Indigenous young people.
Richard says the current adoption rates are well behind those for 2015 and 2016, where the number of adoptions were 362 and 284 children and youth, respectively.
He is calling on the government to do a better job finding families for these children, saying the declining numbers represent individual children and youth looking for hope, love and a sense of belonging.
