Preserving a child or youth’s relationships with birth parents, siblings, grandparents, and other significant connections are the cornerstones of openness. Maintaining as many connections and relationships as possible to the people who love and care about them minimizes losses for the child and assists in identity development for the adopted child.
The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa supports openness and the goal is to have in-person contact whenever possible. Most adoptions through the Children’s Aid Society have some form of openness and the majority of these are court orders for openness. Our expectation is for families to embrace and support openness relationships.