Dear Board of Social Services,

You have an opportunity now to revisit the adoption rules for the state of Virginia, and I urge you to restore to the final rules the full protections against discrimination included in the proposed rules.

State-licensed child placing agencies should not be allowed to discriminate against children or prospective parents based on race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, disability and family status.

The best interests of the child should be the sole factor in deciding whether a child should be placed with a prospective foster care or adoptive parent or parents.

Our society desperately needs to help help children in the foster care and adoption system be welcomed in to homes -- to dioscrimionate against untraditional homes or people reduces the opportunities for children to be placed in loving and nurturing homes where they are truly wanted.

Thank you,

Leslie Middleton

Charlottesville, VA

(434) 293-5770