Senators want to keep children out of abusive homes By Melissa B. Robinson Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON, DC (AP) - Hoping to keep children out of abusive homes, senators want to change a 1980 law to put less emphasis on togetherness and more on child safety. ``While the goal of reunifying children with their biological families is laudable, we should not be encouraging states to return abused or neglected children to homes that are clearly unsafe,'' Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., said Wednesday. The bill, sponsored by Chafee and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, would also encourage adoption and speed up the process of permanently placing children in foster care. To get children out of abusive homes, the senators want to revise current law to state that it is unreasonable to reunify families if children's safety and health are threatened. Currently, judges, social workers and others are required to make reasonable efforts to keep families together. Too often, that has resulted in children being returned to homes where they've been starved, beaten or killed, critics say. ``That has been misinterpreted many, many times,'' said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio. Now, judges spend too much time documenting their efforts to unify familiesand often can't use a parent's past behavior as an indicator of how they may treat a child, he said. The proposed law would spell out cases in which parents' rights could be terminated, such as if they have been found guilty of felonious assault on a child. Like a similar House bill, proposed by Reps. Barbara Kennelly, D-CT, and Dave Camp, R-MI, the Senate bill seeks to reduce children's stay in foster care by requiring a status hearing no later than 12 months after a child enters the system. Current law allows 18 months before a hearing. President Clinton, who has made promoting adoption a goal of his second term, also favors an expedited process. He wants to double, to 54,000 a year by 2002, the number of children adopted out of foster care through legislative and administrative changes. An adoption bill approved by Congress last year estimated that about 450,000 American children are in foster care at any given time. Roughly half are minorities. The bill would allow use of federal foster-care money to care for children whose parents are in residential treatment for substance abuse or other problems. States, too, could use the funds to permanently place children. Also, families that adopt children with special needs would be eligible for federal adoption assistance. Currently, only families who adopt children on welfare can get such aid.