'Rule of six' law blocks family's adoption dream

William and Kathryn Worthen of Abington always wanted a big family. They have five children of their own, ages 3 to 10, and had been searching the country for more to adopt when they discovered a pair close to home.

They were two sisters, 6 and 10, living in separate foster homes in Attleboro. The Worthens planned to adopt them both, and the paperwork was humming along. The girls were told about their new family. The Worthen children showed off snapshots of their sisters-to-be. The parents put down deposits for Catholic school.

Then the state Department of Social Services issued the bad news: The adoption was off, due to a state law that limits the size of a foster family to six children. If they adopted both sisters, the Worthens would have seven.

The couple knew about what DSS calls the ''rule of six," but believed they could easily get a waiver. But DSS officials concluded they could grant waivers only to parents seeking temporary custody. The Worthens did not qualify, because they wanted to take in the girls as foster children but planned to adopt them right away.

The department is revising its regulations, but spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said the change could take months -- too long for the state to wait before it seeks other adoptive homes for the girls.

Now, the Worthens are pinning their hopes on Beacon Hill, where a legislative committee is scheduled today to hear a bill that would allow the DSS commissioner to waive the rule for families who adopt siblings.

But some of the Worthens' supporters say the department could have resolved the issue without changing the law.

Maureen Flatley, a lobbyist and adoption advocate who has been working pro bono on the case, said the law already provides exceptions for siblings and children with medical issues.

''It's red tape run amok," Flatley said. ''I've been in this work for a long, long time, and this is the craziest thing that I've ever seen."

The girls the Worthens hope to adopt, whose names DSS is withholding, fit the legal criteria perfectly, Flatley said. Not only are they sisters, but the younger girl has a spinal condition, infantile scoliosis, that will require surgery. Kathryn Worthen, a pediatric nurse, works part time caring for a child who had the same operation.

The girls had been raised by their maternal grandfather and great-grandmother, Kathryn Worthen said. The grandfather died of emphysema late last year, and the great-grandmother is dying of cancer. About a year ago, when their relatives grew ill, the girls were moved to separate foster homes. Late last fall, a social worker remembered Kathryn Worthen's profession and told the family about the girls. In January, the Worthens agreed to adopt.

Worthen said some friends and acquaintances told her she was crazy for wanting to add more children. But she said she has a system for managing a large family. The children organize their belongings in lockers; the house has a big yard; the days are planned around kid stuff. Last weekend, they brought in a pony for a birthday party. ''We can't imagine having a small family. It wasn't in the cards for us," she said.

Though they have never met the girls, she said, they've seen pictures and talked to their teachers and social workers. So when DSS contacted Catholic Charities to say the adoption was off, ''we were devastated," Worthen said. ''What we really were worried about was the girls, who have had so many losses in their lives."

She and her husband, a financial analyst, contacted their state representative, Kathleen M. Teahan. The Whitman Democrat said she contacted DSS officials, who told her they had long chafed at the ''rule of six," an undebated attachment to a 1996 state budget bill, added because of fears of overcrowded foster homes.

The state currently has 8,000 children in foster homes and 2,500 in residential group homes. Last year, nearly 900 foster children were adopted, according to DSS figures.

''We tried to, in discussion with them, say, 'If you agree that this isn't a good law and this family passed the home evaluations, then we should do something about it," Teahan said. ''Unfortunately, they wouldn't move as long as the law was still in statute."

The law is hard to enforce, Flatley said: What would stop a foster family with six children from having another biological child, or adopting a foster child from another state? And she questions why the agency, under recent fire for compliance issues, hewed so strongly to this particular rule.

Monteiro said it wouldn't be right to ignore the rules for one high-profile case. ''We have other people that are watching us, other families that we've refused just recently," she said. ''If this actually works -- if we can reregulate the law -- then it works for everyone."

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com.