Compendium Adoption Opportunities

The major efforts mandated by the authorizing Adoption Opportunities program legislation, section 205 of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978, as amended (P.L. 95-266) are developing and implementing a national adoption and foster care data gathering and analysis system; developing and implementing a national adoption information exchange system; developing and implementing an adoption training and technical assistance program; increasing services in support of the placement in adoptive families of minority children who are in foster care and have the goal of adoption with a special emphasis on the recruitment of minority families; increasing post-legal adoption services for families who have adopted children with special needs; studying the nature, scope, and effects of the placement of children in kinship care arrangements and pre-adoptive or adoptive homes; and studying the efficacy of States' contracting with public and private non-profit agencies (including community-based and other organizations).

In these areas, research and demonstration grants are awarded through a competitive process to States, local government entities, Federally recognized Indian tribes and tribal organizations, colleges and universities, public or private non-profit licensed child welfare agencies, adoption exchanges and community-based organizations with experience working with minority populations. This section of the Compendium describes the 16 Adoption Opportunities projects funded in FY 2001 under the following priority areas:

2001A.1: Achieving Increased Adoptive Placements for Children in Foster Care
2001A.2: Field Initiated Demonstration Projects Advancing the Sate of the Art in the Adoption Field
2001A.3: Quality Improvement Centers on Adoption
2001A.4: Evaluations of Existing Adoption Programs

Through this grant, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services/New York State Adoption Service (OCFS/NYSAS), in collaboration with New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS), intends to address the hardest of New York State's adoption cases by finding permanent adoptive homes for 65 of New York State's "Longest Waiting Children." Many of these children are in therapeutic foster boarding homes, group homes, and residential treatment centers and are seen as having multiple barriers to finalization. In addition to finding homes for these children, OCFS/NYSAS will identify, analyze, and develop strategies to address the barriers that have kept these children without adoptive homes for an average of 8.6 years after freeing. These strategies will be incorporated into training for caseworkers.

The Missouri Department of Social Services' Division of Family Services endeavors to increase the number of children adopted from foster care through the Missouri Adoption Continuum project. This project provides unique pre-placement and post-adoption support services that complement existing programs and that are designed to strengthen the adoption process. In doing so, it endeavors to work collaboratively with public and private agencies to expedite permanency for 500 children from foster care. Specifically, the Missouri Adoption Continuum, through innovative recruitment and marketing services, plans to collaborate with public and private agencies and foster/adoptive parent associations to forge a 20% increase in the number of adoptive families for children embodied in foster care. In addition, the program will develop and implement a statewide training program for 40 adoptive parents to mentor prospective adoptive parents from initial inquiry through placement of a special needs child. The Missouri Adoption Continuum will also initiate a respite network by recruiting and training 70 respite providers who will serve adoptive families throughout the state. The project will conduct a comprehensive, outcome-based evaluation of its program and will disseminate the results.

The grantee will establi