in such manner, and accompanied by such information as 
the Secretary may require. 
SEC. 6. SELECTION OF GRANT RECIPIENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In awarding grants under this 
Act, the Secretary shall— 
(1) select grant recipients on the basis of cri-
teria included in regulations promulgated by the 
Secretary; and 
(2) take into consideration— 
(A) the quality of the application; 
(B) the demonstrated commitment of the 
applicant to achieving the goals of the pilot pro-
gram carried out under this Act; and 
(C) the geographic diversity of the appli-
cant. 
(b) CRITERIA.—In establishing criteria under sub-
section (a)(1), the Secretary shall include the requirement 
that for a child welfare agency to be eligible to receive 
a grant under this Act, such agency shall comply with each 
of the following: 
(1) The child welfare agency includes the active 
involvement of independent, legitimate, marketing 
and research firms in the design and implementation 
of the program that will be funded with a grant 
under this Act, in order to incorporate business and 
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consumer product marketing techniques in the re-
cruitment, training, and retention of adoptive par-
ents. The involvement of academic institutions or 
nonprofit research institutions in the process and 
follow-up design may also be included. 
(2) The child welfare agency intends to improve 
the first contact between prospective adoptive par-
ents and the agency through the following: 
(A) The establishment of a specialized 
adoption hotline for tracking incoming calls to 
better understand the adoptive parent attrition 
rate. 
(B) The hiring of employees with a back-
ground in counseling and providing specialized 
adoption training so such employees answer 
callers’ requests efficiently. Training shall em-
phasize the importance of customer service in 
addition to traditional counseling skills, address 
the particular needs of workers and supervisors, 
and stress the importance of reducing staff 
turnover. 
(C) The establishment of a process to so-
licit and incorporate feedback from all prospec-
tive parents, including those who exit the proc-
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ess early on, in designing and improving the 
adoption process. 
(3) The child welfare agency— 
(A) will promote recruitment at the start 
of the process by providing prospective parents 
with clear, written guidelines about qualifica-
tions and grounds for being screened out; and 
(B) will ensure that all staff are trained in 
skills needed to engage a prospective parent in 
the adoption process and, when possible, will 
separate the recruitment and screening proc-
esses. 
(4) The child welfare agency coordinates all 
adoption sources to afford prospective parents imme-
diate access to all children available for adoption. 
(5) The child welfare agency offers an explicit 
explanation of the adoption process for all prospec-
tive families that includes the roles that various 
workers play, relationships among the different 
agencies, and the information necessary to navigate 
through the process. This information shall include 
the reasoning behind standard adoption procedures, 
such as home studies, criminal background checks, 
and psychological and health evaluations. 
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(6) The child welfare agency shall provide clear 
information about the matching process, including 
expected timeline, to prospective parents. 
(7) The child welfare agency shall provide a 
clear overview of the adoption process for all pro-
spective families, including— 
(A) the rewards and challenges of the proc-
ess; 
(B) the availability of and the process of 
accessing adoption assistance; 
(C) the legal process of adoption; and 
(D) the availability of post-permanency 
services. 
(8) The child welfare agency shall make every 
effort to involve successful adoptive parents in as-
pects of the adoption process, including designing re-
cruitment strategies, training, and matching. 
(9) The child welfare agency shall establish an 
adoption advisory committee for strengthening pro-
cedures for matching waiting children with adoptive 
parents. The committee shall be composed of adop-
tion professionals, successful adoptive parents, and 
others with expertise in assessing a child’s adoption 
needs for the purpose of improving the matching 
process. 
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(10) The child welfare agency shall develop a 
mentoring system linking prospective and established 
adoptive parents. 
(11) The child welfare agency agrees to comply 
with the evaluation procedures set forth by the agen-
cies and research entity described in section 8. 
SEC. 7. USE OF FUNDS. 
A child welfare agency that receives a grant under 
this Act shall use the grant funds only for activities that— 
(1) decrease the adoptive parent attrition rate, 
as described in section 6; or 
(2) build upon existing practices that have dem-
onstrated effectiveness in improving the adoption 
process. 
SEC. 8. STUDY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In order to provide rigorous re-
search utilizing appropriate, scientifically-based research 
standards, the Secretary shall carry out, through grant or 
contract, research into the successes and challenges of the 
programs established through the grants authorized in 
this Act. Such research shall— 
(1) employ a standardized data collection tool 
in order to maximize the synthesis of data across 
disparate programs; 
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(2) assess the success with which participating 
agencies implement the program components out-
lined in section 6(b); 
(3) assess the impact, if any, of each program 
on— 
(A) the retention and attrition of prospec-
tive adoptive parents throughout the adoption 
process; 
(B) the professionalization of child welfare 
professionals responding to adoption inquiries; 
(C) the number of completed adoptions 
from foster care; and 
(D) the maintenance of completed adop-
tions, including the impact, if any, of the pro-
gram on families’ use of post-adoption services; 
(4) synthesize the successes and challenges of 
each participating child welfare agency and make 
recommendations for an overall model of best prac-
tice; and 
(5) offer recommendations regarding improve-
ments to the grant program. 
(b) USE OF EXPERT ENTITY.—The Secretary shall 
carry out the research described in this section through 
an entity, including a Federal agency, that has expertise 
in carrying out research studies relating to adoption, fos-
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and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
and Pensions of the Senate; and 
(2) be made publicly available. 
SEC. 9. NATIONWIDE REVIEW. 
The Secretary shall include in the national annual re-
view of child welfare agencies of the Secretary an examina-
tion of each State’s progress regarding accessibility and 
responsiveness of child welfare agencies to prospective 
adoptive parents. 
SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 
this Act $50,000,000. 
Æ 
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