[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2395 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2395

      To establish an adoption process improvement pilot program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 16, 2007

Mrs. Clinton (for herself and Mr. Rockefeller) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To establish an adoption process improvement pilot program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Adoption Improvement Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Despite the dramatic increase in the number of 
        adoptions out of foster care since the enactment of the 
        Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-89; 111 
        Stat. 2115), there are still 114,000 children in foster care 
        with the goal of adoption. Of these, only 13 percent are 
        currently living in a preadoptive home. At the same time, in a 
        given year, 240,000 people in the United States will call for 
        information about adopting a child from foster care. 
        Ultimately, however, only a very small fraction of prospective 
        parents interested in adopting children in foster care will end 
        up doing so. As a result, thousands of needy children will 
        remain in foster care and thousands of prospective parents will 
        remain childless.
            (2) According to a recent study conducted by Harvard 
        University and the Urban Institute in collaboration with the 
        Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 78 percent of adults who 
        call for information about becoming adoptive parents will not 
        fill out an application or attend an orientation meeting. Only 
        6 percent of those who call for information actually complete 
        the adoption home study, a requirement for all prospective 
        parents.
            (3) Research shows that prospective adoptive parents often 
        face a number of barriers that discourage them from adopting 
        children out of foster care, including difficulty in accessing 
        the child welfare agency and unpleasant experiences during 
        critical initial contacts with the child welfare agency, as 
        well as ongoing frustration with the agency or aspects of the 
        process. The 2 primary ways people learn about adoption from 
        foster care are the media and word of mouth. Negative 
        experiences with the adoption process have resounding effects 
        as 1 parent's frustration is expressed to friends, families, 
        and acquaintances.

SEC. 3. CHILD WELFARE AGENCY DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``child welfare agency'' means an entity of a 
State, regional or local area, or Indian tribe, that has primary 
responsibility in such a State, regional or local area, or Indian tribe 
for the facilitation of adoptions from the child welfare system.

SEC. 4. GRANT PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services (referred to in this Act 
as the ``Secretary'') shall carry out, in accordance with the 
provisions of this Act, a pilot program of making not less than 10 
grants to child welfare agencies that is designed to effect long-range 
improvements in the adoption process by increasing prospective adoptive 
parent access to adoption information and strengthening such agencies' 
responsiveness to prospective adoptive parents.

SEC. 5. APPLICATION.

    A child welfare agency that desires to receive a grant under this 
Act shall submit an application at such time, 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 criteria 
        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 program carried out 
                under this Act; and
                    (C) the geographic diversity of the applicant.
    (b) Criteria.--In establishing criteria under subsection (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 consumer product marketing techniques in the 
        recruitment, training, and retention of adoptive parents. 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 parents 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 background in 
                counseling and providing specialized adoption training 
                so such employees answer callers' requests efficiently. 
                Training shall emphasize 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 solicit and 
                incorporate feedback from all prospective parents, 
                including those who exit the process 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 qualifications 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 processes.
            (4) The child welfare agency coordinates all adoption 
        sources to afford prospective parents immediate access to all 
        children available for adoption.
            (5) The child welfare agency offers an explicit explanation 
        of the adoption process for all prospective 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.
            (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 prospective families, 
        including--
                    (A) the rewards and challenges of the process;
                    (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 aspects of the adoption 
        process, including designing recruitment strategies, training, 
        and matching.
            (9) The child welfare agency shall establish an adoption 
        advisory committee for strengthening procedures for matching 
        waiting children with adoptive parents. The committee shall be 
        composed of adoption professionals, successful adoptive 
        parents, and others with expertise in assessing a child's 
        adoption needs for the purpose of improving the matching 
        process.
            (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 agencies 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 demonstrated 
        effectiveness in improving the adoption process.

SEC. 8. STUDY.

    (a) In General.--In order to provide rigorous research 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;
            (2) assess the success with which participating agencies 
        implement the program components outlined in section 6(b);
            (3) assess the impact, if any, of each program on--
                    (A) the retention and attrition of prospective 
                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 adoptions, 
                including the impact, if any, of the program 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 practice; and
            (5) offer recommendations regarding improvements 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, foster care, and child welfare issues, such as 
child welfare service provision and the adoption of children from 
foster care.
    (c) Consultation.--In conducting the research described in this 
section, the expert entity described in subsection (b) shall consult 
with--
            (1) researchers who are experts in studying child welfare 
        services, particularly those focusing on best practices 
        regarding the adoption of children from foster care;
            (2) child welfare administrators and staff responsible for 
        facilitating the adoption of children from foster care;
            (3) representatives from national child welfare 
        organizations promoting the adoption of children from foster 
        care; and
            (4) parents who have adopted children from foster care.
    (d) Report to Congress.--Not later than 2 years after the 
dissemination of funds under this Act, the expert entity described in 
subsection (b) shall submit a report to the Secretary containing the 
results of the research described in this section. The report shall 
also--
            (1) be submitted to the Committee on Education and Labor of 
        the House of Representatives 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 review of child 
welfare agencies of the Secretary an examination 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.
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