1.This Act may be cited as
the Adoption Improvement Act of
2007
.
2.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.
3.Child welfare
agency definedIn 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.
4.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.
5.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.
6.Selection of
grant recipients
(a)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)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.
7.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.
8.
(a)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)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)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)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.
9.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.
10.Authorization
of appropriationsThere are
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act $50,000,000.