[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 215 (Thursday, November 6, 1997)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60153-60154]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-29567]



[[Page 60151]]

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Part V





The President





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Proclamation 7048--National Adoption Month, 1997
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  Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 215 / Thursday, November 6, 1997 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 60153]]

                Proclamation 7048 of November 3, 1997

                
National Adoption Month, 1997

                By the President of the United States

                A Proclamation

                Most American children are blessed with loving, stable 
                families. But, tragically, in our country today there 
                are too many children whose parents are unwilling or 
                unable to care for them. While foster care offers these 
                children a safe and nurturing temporary haven in their 
                time of greatest need, as many as 100,000 foster care 
                kids will need permanent homes in the next few years. 
                Many of these children have special needs and require 
                the security and stability of an adoptive family to 
                develop their full potential. Adoption allows these and 
                other children to have the permanent homes they 
                deserve, and it enables many dedicated adults to 
                experience the joys and rewards of parenting.

                My Administration is working hard to find ways to help 
                encourage adoption. On December 14, 1996, I issued a 
                Memorandum to the Secretaries of Health and Human 
                Services, the Treasury, Labor, and Commerce and to the 
                Director of the Office of Personnel Management, 
                directing them to promote efforts to both increase the 
                number of children who are adopted or permanently 
                placed each year and to move children more rapidly from 
                foster care to permanent homes. I also urged them to 
                increase public awareness about the children waiting 
                for permanent families and to encourage all Americans 
                to consider the rewards of adoption.

                I challenged the members of my Administration to work 
                with States, communities, and civic leaders to create a 
                plan for doubling the number of adoptions and permanent 
                placements for children to 54,000 by the year 2002. And 
                on February 14, 1997, the Adoption 2002 report, 
                outlining changes in policies and practices necessary 
                to reach this goal, was released. Since then, we have 
                been actively implementing the recommendations included 
                in the report, and States are reviewing data and 
                submitting numerical targets for adoption and 
                guardianships to be completed by the year 2002. The 
                Office of Personnel Management has published a guide 
                for Federal workers interested in adopting, and the 
                Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to 
                make the first annual Adoption 2002 Excellence awards 
                later this year. Finally, the Congress is considering 
                historic legislation that would provide the resources 
                and statutory authority for financial incentives, 
                technical assistance, and improved judicial decision-
                making for children in foster care.

                As a Nation, we have before us an opportunity to make a 
                real difference in the lives of our most vulnerable 
                children. We must continue to promote public awareness 
                of the need for adoptive families and to help families 
                make the choice to provide loving, permanent homes for 
                the many children who otherwise must continue to wait. 
                We must also strengthen our support of those families 
                who do choose to adopt. As we observe National Adoption 
                Month, we reaffirm our commitment to adoption as a new 
                beginning for thousands of children, and we celebrate 
                the many American families who have embraced these 
                children by accepting the rewards and responsibilities 
                of adoption.

[[Page 60154]]

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim November 1997 as National 
                Adoption Month. I urge all Americans to observe this 
                month with appropriate programs and activities to honor 
                adoptive families and to participate in efforts to find 
                permanent homes for waiting children.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                third day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of 
                the United States of America the two hundred and 
                twenty-second.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 97-29567
Filed 11-5-97; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P