United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-11-19 monographic deposited born digital 43 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-00-12 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12 P0b002ee180374dbd f:he00012 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12 HEHS-00-12 Foster children State programs Federal/state relations State/local relations Child adoption Interagency relations Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children Letter Report HEHS Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on interjurisdictional adoption issues, focusing on the: (1) number of foster children who are available and waiting for an adoptive home to be identified; (2) actions taken by state and county child welfare agencies and nonprofit organizations to improve the adoption process when prospective adoptive families and foster children live in different jurisdictions; and (3) actions taken by the federal government to improve the adoption process when prospective adoptive families and foster children live in different jurisdictions.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) at any given time about 1.5 percent of foster children--about 8,000--are legally available for adoption and waiting for an adoptive home but have no prospects for adoption; (2) this number is small because, of those foster children who are adopted, about 78 percent are adopted by their foster parents or relatives; (3) virtually all of the remaining foster children who are waiting for adoptive homes are among the most difficult to place due to their older age, need to be placed with siblings, or other special considerations; (4) because these children are hard to place, they are likely to be candidates for adoptive placement across jurisdictions; (5) public child welfare agencies have directed their efforts toward the initial step in the interjurisdictional adoption process--recruitment of prospective adoptive families--and have done less to improve the other steps in the adoption process because they are largely beyond their legal authority to change; (6) for example, these agencies are using traditional recruiting methods in new ways, as was the case in two of the three states GAO visited; (7) these states enter into contracts with other states to conduct recruitment activities in geographic areas outside the public child welfare agency's jurisdiction; (8) the agencies also use Internet web sites, which can be accessed from anywhere in the nation, to reach beyond their borders to recruit prospective adoptive families and publicize waiting children; (9) nonprofit organizations that are working to improve interjurisdictional adoption processes have targeted their efforts at those steps in the adoption process that correspond to their professional interests; (10) such interests include nationwide recruitment of adoptive homes for hard-to-place waiting foster children as well as issues related to improvements in the use of homestudies and the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) process; (11) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership could facilitate improvements in the interjurisdictional adoption process, much of which is outside the legal authority of individual public child welfare agencies; and (12) HHS has developed plans to address problems in the interjurisdictional adoption process and implemented some actions. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12.pdf GAO/HEHS-00-12 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-12 Letter Report GAO/HEHS-00-12; Foster Care: HHS Could Better Facilitate the; Foster children State programs Federal/state relations State/local relations Child adoption Interagency relations Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children