HHS Awards Adoption Bonuses and Grants

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced the second award of nearly $20 million in adoption bonuses to 42 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for increasing the number of children adopted from public foster care. The bonuses were proposed by the Clinton-Gore administration in its Adoption 2002 initiative and were included in the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA). Last year, 35 states received bonuses. To date, every state and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have qualified for these funds for one or both years of the program.

HHS reported 46,000 foster care children were legally adopted in fiscal year 1999, exceeding the administration's target of 41,000. The fiscal year 1999 total represents a 28 percent increase over the 36,000 adoptions in fiscal year 1998 and a 64 percent increase since fiscal year 1996 when 28,000 adoptions were legalized.

"It's clear that the Adoption and Safe Families Act is meeting its goals of safety, permanence and well-being for children," said Secretary Shalala. "The data show that states are succeeding in making sure that children reach a loving, permanent family. I have no doubt that we will reach the President's target of 56,000 adoptions by 2002, double the number since 1996."

In the Adoption 2002 proposal, the administration proposed the first-ever financial incentive to states to increase adoptions of children waiting in the foster care system. The bonuses -- up to $4,000 per child and $6,000 for each child with special needs -- are awarded to states that exceed the number of children adopted compared to the previous year. States did so well this year that the actual bonuses based on this formula exceeded the funds appropriated for the bonus. The awards were made on a pro-rated basis.

"We can be very proud of the progress states have made in helping children in foster care under the Adoption and Safe Families Act," said Olivia A. Golden, HHS assistant secretary for children and families. "The number of states receiving bonuses continues to increase, and this signifies improved outcomes for our most important population -- our children."

The Secretary also announced $11.3 million in new awards under the Adoption Opportunities Program, which funds grants to public and private organizations to eliminate barriers to adoption, particularly for children with special needs. This year's awards will support innovations for increasing adoptive placements of Hispanic/Latino children; leadership development of parent support groups; innovations to increase permanency options for children in kinship care; knowledge development for concurrent planning; collaborations between child welfare agencies and court systems to facilitate timely adoptions; and innovative approaches to expediting permanence and implementing ASFA.

The President signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997, reforming the nation's child welfare system and making it clear that the safety and well being of children must be the paramount concerns of state child welfare services. This landmark bipartisan legislation was based in large part on the recommendations of the Clinton administration's Adoption 2002 report to meet his goals of doubling adoptions and permanent placements by 2002 and moving children more quickly from foster care to permanent homes. The act tightened time frames for making permanent placement decisions for children and ensured health insurance coverage for all special needs children in subsidized adoptions. Also, it created the bonuses to increase adoptions and continued funding for services to keep families together when it is appropriate and safe.

Shalala also announced today the award of a grant to the National Adoption Center by September 30 to develop and implement a national adoption Internet photo-listing service. The photo-listing service, scheduled to debut in 2002, will feature pictures and descriptions of at least 6,500 children needing homes. This is in response to the President's 1998 directive to develop a plan to expand use of the Internet to share information about children who are legally free for adoption in order to shorten the time needed to find adoptive families for them.

The list of states, their bonuses and the grant recipients follow:

Fiscal Year 2000 Adoption Opportunities Grants

Innovations Increasing Adoptive Placements of Hispanic/Latino Children

(3 years each, $250,000 per year maximum):

The Adoption Exchange, Albuquerque, N.M.

Aid to Adoption of Special Kids-Arizona, Phoenix, Ariz. Catholic Charities/Catholic Family Services, Hartford, Conn. Depelchin Children's Center, Houston, Texas Family Builders by Adoption, Oakland, Calif. Latino Family Institute, Inc., West Covina, Calif. New York Council on Adoptable Children, Inc., New York, N.Y. Urban League of Rhode Island, Inc., Providence, R.I.

Leadership Development: Parent Support Groups

(3 years each, $300,000 per year maximum):

Support for Foster Parents: Professional Association of Treatment Homes, St. Paul, Minn.

Support for Adoptive Parents: North American Council on Adoptable Children, St. Paul, Minn. Parent Support for Relative Caregivers: Generations United, Washington, D.C.

Innovations to Increase Permanency Options for Children in Kinship Care

(3 years each, $300,000 per year maximum):

Arizona's Children Association, Tucson, Ariz.

Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau, Shaker Heights, Ohio Depelchin Children's Center, Houston, Texas Edgewood Center for Children and Families, San Francisco, Calif. Institute for Black Parenting, Inglewood, Calif. Southern California Indian Center, Inc., Garden Grove, Calif. Spaulding for Children, Inc., Southfield, Mich.

Knowledge Development for Concurrent Planning

(3 years each, $300,000 per year maximum):

Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau, Shaker Heights, Ohio

The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc., Silver Spring, Md. Children's Friend and Service, Providence, R.I. Lutheran Social Service of Kansas and Oklahoma, Inc., Wichita, Kan. The Salvation Army, Syracuse, N.Y.

Collaborations Between Child Welfare Agencies and Court Systems To

Facilitate Timely Adoptions
(3 years each, $200,000 per year maximum):

Alaska Court System, Anchorage, Alaska

The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb. Center for Human Development, Inc., Springfield, Mass. Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Baltimore, Md. D.C. Superior Court, Washington D.C.
Florida Department of Children and Families, District 3, Gainesville, Fla. North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts, Raleigh, N.C. North American Indian Legal Services, Inc., Lakewood, Colo. Spaulding for Children, Houston, Texas
State of Iowa Court Administration, Des Moines, Iowa

Innovative Approaches to Expediting Permanence and Implementing ASFA

(3 years each, $300,000 per year maximum):

Anoka County, Anoka, Minn.

Beech Brook, Cleveland, Ohio
Elizabeth Lund Home/Lund Family Center, Burlington, Vt. Family Services, Inc., Providence, R.I.
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Springfield, Ill. New Jersey Department of Human Services, Trenton, N.J. United Methodist Family Services of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

FY 1999 Adoption Incentive Bonuses

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