National Adoption Month

How the Children's Bureau Supports Adoption

As the oldest Federal agency for children, the Children's Bureau (CB) supports adoption through special initiatives, national resource centers, a media campaign, research, statistical analysis, data and statistics, funding to States and Tribes, and discretionary grants.

• Special initiatives
• National Resource Centers (NRCs)
• Media campaign
• Statistics and research
• Funding to States and Tribes

Special Initiatives

National Adoption Month is an initiative developed in partnership with AdoptUsKids. This site provides resources to assist professionals and families in planning activities for the month and throughout the year to raise awareness about the need for adoptive families for children in foster care.

The HHS Adoption Excellence Awards recognize outstanding accomplishments in achieving permanency for America's children waiting in foster care. The annual awards honor States, local agencies, private organizations, courts, businesses, individuals, and families making key contributions to increase the number of children from foster care who are adopted or placed in other permanent homes.

AdoptUsKids is a multifaceted national program designed to raise public awareness about children in foster care who need families and to assist States, Territories, and Tribes in the recruitment and support of foster and adoptive families for children in public foster care. Prospective families can visit the national photolisting website or call 888-200-4005.

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National Resource Centers (NRCs)

The National Resource Center for Adoption partners with States, Tribes, and other NRCs to offer support in all phases of the Child and Family Services Review process, including analyzing adoption and permanency options, exploring systemic factors, increasing cultural competence, and promoting stakeholder involvement. The NRC's projects include:

• The Adoption Competency Curriculum
• The Minority Adoption Leadership Development Institute
• Compliance with the Multiethnic Placement Act, as amended (MEPA), and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (web-based training)

The National Resource Center for the Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents at AdoptUsKids provides training and technical assistance to States and Tribes on issues related to recruiting and retaining foster, adoptive, concurrent, and kinship families. The NRC's projects include:

• www.adoptuskids.org (national photolistings of children waiting in foster care for adoptive families)
• Free recruitment and retention resources
• The Parent Respite Program
• Services aimed at reducing the barriers encountered by prospective foster and adoptive individuals and couples who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), Native American, Military/Global, or Native American
• AdoptUsKids Faith-Based Initiative

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Media Campaign

The National Adoption Public Service Advertising Recruitment Campaign is a partnership among the Children's Bureau, the Ad Council, and AdoptUsKids. The national adoption recruitment campaign was first launched in 2004 to raise awareness of foster children waiting to be adopted. The campaign message, "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent," (and variations) is the theme of television, radio, print, outdoor and internet banner's public service announcements (PSAs). You can view the campaign ads on the Ad Council website.

A new social media campaign is an extension of the PSA recruitment campaign. The Children's Bureau is collaborating with the Ad Council and AdoptUsKids to use social media strategies to begin a national dialogue about adoption from foster care with prospective parents and to encourage all adults to visit www.AdoptUsKids.org to obtain more information about adoption from foster care. The campaign includes:

• Twitter parties
• An AdoptUsKids Facebook Fan page
• A YouTube channel

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Statistics and Research

The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects case-level information on all children in foster care for whom State child welfare agencies have responsibility for placement, care, or supervision and on children adopted under the auspices of the State's public child welfare agency. All agencies operating a title IV-E program (currently, the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) are required to submit AFCARS data twice a year. AFCARS also includes information on foster and adoptive parents. ACF uses AFCARS data for a number of reasons, including:

• Publication of national statistics on adoption and foster care
• Adoption Incentives Program
• Child Welfare Outcomes Report
• Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs)
• Title IV-E Eligibility Reviews
• Allotment of funds in the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP)
• Trend analyses and short- and long-term planning
• Targeting areas for technical assistance efforts, discretionary service grants, research and evaluation, and regulatory change
• Responding to requests for data from Federal, State, and private agencies

The Children's Bureau also funds research in collaboration with other organizations. For example, A Report to Congress on Barriers and Success Factors in Adoptions From Foster Care: Perspectives of Families and Staff Supported by the Adoption Opportunities Program outlines the findings of two adoption research studies conducted as part of The Collaboration to AdoptUsKids.

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Funding to States and Tribes

The Children's Bureau provides matching funds to States, Tribes, Territories, and communities to help them operate every aspect of their child welfare systems—from prevention of child abuse and neglect to adoption—and the information systems necessary to support these programs. Funding includes:

• Title IV-E Adoption Assistance, which provides funds to States to facilitate the timely placement of children whose special needs or circumstances would otherwise make it difficult to place
• Child Welfare Services: Title IV-B, Subpart 1 of the Social Security Act, which provides grants to States and Tribes for programs directed toward the goal of keeping families together

Discretionary Grant Programs

The Children's Bureau awards discretionary grants for research and program development, through a competitive peer-review process, to States, Tribes, Territories, and local agencies, faith-based and community-based organizations, and other nonprofit and for profit groups.

Adoption Opportunities grants provide discretionary funds for projects designed to eliminate barriers to adoption and help find permanent families for children who would benefit from adoption, particularly children with special needs.

Demonstration Projects in Postadoption Services and Marriage Education include a cluster of grants for postadoption demonstration projects provides services to strengthen and preserve families who have adopted children from public child welfare systems.

Developing Adoption Services and Supports for Youth Who Wish to Retain Contact With Family Members in Order to Improve Permanency Outcomes is a cluster of nine projects focused on the concept of open adoption for youth and/or sibling groups who prefer to maintain contact with birth families and/or siblings

Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System includes cooperative agreements supporting multifaceted diligent recruitment programs for a range of resource families for children in foster care, including kinship, foster, concurrent and adoptive families.

Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program cooperative agreements are awarded to adoption organizations for developing and implementing Infant Adoption Awareness Training Programs to provide adoption information and referrals to pregnant women.

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