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Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
as Amended by the
Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003
SECTION II: ADOPTION OPPORTUNITIES
Sec. 203. INFORMATION AND SERVICES. [42 U.S.C. 5113]
[This section was amended by sec. 202 of P.L. 108-36.]
- ESTABLISHMENT IN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES.—
IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish in the Department of
Health and Human Services an appropriate administrative arrangement to
provide a centralized focus for planning and coordinating of all
departmental activities affecting adoption and foster care and for carrying
out the provisions of this title. The Secretary shall make available such
consultant services, on-site technical assistance and personnel, together with
appropriate administrative expenses, including salaries and travel costs, as
are necessary for carrying out such purposes, including services to facilitate
the adoption of children with special needs and particularly of disabled
infants with life-threatening conditions and services to couples considering
adoption of children with special needs.
- REQUIRED ACTIVITIES.—
In connection with carrying out the provisions of this title, the
Secretary shall—
- conduct (directly or by grant to or contract with public or private
agencies or organizations) an education and training program on adoption,
and prepare, publish, and disseminate (directly or by grant to or contract
with public or private agencies and organizations) to all interested parties,
public and private agencies and organizations (including, but not limited to,
hospitals, health care and family planning clinics, and social services
agencies), and governmental bodies, information and education and training
materials regarding adoption and adoption assistance programs;
- conduct, directly or by grant or contract with public or private
organizations, ongoing, extensive recruitment efforts on a national level,
develop national public awareness efforts to unite children in need of
adoption with appropriate adoptive parents, and establish a coordinated
referral system of recruited families with appropriate State or regional
adoption resources to ensure that families are served in a timely fashion;
- notwithstanding any other provision of law, provide (directly or by
grant to or contract with public or private agencies or organizations) for—
- the operation of a national adoption information exchange
system (including only such information as is necessary to facilitate the
adoptive placement of children, utilizing computers and data processing
methods to assist in the location of children who would benefit by
adoption and in the placement in adoptive homes of children awaiting
adoption); and
- the coordination of such system with similar State and regional
systems;
- provide (directly or by grant to or contract with public or private
agencies or organizations, including adoptive family groups and minority
groups) for the provision of technical assistance in the planning, improving,
developing, and carrying out of programs and activities relating to adoption,
and to promote professional leadership training of minorities in the adoption
field;
- encourage involvement of corporations and small businesses in
supporting adoption as a positive family-strengthening option, including the
establishment of adoption benefit programs for employees who adopt
children;
- support the placement of children in kinship care arrangements, preadoptive,
or adoptive homes;
- study the efficacy of States contracting with public or private
agencies (including community-based and other organizations), or sectarian
institutions for the recruitment of potential adoptive and foster families and
to provide assistance in the placement of children for adoption;
- consult with other appropriate Federal departments and agencies in
order to promote maximum coordination of the services and benefits
provided under programs carried out by such departments and agencies with
those carried out by the Secretary, and provide for the coordination of such
aspects of all programs within the Department of Health and Human
Services relating to adoption;
- maintain (directly or by grant to or contract with public or private
agencies or organizations) a National Resource Center for Special Needs
Adoption to—
- promote professional leadership development of minorities in
the adoption field;
- provide training and technical assistance to service providers
and State agencies to improve professional competency in the field of
adoption and the adoption of children with special needs; and
- facilitate the development of interdisciplinary approaches to
meet the needs of children who are waiting for adoption and the needs
of adoptive families;
- provide (directly or by grant to or contract with States, local
government entities, public or private licensed child welfare or adoption
agencies or adoptive family groups and community-based organizations
with experience in working with minority populations) for the provision of
programs aimed at increasing the number of minority children (who are in
foster care and have the goal of adoption) placed in adoptive families, with
a special emphasis on recruitment of minority families—
- which may include such activities as—
- outreach, public education, or media campaigns to inform
the public of the needs and numbers of such children;
- recruitment of prospective adoptive families for such
children;
- expediting, where appropriate, the legal availability of
such children;
- expediting, where appropriate, the agency assessment of
prospective adoptive families identified for such children;
- formation of prospective adoptive family support groups;
- training of personnel of—
- public agencies;
- private child welfare and adoption agencies that are
licensed by the State; and
- adoptive parents organizations and community-based
organizations with experience in working with minority
populations;
- use of volunteers and adoptive parent groups; and
- any other activities determined by the Secretary to
further the purposes of this title; and
- shall be subject to the condition that such grants or contracts
may be renewed if documentation is provided to the Secretary
demonstrating that appropriate and sufficient placements of such
children have occurred during the previous funding period; and
- provide (directly or by grant to or contract with States, local
government entities, or public or private licensed child welfare or adoption
agencies) for the implementation of programs that are intended to increase
the number of older children (who are in foster care and with the goal of
adoption) placed in adoptive families, with a special emphasis on childspecific
recruitment strategies, including—
- outreach, public education, or media campaigns to inform the
public of the needs and numbers of older youth available for adoption;
- training of personnel in the special needs of older youth and
the successful strategies of child-focused, child-specific recruitment
efforts; and
- recruitment of prospective families for such children.
- SERVICES FOR FAMILIES ADOPTING SPECIAL NEEDS
CHILDREN.—
- IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide (directly or by grant
to or contract with States, local government entities, public or private
licensed child welfare or adoption agencies or adoptive family groups) for
the provision of post legal adoption services for families who have adopted
special needs children.
- SERVICES.—Services provided under grants made under this
subsection shall supplement, not supplant, services from any other funds
available for the same general purposes, including—
- individual counseling;
- group counseling;
- family counseling;
- case management;
- training public agency adoption personnel, personnel of
private, child welfare and adoption agencies licensed by the State to
provide adoption services, mental health services professionals, and
other support personnel to provide services under this subsection;
- assistance to adoptive parent organizations;
- assistance to support groups for adoptive parents, adopted
children, and siblings of adopted children;
- day treatment; and
- respite care.
- IMPROVING PLACEMENT RATE OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER
CARE.—
- IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make grants for improving
State efforts to increase the placement of foster care children legally free for
adoption, according to a pre-established plan and goals for improvement.
Grants funded by this section must include a strong evaluation component
which outlines the innovations used to improve the placement of special
needs children who are legally free for adoption, and the successes and
failures of the initiative. The evaluations will be submitted to the Secretary
who will compile the results of projects funded by this section and submit a
report to the appropriate committees of Congress. The emphasis of this
program must focus on the improvement of the placement rate—not the
aggregate number of special needs children placed in permanent homes.
The Secretary, when reviewing grant applications, shall give priority to
grantees who propose improvements designed to continue in the absence of
Federal funds.
- APPLICATIONS; TECHNICAL AND OTHER ASSISTANCE.—
- APPLICATIONS.—Each State entering into an agreement
under this subsection shall submit an application to the Secretary that
describes the manner in which the State will use funds during the 3
fiscal years subsequent to the date of the application to accomplish the
purposes of this section. Such application shall be in a form and manner
determined to be appropriate by the Secretary. Each application shall
include verification of the placements described in paragraph (1).
- TECHNICAL AND OTHER ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary
shall provide, directly or by grant to or contract with public or private
agencies or organizations—
- technical assistance and resource and referral information
to assist State or local governments with termination of parental
rights issues, in recruiting and retaining adoptive families, in the
successful placement of children with special needs, and in the
provision of pre- and post-placement services, including post-legal
adoption services; and
- other assistance to help State and local governments
replicate successful adoption-related projects from other areas in
the United States.
- PAYMENTS.—
- IN GENERAL.—Payments under this subsection shall begin
during fiscal year 1989. Payments under this section during any fiscal
year shall not exceed $1,000,000. No payment may be made under this
subsection unless an amount in excess of $5,000,000 is appropriated for
such fiscal year under section 5115(a) of this title.
- REVERSION OF UNUSED FUNDS.—Any payment made to
a State under this subsection which is not used by such State for the
purpose provided in paragraph (1) during the fiscal year payment is
made shall revert to the Secretary on October 1st of the next fiscal year
and shall be used to carry out the purposes of this title.
- ELIMINATION OF BARRIERS TO ADOPTIONS ACROSS
JURISDICTIONAL BOUNDARIES.—
- IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award grants to, or enter into
contracts with, States, local government entities, public or private child
welfare or adoption agencies, adoption exchanges, or adoption family
groups to carry out initiatives to improve efforts to eliminate barriers to
placing children for adoption across jurisdictional boundaries.
- SERVICES TO SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Services
provided under grants made under this subsection shall supplement, not
supplant, services provided using any other funds made available for the
same general purposes including—
- developing a uniform homestudy standard and protocol for
acceptance of homestudies between States and jurisdictions;
- developing models of financing cross-jurisdictional
placements;
- expanding the capacity of all adoption exchanges to serve
increasing numbers of children;
- developing training materials and training social workers on
preparing and moving children across State lines; and
- developing and supporting initiative models for networking
among agencies, adoption exchanges, and parent support groups across
jurisdictional boundaries.
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