Summary: About 8,000 children, or about 1.5 percent of foster children, are legally available for adoption at any given time and are waiting for an adoptive home but have no prospects because they are older, need to be placed with siblings, or have other special considerations. Because they are difficult to find permanent placements for, they may be candidates for placement across state and county jurisdictions. Although some steps in the adoption process are beyond public welfare agencies' legal authority to change, they have directed their efforts toward recruiting adoptive families, using traditional methods in new ways. For example, the state agencies enter into contracts with agencies in other states to conduct recruitment activities in geographic areas outside their jurisdiction, and use Internet Web sites to publicize children and recruit families. Nonprofit groups working to improve interjurisdictional adoption processes have targeted their efforts at the nationwide recruitment of adoptive homes for hard-to-place foster children who are waiting and at issues related to improving the use of home studies and the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), a uniformly enacted statute that provides the legal framework for placing children in adoptive homes across state lines. The Department of Health and Human Services could help improve aspects of the adoption process that are beyond the agencies' legal authority, such as better coordinating its guidelines for state legislation on the termination of parental rights and assistance to the states on ICPC issues.
