Research & Reports

• FY 2010 Adoption Incentive Awards, based on FY 2009 Earning Year
  On September 15, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $39 million to 38 states and Puerto Rico for increasing adoptions from foster care. The recipients of these awards completed more adoptions in FY 2009 than in the 2007 baseline year. A list of states who received these funds is available on the Department's website.
• Missouri Fostering Connections Act Implementation Report
  Provides an overview of the state's child welfare population, budget, native tribes, and the progress (as of 2009) the state has made in implementing the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.
• Missouri Adoption Facts
  Summary of data and statistics regarding waiting children and children adopted from foster care.

National Resources

Research & Reports

• FY 2010 Adoption Incentive Awards, based on FY 2009 Earning Year
  On September 15, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $39 million to 38 states and Puerto Rico for increasing adoptions from foster care. The recipients of these awards completed more adoptions in FY 2009 than in the 2007 baseline year. A list of states who received these funds is available on the Department's website.
• Providing Federal Adoption Assistance to More Children with Special Needs: A Welcome Change
  This issue brief summarizes the following: the problems of the AFDC adoption assistance link; the new provision that removes the AFDC link; and what the child welfare community needs to do to take advantage of the law’s Maintenance of Effort provision (MoE), which requires states to continue their investments in child welfare services.
• Adoption Incentive History 1998-2009
  Table presenting state-by-state receipt of adoption incentive awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for each year from FY1998 through FY2009
• In Focus: The Adoption Tax Credit
  This report provides an overview of the legislative history of the adoption tax credit and a detailed analysis of the tax credit with respect to existing law. The report also outlines key policy considerations and summarizes pending legislation to modify the tax credit.
• Adoption USA: A Chartbook Based on the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents
  Findings from the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP), the first-ever representative survey on the characteristics, adoption experiences, and well-being of adopted children and their families in the U.S.
• A Report to Congress on Barriers and Success Factors in Adoptions from Foster Care: Perspectives of Families and Staff
  Results from two adoption studies: (1) surveys/interviews of families seeking to adopt children with special needs from foster care, as well as private and public agency adoption professionals, regarding barriers in the adoption process (the "Barriers" study); and (2) an investigation of factors influencing successful adoptions (the "Success Factors" study)
• Ending the Foster Care Life Sentence: The Critical Need for Adoption Subsidies
  Results of a survey of nearly 250 parents who have adopted (or are considering adopting) children from foster care,on their experiences, including factors influencing their decisions to adopt, the impact of the adoption subsidy on the adoption, and other challenges/barriers with the adoption process.
• Federal Income Tax Benefits for Adoption Use by Taxpayers 1999-2005
  An overview of the use of the federal adoption tax credit between 1999 and 2005.
• Title IV-E Claims and Adoption Assistance Payments
  History of the federal adoption assistance program, national statistics and trends regarding the use of Title IV-E adoption assistance payments, and state-by-state data on adoption assistance claiming and subsidy amounts.
• The Value of Adoption
  Summary of a cost-benefit analysis of foster care adoption, focusing on adoption's private and societal impacts. Explores foster care adoption as an intervention, and its cognitive and educational, health and mental health, behavioral, and economic effects on individuals and society.
• Understanding Adoption Subsidies: An Analysis of AFCARS Data
  Analysis of AFCARS data from 1999-2001, showing national trends and state differences in use of adoption subsidies; the relationship between states' subsidy use and adoption outcomes; and the relationship between child, family, and state characteristics and subsidy levels and usage.
• National Indian Child Welfare Association's Information on Customary Adoption
• A Carrot Among Sticks: The Adoption Incentive Bonus
  This report summarizes interviews with states and DC about what they are doing with their Adoption Incentive dollars, how they have responded/reacted to the Adoption Incentive program, and how they have reinvested these dollars.
• Securing Child Safety, Well-being, and Permanency Through Placement Stability in Foster Care
  Provides an overview of how to achieve successful placement stability within foster care.
• "Green Book"- Child Welfare section
  The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee "Green Book" section on child welfare includes information on federal programs dedicated to child welfare purposes, including program requirements, spending and characteristics of children served.
• Child Welfare Outcomes 2003-2006: Report to Congress
  Child Welfare Outcomes 2003-2006: Report to Congress is a report created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) to meet requirements of section 203(a) of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA).1 ASFA amended section 479A of the Social Security Act to require an annual report on State performance. Child Welfare Outcomes 1998 was the first report created in the Child Welfare Outcomes series of reports.