(a) Findings

Congress finds that—

(1) on the last day of fiscal year 2009, some 424,000 children were living in temporary foster family homes or other foster care settings;

(2) most children in foster care are victims of child abuse or neglect by their biological parents and their entry into foster care brought them the additional trauma of separation from their homes and often their communities;

(3) on average, children entering foster care have more physical and mental health needs than do children in the general population, and some require intensive services because the children entering foster care—

(A) were born to mothers who did not receive prenatal care;

(B) were born with life-threatening conditions or disabilities;

(C) were born addicted to alcohol or other drugs; or

(D) have HIV/AIDS;

(4) each year, thousands of children in foster care, regardless of their age, the size of the sibling group they are a part of, their racial or ethnic status, their medical condition, or any physical, mental or emotional disability they may have, are in need of placement with permanent, loving, adoptive families;

(5)(A) States have made important strides in increasing the number of children who are placed in permanent homes with adoptive parents and in reducing the length of time children wait for such a placement; and

(B) many thousands of children, however, still remain in institutions or foster homes solely because of legal and other barriers to such a placement;

(6)(A) on the last day of fiscal year 2009, there were 115,000 children waiting for adoption;

(B) children waiting for adoption have had parental rights of all living parents terminated or the children have a permanency goal of adoption;

(C)(i) the average age of children adopted with public child welfare agency involvement during fiscal year 2009 was a little more than 6 years; and

(ii) the average age of children waiting for adoption on the last day of that fiscal year was a little more than 8 years of age and more than 30,000 of those children were 12 years of age or older; and

(D)(i) 25 percent of the children adopted with public child welfare agency involvement during fiscal year 2009 were African-American; and

(ii) 30 percent of the children waiting for adoption on the last day of fiscal year 2009 were African-American;

(7) adoption may be the best alternative for assuring the healthy development of children placed in foster care;

(8) there are qualified persons seeking to adopt such children who are unable to do so because of barriers to their placement and adoption; and

(9) in order both to enhance the stability of and love in the home environments of such children and to avoid wasteful expenditures of public funds, such children—

(A) should not have medically indicated treatment withheld from them; or

(B) be maintained in foster care or institutions when adoption is appropriate and families can be found for such children.

(b) Purpose

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It is the purpose of this subchapter to facilitate the elimination of barriers, including geographic barriers, to adoption and to provide permanent and loving home environments for children who would benefit from adoption, particularly older children, minority children, and children with special needs, including disabled infants with life-threatening conditions, by providing a mechanism to—

(1) promote quality standards for adoption services, pre-placement, post-placement, and post-legal adoption counseling, and standards to protect the rights of children in need of adoption;

(2) maintain an Internet-based national adoption information exchange system to—

(A) bring together children who would benefit from adoption and qualified prospective adoptive parents who are seeking such children;

(B) conduct national recruitment efforts in order to reach prospective parents for children awaiting adoption; and

(C) connect placement agencies, prospective adoptive parents, and adoptive parents to resources designed to reduce barriers to adoption, support adoptive families, and ensure permanency; and

(3) demonstrate expeditious ways to free children for adoption for whom it has been determined that adoption is the appropriate plan.