HD31 - Report on the Policies and Procedures Related to Expediting Adoptions


Executive Summary:
The purpose of adoption is to place children who have been permanently and legally separated from their birth parents with adoptive families and to prevent adoption dissolution by providing services to strengthen and support families after the adoption is finalized.

This report is in response to the legislative mandate to study policies and procedures related to expediting adoptions for children in the foster care system as well as those children who are adopted but not placed in foster care. The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) in collaboration with a vested group of stakeholders made recommendations for expediting adoptions after much discussion, a review of state and national data and research, and a survey of practice and policy issues of the 120 local departments of social services (LDSS).

The findings of the workgroup include:

• Virginia lacks adequate numbers of trained, adoption-dedicated social workers, with sufficient knowledge of the policies and practices needed to expedite adoptions.

• To support LDSS in their work to expedite adoptions, VDSS needs regional adoption specialists to focus on the training and technical needs of localities.

• The lack of mandated training for foster care and adoption workers negatively affects the recruitment and retention of trained workers and results in higher staff costs for the Commonwealth.

• The lack of mandated training for foster care and adoptive parents makes it difficult to recruit and retain adequate numbers of individuals to adopt.

• Annual statewide training events are needed that include all partners involved in the adoption process, in order to share knowledge about adoption best practices and create collaborative relationships that will support the adoption process.

• The deficiencies in the state’s child welfare data system prevent localities from being able to monitor their own progress in achieving adoptions in a timely manner.

• The absence of regional child welfare data system trainers/technical support personnel denies localities the support needed to understand how to enter data correctly and use system reports to monitor their own progress towards adoption outcomes.

• The process for appealing termination of parental rights reduces the timely adoption of children and results in higher costs to the Commonwealth.

• Evidence-based and best practices known to expedite the adoption process are not practiced statewide due to the lack of resources necessary for implementation in all localities.

• Recent legislative changes in the 2006 General Assembly removed barriers to and increased options for, expediting adoptions of children not placed in the foster care system.