The 2025 Appropriation Act, Item 329.F. provides funding to increase the number of finalized adoptions of children and youth with special needs. These are children with significant behavioral or medical challenges who tend to be older, in foster care longer, and who have had multiple foster care placements.

The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) has implemented programs focused on increasing the number adoptions of children in foster care. Faster Families Highway (“the Highway"), a recruitment portal project focusing on recruiting foster families, is demonstrating great success. Since its launch in SFY23, all 120 Local Departments of Social Services (LDSS) have used the online portal to identify appropriate foster families for children in care. As of April 30, 2025, 5,536 potential foster families have entered “the Highway;" of these, 1,240 were recruited and 221 were approved.

In response to HB653 (2022 General Assembly Session), VDSS launched the development of the Resource Family Collaborative program, aimed at enhancing the recruitment and retention of kinship and non-relative foster families by fostering partnerships among Local Departments of Social Services.

SFY 2025 appropriated funds were also used to continue advancing the work being completed with Adoption-Share and Adoption Resource Exchange of VA (AREVA). VDSS also utilized funding to continue supporting dedicated placement staff and a public relations and marketing expert to support the many Permanency promotional campaigns.