SECTION 5113.

Information and service functions by appropriate
administrative arrangement

(a) Establishment in Department of Health and Human
Services

The Secretary shall establish in the Department of Health and Human
Services an appropriate administrative arrangement to provide a centralized
focus for planning and coordinating of all departmental activities affecting
adoption and foster care and for carrying out the provisions of this subchapter.
The Secretary shall make available such consultant services, on-site technical
assistance and personnel, together with appropriate administrative expenses,
including salaries and travel costs, as are necessary for carrying out such
purposes, including services to facilitate the adoption of children with special
needs and particularly of disabled infants with life-threatening conditions
and services to couples considering adoption of children with special needs.

(b) Implementation authorities

In connection with carrying out the provisions
of this subchapter, the Secretary shall -

(1) conduct (directly or by grant
to or contract with public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations) an
education and training program on adoption, and prepare, publish, and disseminate
(directly or by grant to or contract with public or private nonprofit agencies
and organizations) to all interested parties, public and private agencies and
organizations (including, but not limited to, hospitals, health care and family
planning clinics, and social services agencies), and governmental bodies, information
and education and training materials regarding adoption and adoption assistance
programs;

(2) conduct, directly or by grant or contract with public or private
nonprofit organizations, ongoing, extensive recruitment efforts on a national
level, develop national public awareness efforts to unite children in need of
adoption with appropriate adoptive parents, and establish a coordinated referral
system of recruited families with appropriate State or regional adoption resources
to ensure that families are served in a timely fashion;

(3) notwithstanding
any other provision of law, provide (directly or by grant to or contract with
public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations) for

(A) the operation
of a national adoption information exchange system (including only such information
as is necessary to facilitate the adoptive placement of children, utilizing
computers and data processing methods to assist in the location of children
who would benefit by adoption and in the placement in adoptive homes of children
awaiting adoption); and

(B) the coordination of such system with similar State
and regional systems;

(4) provide (directly or by grant to or contract with
public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations, including adoptive family
groups and minority groups) for the provision of technical assistance in the
planning, improving, developing, and carrying out of programs and activities
relating to adoption, and to promote professional leadership training of minorities
in the adoption field;

(5) encourage involvement of corporations and small businesses
in supporting adoption as a positive family-strengthening option, including
the establishment of adoption benefit programs for employees who adopt children;

(6) study the nature, scope, and effects of the placement of children in kinship
care arrangements, pre-adoptive, or adoptive homes;

(7) study the efficacy of
States contracting with public or private nonprofit agencies (including community-based
and other organizations), or sectarian institutions for the recruitment of potential
adoptive and foster families and to provide assistance in the placement of children
for adoption;

(8) consult with other appropriate Federal departments and agencies
in order to promote maximum coordination of the services and benefits provided
under programs carried out by such departments and agencies with those carried
out by the Secretary, and provide for the coordination of such aspects of all
programs within the Department of Health and Human Services relating to adoption;

(9) maintain (directly or by grant to or contract with public or private nonprofit
agencies or organizations) a National Resource Center for Special Needs Adoption
to -

(A) promote professional leadership development of minorities in the adoption
field;

(B) provide training and technical assistance to service providers and
State agencies to improve professional competency in the field of adoption and
the adoption of children with special needs; and

(C) facilitate the development
of interdisciplinary approaches to meet the needs of children who are waiting
for adoption and the needs of adoptive families; and

(10) provide (directly
or by grant to or contract with States, local government entities, public or
private nonprofit licensed child welfare or adoption agencies or adoptive family
groups and community-based organizations with experience in working with minority
populations) for the provision of programs aimed at increasing the number of
minority children (who are in foster care and have the goal of adoption) placed
in adoptive families, with a special emphasis on recruitment of minority families
- (A) which may include such activities as -

(i) outreach, public education,or media campaigns to inform the public of the needs and numbers of such children;

(ii) recruitment of prospective adoptive families for such children;

(iii) expediting,
where appropriate, the legal availability of such children;

(iv) expediting,
where appropriate, the agency assessment of prospective adoptive families identified
for such children;

(v) formation of prospective adoptive family support groups;

(vi) training of personnel of -

(I) public agencies;

(II) private nonprofit
child welfare and adoption agencies that are licensed by the State; and

(III)
adoptive parents organizations and community-based organizations with experience
in working with minority populations;

(vii) use of volunteers and adoptive parent
groups; and

(viii) any other activities determined by the Secretary to further
the purposes of this subchapter; and

(B) shall be subject to the condition that
such grants or contracts may be renewed if documentation is provided to the

Secretary demonstrating that appropriate and sufficient placements of such children
have occurred during the previous funding period.

(c) Post legal adoption services
(1) The Secretary shall provide (directly or by grant to or contract with States,
local government entities, public or private nonprofit licensed child welfare
or adoption agencies or adoptive family groups) for the provision of post legal
adoption services for families who have adopted special needs children.

(2)
Services provided under grants made under this subsection shall supplement,
not supplant, services from any other funds available for the same general purposes,
including -

(A) individual counseling;

(B) group counseling;

(C) family counseling;
(D) case management;

(E) training public agency adoption personnel, personnel
of private, nonprofit child welfare and adoption agencies licensed by the State
to provide adoption services, mental health services professionals, and other
support personnel to provide services under this subsection;

(F) assistance
to adoptive parent organizations; and

(G) assistance to support groups for adoptive
parents, adopted children, and siblings of adopted children.

(d) Placement of
foster care children

(1) The Secretary shall make grants for improving State
efforts to increase the placement of foster care children legally free for adoption,
according to a pre-established plan and goals for improvement. Grants funded
by this section must include a strong evaluation component which outlines the
innovations used to improve the placement of special needs children who are
legally free for adoption, and the successes and failures of the initiative.
The evaluations will be submitted to the Secretary who will compile the results
of projects funded by this section and submit a report to the appropriate committees
of Congress. The emphasis of this program must focus on the improvement of the
placement rate - not the aggregate number of special needs children placed in
permanent homes. The Secretary, when reviewing grant applications

1) shall give priority to grantees who propose improvements designed to continue
in the absence of Federal funds.

(2) (A) Each State entering into an agreement
under this subsection shall submit an application to the Secretary that describes
the manner in which the State will use funds during the 3 fiscal years subsequent
to the date of the application to accomplish the purposes of this section. Such
application shall be in a form and manner determined to be appropriate by the
Secretary. Each application shall include verification of the placements described
in paragraph

(1). (B) The Secretary shall provide, directly or by grant to or
contract with public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations - (i) technical
assistance and resource and referral information to assist State or local governments
with termination of parental rights issues, in recruiting and retaining adoptive
families, in the successful placement of children with special needs, and in
the provision of pre- and post-placement services, including post-legal adoption
services; and

(ii) other assistance to help State and local governments replicate
successful adoption-related projects from other areas in the United States.
(3) (A) Payments under this subsection shall begin during fiscal year 1989.
Payments under this section during any fiscal year shall not exceed $1,000,000.
No payment may be made under this subsection unless an amount in excess of $5,000,000
is appropriated for such fiscal year under section 5115(a) of this title.

(B)
Any payment made to a State under this subsection which is not used by such
State for the purpose provided in paragraph (1) during the fiscal year payment
is made shall revert to the Secretary on October 1st of the next fiscal year
and shall be used to carry out the purposes of this subchapter.