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Breaking Boundaries

A web site that features U.S. children awaiting adoption through public agencies will be launched in April 2002, and funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. The National Adoption Center (NAC) in Philadelphia has signed a two-year contract with the HHS to develop and manage the site, which will use the Internet to help find children adopted homes.

The number of U.S. children available for adoption is soaring, mostly because of a 1997 federal law that cuts the length of time that children may remain in foster care before plans are made for a permanent home.

Public adoptions increased from 28,000 in 1996 to 36,000 in 1998 and the HHS predicts that the upward trend will continue for 2000 adoptions. Many of those adoptees were under 5 years old and were adopted by their foster parents, experts say.

Most kids on the new site will be school-aged. Many have disabilities-- physical, emotional, or intellectual. They're the hardest to find homes for.

The initial $1.5 million budgeted for the site's start-up has been cut by nearly a third, however, which Carolyn Johnson, NAC's executive director, says will severely limit the site's effectiveness. Without the full funding, Johnson says that the site, expected to hold photos and descriptions of up to 12,000 youngsters, will be weakened in three ways:

• Poor marketing. Advertisements in high-exposure media are crucial to let prospective parents know about the site.
  
  
• No follow-through. When prospective adults inquire, they're given the name of the child's social worker. With no central follow-up, even already approved parents could slip through the cracks as overworked social workers may fail to return calls.
  
  
• Inability to afford cutting-edge techniques. Tools such as online videos of children talking about themselves, currently used in Texas, may be too costly

As more children are made available for adoption, "the need for families for these children will continue to increase," says Joe Kroll of the North American Council on Adoptable Children. "The value of the Internet here is clear. By dissolving geographic barriers, it creates badly needed placements for these kids."