AdoptUsKids Project Helps 10,000 Foster Children

Thanks to a project known as AdoptUsKids, more than 10,000 children have been placed into adoptive families. The AdoptUsKids project is managed through a cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The AdoptUsKids.org website was launched in 2002 as an Internet adoption service that recruits and connects foster and adoptive families with waiting children throughout the United States. The secure website features a national database of photographs and biographies of children in the foster care system available for adoption. The function of the website is to let the public know about the children available for adoption.

The AdoptUsKids project also provides information and referral services to prospective adopters and approved families, as well as training and technical assistance to States and Tribes to increase their capacity in providing adoption services to children in foster care and to increase retention and recruitment of foster and adoptive parents.

There were 523,000 children in foster care when the website was launched in 2002. The number of children in care has been reduced to 496,000 thanks to investments in resources, including the AdoptUsKids website and the combined efforts of the federal government in partnership with the states in working together to improve the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families involved in the child welfare system.

"There is a great need to find loving, caring, permanent families for children waiting in foster care," said Daniel Schneider, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families. Through AdoptUsKids, thousands of families have found a child to love and nurture, and 10,000 children have found a home. This exemplifies what's best about America.