Georgia has made major strides in adoption planning and placement following a change in our state law in 1996. Senate Bill 611 (referred to as Georgia's Permanency Bill) increased our ability to file for termination of parental rights much sooner in accordance with ASFA guidelines. As a result of this legislation and other initiatives, we are freeing and placing more children for adoption. Although we have made strides in increasing our numbers, the length of time children remain in foster care until adoption finalization continues to be an area of concern and challenge.

The Office of Adoptions was created in January 1997 with a mission to develop and implement an efficient, outcome based, quality, special needs adoption program that would eliminate and facilitate the elimination of barriers to adoption in the state system. The Office of Adoptions goals and objectives centered around reducing the length of stay in foster care and moving children into adoption in a timely manner. The goals to support this objective are defined as 1) Privatization of service provision areas where appropriate and cost effective. 2) Private sector involvement that actively seeks assistance from sources outside state government to support innovative approaches that will increase placements and supports for adoptive families. 3) Adoption policy revisions in order to streamline the process and speed up placements. 4) Development of innovative ways to recruit adoptive families. 5) Development of post-adoption services through a network of community based resources designed to support families after adoption.

Meeting these stated objectives has resulted in a 32 percent increase of finalized adoptions from 1997 to 1999. Georgia was one of 35 states to receive the first award of incentive payments for increasing the number of finalized adoptions during federal fiscal year 1998. Georgia's award was the 11^th highest in the nation.

Our challenge continues to be a reduction in the time a child remains in foster care until finalization. We have made some strides in that effort and our objectives and services are geared to meeting and exceeding the national standard.

FFY # kids finalized # exited< 24 mo. % exited< 24 mo.

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97 715 159 22

98 775 160 21

99 979 223 23

We have made tremendous strides in early identification of permanency placements for children. In FFY 97, seventy-one (71%) percent of the children finalized were adopted by their foster parents. This percentage rose to 84 percent in FFY 99. We have been able to contract with private contractors to complete the child's life history and foster home conversions to adoptive homes in order to facilitate timely adoptive placements.

Since its inception the Office of Adoptions has aggressively pursued contractual partnerships with licensed private agencies and other for profit and non-profit organizations to provide services to children and families. We contract with licensed private adoption agencies to provide recruitment, assessments, placement, supervision, post placement services and post adoption services to children in DHR custody. Contracting with these agencies increased from four contracts with four different agencies in 1995 to 23 contracts with 10 different agencies in 1999. The outcome of this effort to engage the private sector has resulted in an increase in the number of available adoptive resources, a decrease in the amount of time that children wait for placements, the placement of a greater number of children in permanent homes, and greater support for adoptive families.

We continue to be concerned about the effect of staff turnover in completing the detailed work of adoption. Our efforts will continue to be geared to providing specialized training and support for both social workers and the adoptive families. This will enable us to continue to achieve early permanency for more of our children and to further support new families created through adoption.