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Adoption Day 11/24/98 [2]
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Adoption Day 11/24/98 [2]
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Adoption Day 11/24/98 [2]
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91
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2
Date
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SUBJECT:
Using the Internet to Increase Adoptions
Technology will be an ever more important partner in achieving our national goals as we
approach the new millennium. New technological tools mean new opportunities for progress --
helping us to strengthen the global economy, bolster public education, and improve the health of
American families. Technology can also assist our continuing efforts to increase the number of
adoptions from our nation's foster care system.
As we celebrate National Adoption Month, it is fitting that we reflect on the important
steps we have taken to strengthen our child welfare system and, specifically, to improve the
process of adoption. We have made it easier for families to adopt through the Family and
Medical Leave Act and tax credits. We have eliminated discrimination and delay based on race
and ethnicity. And, last year, we enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act, tightening the
time frame for decision-making and affirming that the health and safety of children in foster care
must always come first.
We are making progress, but know that there is more work to be done. We know that
progress,
geographic and other barriers to adoption still exist. We also know that we must do a better job
in informing America's families about the nearly 100,000 children that wait in foster care for
permanent, adoptive homes. To give those children the future they deserve, to give our families
the opportunity to provide them with happy, healthy homes, we must infuse the public child
welfare system with the power of technology.
proposal-
Therefore, today I am directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work with
the States, courts, private agencies and other leaders to develop a plan for expanding use of the
tech
Internet as a tool to find homes for children waiting to be adopted from the public child welfare
system. There are approximately 100,000 children in our country who everyday wait in foster
care for a permanent, adoptive home. Sharing information about children legally free for
adoption through a national Internet service could shorten the time needed to find them adoptive
families. Close consultation with the States will be necessary to take full advantage of the
Internet's potential to promote adoptions. The Secretary will report to me within 60 days with a
plan to carry out this consultation, identify important issues and strategies to address them, and
build on promising existing efforts.
Katherine Searcy
(310) 337-7625
02/11/18/97
06:32PM
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bill and I get a lot of letters. Some ask me for advice on hairstyles. Others ask
him for golf tips. But the best letters are always from kids. I'll never forget the letter he
got from a young boy in lowa. It said, "Dear Mr. President, My name is Rollie. I like to
play football and basketball. I've been waiting eight years for an adoptive family. I'm
hoping for a family with pets, a brother and a sister, and nice parents."
Thanks to a new law Bill signed this week, the Adoption and Safe Families Act
of 1997, more children like Rollie will have their hopes fulfilled. This law holds out the
promise that all children in our foster care system will have a chance to find what every
child deserves - loving parents and a safe, permanent home.
Right now, there are half a million children in foster care. For most of them,
foster care is a safe haven on the road to a permanent home. Too many, however,
make countless detours along the way, shuffling from family to family, without much
hope that they'll ever find parents to love and take care of them.
This new law will come to their aid. It is the direct result of the President's
commitment to improving the lives of all children. And it will help meet his goal of
doubling by the year 2002 the number of kids who are adopted or placed in
permanent homes each year.
Here's what this legislation will do:
-- With this law, the health and safety of children will always be the first priority.
The best chance children have in this life is with parents who love them -- and we must
always do our best to give them that. But we cannot ever leave children in unsafe
homes. Under this law, states will no longer be required to try to keep children with
parents who tortured, abandoned or chronically abused a child. When this happens, a
child will be on a fast track to a safe, permanent home. Furthermore, states will conduct
criminal background checks of prospective foster and adoptive parents.
-- With this new law, foster care will become what it was always meant to be -- a
temporary refuge en route to a permanent home -- not a place to grow up. For kids in
foster care, hearings determining their future will be sped up by at least six months. For
children who have been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months, states must move
forward to terminate parental rights except in narrowly specified circumstances. For
children who cannot be safely returned to their families, states must do all they can to
find a permanent place to call home. And states now will receive financial incentives to
Katherine Searcy
(310) 337-7625
02/11/18/97
06:32PM
TALKING IT OVER 11/18/97
Page 2
increase the number of foster care children who are adopted each year -- especially
those with special needs.
This new law removes another barrier -- it gets rid of the obstacles that keep
families from adopting children across state and county lines. It also tells children with
special needs: You will continue to have health insurance under Medicaid or the new
State Child Health Insurance Program. And it tells parents that our government will
work harder to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect.
-- With this new law, we are going to demand accountability by basing state
performance on the only yardstick that matters: results. The Department of Health and
Human Services will develop an annual report card to show how states are measuring
up including the number of adoptions they've completed and the amount of time
children are staying in foster care.
Regardless of age, religion or race, all the children I've met over the years have
had one important thing in common: All of them needed parents in their lives.
Someone to pick them up when they've fallen. Someone to teach them right from
wrong. Someone to tuck them into bed at night. Someone simply to love them.
FLOTUS+
It is for this reason that, for more than 25 years, I've done my best to call
attention to children in foster care and to see to it these children are not lost in the
foster
care
system and that those who cannot ever go home are freed for adoption.
The landmark bill my husband signed will go a long way toward making sure
this happens. It's a historic opportunity -- one that couldn't have happened without
extraordinary bipartisan work from members of Congress in both houses.
But this new law will not solve all that ails our child welfare system. Businesses
can make it easier for their employees to adopt a child. Religious leaders can help
spread the word about the joys of adoption. Parents thinking about adoption can
expand their search to reach out to kids in foster care.
That's what Bernell and Della Neal did -- again and again and again. This
week, the government honored them with a 1997 Adoption 2002 Excellence Award.
These parents have adopted 11 children, many with severe physical and emotional
needs. Though the Neals have faced tough challenges, they have shown that nothing
is impossible. Their family motto is "There's always room for one more."
Because of this new law, that will be the motto for other families as well.
COPYRIGHT 1997 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
November 18, 1997
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
November 4, 1997
NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH, 1997
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
A PROCLAMATION
Most American children are blessed with loving, stable families: But, tragically, in our
country today there are too many children whose parents are unwilling or unable to care for
them. While foster care offers these children a safe and nurturing temporary haven in their time
of greatest need, as many as 100,000 foster care kids will need permanent homes in the next few
years. Many of these children have special needs and require the security and stability of an
adoptive family to develop their full potential. Adoption allows these and other children to have
the permanent homes they deserve, and it enables many dedicated adults to experience the joys
and rewards of parenting.
My Administration is working hard to find ways to help encourage adoption. On
December 14, 1996, I issued a Memorandum to the Secretaries of Health and Human Services,
the Treasury, Labor, and Commerce and to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management,
directing them to promote efforts to both increase the number of children who are adopted or
permanently placed each year and to move children more rapidly from foster care to permanent
homes. I also urged them to increase public awareness about the children waiting for permanent
families and to encourage all Americans to consider the rewards of adoption.
I challenged the members of my Administration to work with States, communities, and
civic leaders to create a plan for doubling the number of adoptions and permanent placements for
children to 54,000 by the year 2002. And on February 14, 1997, the Adoption 2002 report,
outlining changes in policies and practices necessary to reach this goal, was released. Since then,
we have been actively implementing the recommen-dations included in the report, and States are
reviewing data and submitting numerical targets for adoption and guardianships
to be completed by the year 2002. The Office of Personnel Management has published a guide
for Federal workers interested in adopting, and the Department of Health and Human Services is
preparing to make the first annual Adoption 2002 Excellence awards later this year. Finally, the
Congress is considering historic legislation that would provide the resources and statutory
authority for financial incentives, technical assistance, and improved judicial decision-making for
children in foster care.
As a Nation, we have before us an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of
our most vulnerable children. We must continue to promote public awareness of the need for
adoptive families and to help families make the choice to provide loving, permanent homes for
the many children who otherwise must continue to wait. We must also strengthen our support of
those families who do choose to adopt. As we observe National Adoption Month, we reaffirm
our commitment to adoption as a new beginning for thousands of children, and we celebrate the
many American families who have embraced these children by accepting the rewards and
responsibilities of adoption.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim November 1997 as National Adoption Month. I urge all Americans
to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities to honor adoptive families and to
participate in efforts to find permanent homes for waiting children.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of November, in
the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-second.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
AS PREPARED
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS FOR THE W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION
FAMILIES FOR KIDS BY 2002 CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, DC
JUNE 26, 1997
It is a pleasure to be in the company of so many men and women who have
contributed their talents and energies to the critical issue of adoption. Over the
years, the Kellogg Foundation has made an unparalleled commitment to improving
our foster care and adoption systems, and I am particularly grateful for the
Foundation's participation in a discussion I held at the White House last summer
about this subject.
Let me thank all of you involved with Kellogg and Families for Kids for your
leadership in drawing attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of children
across our country who are needlessly languishing in foster care -- and for serving
as models of what can be done to improve the child welfare system and bring more
hope and security to children so desperately in need of both.
Not only are you heroes to countless children who have benefited from your
efforts, you are breaking new ground for elected officials and policy makers -- in
Washington and elsewhere -- who have much to learn from your example.
This conference could not be more timely. After years of inattention and
partisan politics, we are finally forging a bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill that
could correct some of the most glaring flaws in the adoption process. Today we are
within reach of bringing some common sense and compassion to an overburdened,
understaffed and outdated foster care system.
Those of you who have worked on children's welfare issues -- as I have for
the last 25 years -- have heard no shortage of stories about children who are shuttled
from one foster home to another during their formative years.
I will never forget a case I handled about 15 years ago in Arkansas.
1
I represented a couple who wanted to adopt a four-year-old boy who had been in
their foster care for three years. The boy had been badly neglected as a baby by his
biological mother, who had psychological problems. When he was less than a year
old, she turned him over to the local social service agency so she could follow a
boyfriend to another state. At that point, the baby showed all the symptoms of
severe mistreatment: he had gained little weight, he was unresponsive and he shied
away from human contact.
But in his foster family, he began to thrive. And his foster parents fell in love
with him. Even though they had signed the customary state contract prohibiting
them from adopting him, they wanted to make him a permanent member of their
family.
The state adoption agency refused their request. So the boy was going to be
taken from the security of the family he knew and turned over to strangers on some
adoption list. Meanwhile, the boy's birth mother filed suit to get him back, claiming
she had overcome her problems.
I argued on behalf of the boy's foster parents that the best interests of the
child should take precedence over both the birth mother's claims of her biological
rights and the state's claims to its contractual agreement. I asked the judge to allow
testimony from a child psychologist about the boy's progress in his foster family
and about the possible consequences to his physical, intellectual and emotional
development if he was separated from them. The judge, who had children and
grandchildren of his own, didn't think he had much to learn from these witnesses,
but he allowed them nonetheless. In the end, the psychologist's testimony weighed
heavily in the judge's determination to allow the foster parents to adopt the boy.
Just as often, however, the child's best interests do not take precedence. And
this sad reality is repeated throughout our nation. Antiquated rules and rigid
presumptions continue to deny countless children the lasting family connections
that can influence whether a child does well in school, stays away from drugs, and
goes on to become a responsible, law-abiding adult.
Only recently have we begun to view issues regarding the health and safety
of children in foster care through a clear lens -- instead of a fog of distortions and
political rhetoric over what constitutes real "family values."
2
Clearly, no one wants children to be in situations where they are subjected to
abuse, torture, starvation or neglect. In 1973, when I was just entering the world of
children's advocacy and the law, I wrote an article about children's rights in family
situations -- particularly those that pose a threat to their health and safety. As
recently as a few years ago, some critics suggested that by a supporting a child's
right to a loving family, I favored giving government more power to break up
biological families and giving children the right to bring trivial disputes with their
parents -- like curfews or who takes out the garbage -- to court.
Thankfully, those erroneous interpretations have given way to a clearer
consensus about which children should be placed back with their biological parents
-- and which should not.
We are beginning to recognize that some parents simply are not capable of
taking care of their own children -- and likely never will be. Think about Elisa
Izquierdo, the four-year-old girl in New York City who was found starved to death
in her family's home last year; or five-year-old Richard Holmes who was
discovered earlier this year to have been tortured and abused in his own home in a
Maryland suburb.
Clearly, these children and others like them would be better off growing up
with the love and support of an adoptive family than with biological parents who
put them in harm's way.
At the same time, we have to recognize that some parents who have had
problems with their children can learn to be responsible but need help in coping
with the stresses of parenthood and child-rearing. In these cases we must make sure
that parents have the support and counseling they need.
Today, the House and Senate are considering bills that would bring more
order, logic and compassion to the process.
Under both bills, "reasonable efforts" to return a child to his or her family
would not be required in extreme cases such as torture, abandonment, physical or
sexual abuse. Court hearings to determine the permanent placement of a child
would be required within 12 months of his or her arrival in the foster care system,
instead of the current 18 months. The hearings would be called "permanency
planning hearings" to make clear the goal of the proceedings.
3
There are also provisions in the legislation to provide financial incentives to
states to increase the number of adoptions from the public child welfare system --
and particularly to increase the number of adoptions of special needs children.
These are important steps toward ensuring that children no longer languish
indefinitely in foster care. They are particularly critical for children who are
traditionally hard to place: those with disabilities, who are medically frail, have
siblings, or are minorities. As we embark on a national discussion about race
relations, which the President called for earlier this month, let us take special note
that a disproportionate number of children in foster care are African-American.
These children can bring boundless joy to families, and families can bring
boundless joy to them. But we have to work harder to ensure that these unions
happen.
Let me be clear: The President is committed to working with Congress
to achieve the goals you and the Administration share and to find the funding
necessary to achieve the strongest adoption bill possible.
Many provisions in the House and Senate bills incorporate recommendations
made in Adoption 2002, a report prepared by the Department of Health and Human
Services in response to the President's directive to identify barriers to adoption and
double the number of children placed annually in permanent homes by the year
2002.
Giving states flexibility to shorten the adoption process, highlighting
strategies that are working, and providing incentives to meet adoption goals -- all
part of the President's action plan -- build on other Administration efforts.
To break down financial, cultural and social barriers to adoption, the
Administration has made it illegal to deny or delay an adoption on the basis of race.
And the President has signed into law a $5,000 tax credit for families who adopt,
with an increase to $6,000 for families who adopt children with special needs.
The President's chief concern has been -- and continues to be -- that no child
is deprived of a safe and permanent home for one day longer than necessary. As he
has said, he wants every state, every family court, every case worker in the country
to understand that children's health and safety must be paramount in resolving these
cases.
4
He is determined to work across party lines, at every level of government and
with every sector of society, to give every child in America the security of a loving,
nurturing and permanent home.
Yet while we all know that federal leadership is crucial, we also know that it
is not enough to bring about the sweeping change our child welfare system requires.
That's where you come in.
I want to commend the Kellogg Foundation for bringing together policy
makers, business and religious leaders, elected officials, judges, child advocates,
and foster and adoptive families here to discuss strategies to reduce the number of
children waiting to be adopted and to speed up the adoption process so that no child
lingers in foster care for more than one year.
I also want to commend you for launching the Families for Kids initiative,
which has already produced tangible results in eleven sites around the country,
including:
--providing counseling for adoptive parents
--modernizing computer data
--bringing together churches to find permanent homes for foster children --
particularly special needs children
-- making changes in the judicial system to address the needs of children in
foster care.
As a result of these and other efforts undetaken as part of Families for Kids,
7,000 children were placed in permanent families last year. Many promising new
partnerships are underway. And there are important lessons that can be replicated in
every community and state cross our country.
Today, we understand even more about the urgency of this mission. As the
White House Conference on Early Childhood Development and Learning in April
made clear, children need love, nurturing, stimulation and security from the
moment they enter this world. Depriving them of consistency and permanence is
depriving them of the chance to achieve their God-given potential.
5
At the same time, we must not overlook the critical difference that loving
parents can make in the lives of older children as well. Children of all ages can
benefit from the care and attention of a stable, loving family. And that's why your
efforts are so crucial to bringing the best out in all of America's children, whether
they are infants or adolescents.
I hope you will continue to lead our nation as we continue this important
work. As Americans, we live in the most prosperous country in the world. Our
economy is flourishing. We are known the world over for our compassion and
generous spirit.
So let's meet this test and show that we really do stand for children. Let's
give every child the gift of love that he or she deserves.
Thank you.
###
6
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
COLUMN FOR RELEASE JUNE 25, 1997
TALKING IT OVER/CREATORS SYNDICATE
The reality of foster care was brought home to Bill and me when we met a teenage boy at
the White House this winter. Bill asked him where he was from. "Fairfax County," the boy said.
When Bill asked where in the county, the boy shrugged and answered, "All over."
Foster
care
Unfortunately, thousands of children in our foster care system today have similar stories
to tell. Because of the complex regulations, outdated assumptions, understaffed and
overwhelmed agencies of our child welfare system, too many children spend their formative
years shuttling from one foster home to another. Today, even children lucky enough to find
adoptive families will have waited an average of three years or more in a series of temporary
homes.
But that can change. The Senate and the House of Representatives are both considering
bills that will take important steps toward making sure that no child languishes in foster care.
Currently, a child's case can drag on for years in the foster care system as authorities
make repeated attempts to reunite a child with his or her biological parents. Often these parents,
for a variety of reasons, are unable to change the behavior that caused them to lose their child in
the first place. If either bill becomes law, "reasonable efforts" to return a child to his or her
family would not be required in extreme cases such as torture, abandonment, physical or sexual
abuse. Court hearings to determine the placement of a child would be required within 12 months
-- instead of the current 18 months -- of his or her arrival in the foster care system. To make
clear their purpose, these hearings would be renamed "permanency planning hearings."
As a children's advocate and lawyer who has represented parents and children in their
struggles with the foster care system for more than 25 years, I believe these steps are long
overdue. In 1973, I wrote an article about children's rights under the law, specifically their
1
rights in family situations that pose sérious threats to their health and safety. Even a few years
ago, some considered this view controversial. Critics suggested that by supporting a child's right
to a loving family, I advocated giving government more power to break up biological families
and giving children the right to bring trivial disputes with their parents -- such as bed time or
who takes out the garbage -- to court.
Thankfully, that erroneous interpretation of my views has given way to a new bipartisan
consensus around the idea that protecting our children from harm and working to provide them
with permanent, loving families-- even when that may entail separating them from their
biological parents -- should be a priority of our child welfare system. Finally, we are recognizing
that there are parents who will never be able to care for their children. And, in order to secure a
foster child's well-being and stable development, we as a society have the responsibility to
decide as quickly as possible whether a child can return home safely.
Many of the provisions in the House and Senate bills reflect recommendations made in
Adoption 2002, a report prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services in response
to the President's directive to identify the barriers to adoption and double the number of children
placed annually in permanent homes by the year 2002.
Over the years, my husband has dedicated a great deal of time and energy to improving
foster care and promoting adoption. As a result of the Administration's efforts, it is now illegal
to deny or delay an adoption simply because the prospective parents and child are not of the
same race. And last year, the President signed into law a $5,000 tax credit to help families adopt
children.
Federal leadership is crucial, but it will take the commitment of people from all corners of
our country to bring about the sweeping change our child welfare system requires. This week, I'll
be speaking at a national conference on adoption and child welfare reform sponsored by the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The conference will bring together business and religious leaders,
2
policy makers, elected officials, judges, child advocates, and foster and adoptive families to
discuss strategies to reduce the number of waiting children and limit the time a child spends in
foster care to no more than one year.
The Kellogg Foundation has been working to reform child welfare systems in eleven
states and localities. Last year alone, the foundation helped find permanent families for 7,000
children. This was possible because the foundation worked with churches and mounted
aggressive media campaigns to recruit prospective adoptive families. And they helped child
welfare agencies reform case work procedures, consolidate records, and modernize data
collection methods so that no child becomes lost in the system.
Now we must build on their work. With thousands of children leading transient lives in
foster care, we cannot afford any more delays. We need to encourage Congress to pass the best
adoption bill possible. Thousands of innocent children are counting on us.
###
3
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 14, 1997
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AND THE FIRST LADY
AT PRESENTATION OF ADOPTION 2002 REPORT
The Oval Office
12:51 P.M. EST
MRS. CLINTON: I want to welcome all of you to the White
House and wish you a happy Valentine's Day. I am delighted that we
are holding this event on a day when we think about all kinds of
love, and we are gathered to announce a plan that we hope can bring
the love of a permanent family to the hundreds of thousands of
children waiting in our foster care system.
Two months ago the President directed Health and Human
Services Secretary Donna Shalala to investigate the barriers that
keep so many of our children in the limbo of foster care. He asked
the Secretary to report to him with specific recommendations on how
best to move children more rapidly from foster care to permanent
homes, and how to meet a national goal of doubling the number of
children placed annually in permanent homes by the year 2002.
In a few minutes, Olivia Golden, Acting Assistant
Secretary of Health and Human Services, will present her department's
findings to the President. I'm very impressed by the hard work that
went into this report. It is based on extensive interviews, surveys
and consultations with placement agencies, adoption and child welfare
advocates, and social workers nationwide. I'm particularly pleased
that careful attention was paid to the thoughts and observations of
adoptive and foster parents because they know better than anyone the
strengths and shortcomings of our system.
This report makes it very clear that foster care should
never be a permanent solution. No child should grow up in foster
care. Children deserve prompt, efficient decision-making from the
adults who serve them. They deserve schedules for permanent
placement that respect their developmental needs. And they deserve
federal leadership to make that happen.
Ensuring the safety and timely placement of a child with
a permanent loving family should be the mission of our foster care
system. But for too many years this mission has been obscured as too
many children have literally grown up or spent the majority of their
childhoods in the system. They have led transient lives, moving from
one foster family to the next, experiencing few constants but growing
case files and dreams for permanent families. We can no longer
afford these delays.
In recent years we have learned much about the
tremendous influence that adults caring for children in their
earliest years can have on their intellectual, neurological, and
emotional development. Children who have adults to talk to them,
read to them, make them feel secure and loved throughout their
earliest years will thrive. And we cannot afford to let any child
who could be in such a loving situation go without it.
That is why steps to secure permanent, safe, and loving
homes for children, whether they are with their biological families
or others, should begin as soon as a child enters the foster care
system, not after four days or five months or six years of shuttling
from placement to placement.
We have already witnessed important steps to remedy the
situation. Two years ago, the President and Congress made it illegal
to deny or delay an adoption simply because the adoptive parents and
children were not of the same race. Last year, the administration
and Congress strengthened that legislation. The President also
signed a $5,000 tax credit for families who adopt. And families who
adopt children with special needs can receive $6,000.
Decorating the Oval Office today are valentines created
by some of the 600 children waiting in Iowa in foster care. Each
valentine, sponsored by the Iowa Citizens Foster Care Review Board,
tells the story of a child waiting to be adopted. The paper hearts
list the age the child came into the foster care system, the age the
child became free for adoption, and the number of days they have been
waiting for a family.
Every year these valentines are placed on trees at the
Iowa State Capitol. This Valentine's Day, the children decided to
send their valentines to the White House, as well. Some of them sent
letters to accompany their valentines -- letters such as this one:
"Dear President, my name is Rollie. I am 12. I live in Iowa. I
like to play football and basketball. I've been waiting eight years
for an adoptive family. I'm hoping for a family with pets, a brother
and a sister, and nice parents."
Let's all work together so that Rollie and thousands of
other children waiting in foster care can see their dreams come true.
Now, it is my great pleasure to introduce the acting
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, Olivia Golden, who
will tell us more about today's report.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY GOLDEN: Mrs. Clinton, thank you for
that introduction and for your leadership. And thank you, Mr.
President, for giving us the opportunity to be here today. Secretary
Shalala wished she could be here, and it's an honor for me to be here
in her place.
Mr. President, in December you told us that you wanted
to double the number of children who are adopted or permanently
placed from foster care by the year 2002. You wanted to move
children more rapidly from foster care to permanent homes, and you
told us to come back in 60 days with a plan for how to do it. Let me
tell you what we've done.
To prepare our report to you we consulted with leaders
in Congress, in state and local governments, child welfare experts,
community leaders and foster and adoptive parents. Hundreds of
people talked with us; 200 sent us letters. It was an enormously
exciting process, because what we heard was a sense of joy and
excitement from all over the country that under the leadership of the
President and the First Lady the nation was ready to join together to
address this issue. And we learned a tremendous amount from this
process. What we learned from this consultation will guide our work
on this initiative and on all of our work with children in the child
welfare system.
So again, I want to thank you, Mr. President, for the
opportunity to do this work.
The report, Adoption 2002, that I have the honor to
present today is an action plan to make sure that all of the 450,000
children in foster care have a real chance for a loving, permanent
home, and that we're able to meet the President's goal of doubling by
the year 2002 the number of children adopted or placed in permanent
homes.
Let me give you just a few highlights of the report.
The report begins with the 10 principles that we learned from our
consultations and that will guide our work. The first, as the First
Lady said, is that every child deserves a safe, permanent family.
The report commits us to setting goals with every state to double
adoptions by the year 2002. And for the first time that we know of
in federal child welfare spending, we've put dollars behind results,
paying for performance to make sure that states receive incentives if
they in fact move ahead on adoption.
The report proposes several major changes in federal
legislation to help more children find permanent homes and remove
procedural barriers. And it proposes targeted funding for states to
help them dismantle procedural and other barriers to permanency. And
it proposes activities to break down racial and ethnic barriers to
adoption. And finally, the report proposes a comprehensive technical
assistance plan to bring the best talent in the nation to help the
courts, state child welfare agencies, community leaders to work
together to ensure that children move promptly to a loving permanent
home.
What we believe makes this exciting agenda possible is
the excitement we've heard from community leaders across the country
the partnership and commitment we've received from state and local
leaders -- we have support from seven governors for our goals
described in the report and we expect many more.
What makes it possible is bipartisan congressional
commitment; and, most of all, what makes it possible is the
leadership that we've experienced and the nation has experienced from
the President and the First Lady. So it's a tremendous honor to be
able today to present to you Adoption 2002.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Thank you very much, Olivia. Ladies and gentlemen and
boys and girls, thank you all for being here. I also want to say a
special word of thanks to some members of Congress who are not here
today but who have done an enormous amount of work on this issue,
including Senators Rockefeller, Chafee and De Wine, and Congresswoman
Kennelly and Congressman Camp.
Let me begin by also saying happy Valentine's Day. All
the kids look wonderful. The rest of us look all right, too --
(laughter) -- but the kids look especially wonderful.
I want to thank you, Olivia, for the work you've done.
And I want to thank the First Lady for the work she has done on this
issue over more than 20 years now. I'll never forget the first
conversation we had, shortly we were married, about a case that she
had involving a child in foster care who wanted to become an adopted
child. I didn't know very much about it before then, and ever since
then this issue has been of consuming interest to me because of what
I learned through her. And I thank her for that.
We know that our children's fundamental well-being
depends upon safety and stability; that without these, children have
a very hard time in this complicated, challenging world of ours. We
know that far too many of our own children are indeed now in danger
in the homes in which they live. The public child welfare system was
created to provide a temporary haven for those children, but not to
let them languish forever in foster care.
As you heard Olivia say, we have nearly half a million
of our children in foster care today. Nearly 100,000 will never
return to their original homes. Many of those children still will
never know what it's like to live in a real home until they grow up
and start their own families. But it does not have to be that way.
We can find adoptive and other permanent families for waiting
children like these fine children who have joined us today and the
children whose valentines you see hanging behind me and here in
front.
In December I asked the Department of Health and Human
Services to come up with an aggressive legislative and administrative
strategy to double the number of children we move from foster care to
permanent homes annually by the year 2002, and to move them there
much more quickly. I'm proud to say that the Department went to work
to produce this blueprint for achieving our goal.
Now we have to move quickly to put this plan into
action, SO that no child is deprived of a safe and permanent home for
even one day longer than necessary. Every agency of every state,
every family court, every case worker in the country must understand
that children's health and safety are the paramount concerns of the
child welfare system, especially when determining whether to remove a
child from his or her home, or return them there.
We'll work with Congress to make sure the law explicitly
reflects this priority. We'll issue guidelines to the states so
there will be no question as to the law's meaning.
Second, to meet the goal of moving 54,000 children into
permanent homes in 2002, we'll work with states and set yearly
targets. We'll give them, as my balanced budget does, $10 million a
year for the next three years to give them the assistance they need
to state agencies, courts and communities to devise such a system.
We'll also have $10 million to establish competitive grants for
states to develop model strategies for moving children from foster
care to permanent families.
Third, we'll propose legislation to give states bonuses,
as Olivia said, for every child that is adopted over the prior year's
total, with even larger bonuses when the child has special needs.
The balanced budget will start paying for these bonuses, but we know
they'll pay for themselves, since foster care costs far more than
adoption. This isn't just cost effective -- of course, it's the
right thing to do.
Fourth, to achieve our goal of moving children more
quickly, we'll work with Congress to shorten from 18 to 12 months the
time a child waits for the first hearing. And we're going to call it
a permanency planning hearing, so that there's no mistake as to its
purpose.
Fifth, to give credit for model strategies that are
working, we'll give national awards for excellence every year in
November, National Adoption Month.
Finally, we'll redouble our efforts to make sure no
child of one race is deprived of a loving home when a family of
another race is prepared to give it. That is illegal and wrong and
often hurts our very neediest children. The Department of Health and
Human Services will continue to ensure that states are meeting their
obligations under this law.
Putting this plan into action today will mean that we
are ensuring that no child will languish in foster care when loving
families are out there ready, willing and able to open their hearts
and their homes. This is just one part of our strategy to guarantee
the well-being of our most vulnerable children. By giving states the
flexibility to develop their own strategies, we're moving closer to
achieving that goal.
I'm proud to announce that we have approved Ohio's
request for a waiver in dealing with their child welfare system.
This is the fifth of its kind, and there will be more to come. It
gives Ohio the authority to design and to test a managed care
approach to improve child welfare services and move children out of
foster care more quickly.
By working together across party lines at every level of
government, in businesses, religious groups, communities, and in our
homes, we can make sure that every child in America grows up in a
safe and nurturing home. That is a goal every American should be
proud to support. That is a gift of love we can make to all of our
children. And if you look at the children here today, it's hard to
think of anything more important we could be doing to say, Happy
Valentine's Day.
Thank you. (Applause.)
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 14, 1996
Radio Address By The President
The Oval Office
10:06 A.M. EST
Good morning. Today we're taking important new
steps to make adoption easier and to move children out of foster
care faster. These efforts will help to give even more children
what every child needs and deserves, loving parents, and a strong
and stable home.
I'm delighted to be joined in the Oval Office today by a
remarkable group of children and parents who know firsthand the
tremendous possibilities of adoption; and by the First Lady who has
worked so long and hard on this issue and whose efforts have made
today possible.
I'm especially pleased to be able to take this action now, in
this season of hope and light. The holidays we celebrate this month
teach us that through faith and love we can truly repair the world.
I can think of no better way to fulfill the promise of this season
than to bring a child into a family and a family to a child.
There are more than 450,000 children in the nation's foster
care system. They are placed there because of abuse, neglect or a
home life that is neither safe, nor secure. While most of these
children eventually return to their original homes, nearly 100,000
of them simply don't have that option. Those children wait far too
long, typically three years or more, to find permanent homes and
families to love them.
Promoting adoption has been at the heart of our
administration's efforts to protect our children and strengthen our
families. Earlier this year I was proud to sign a $5,000 tax credit
to help families adopt children. We put an end to racial
preferences for adoption. No longer can laws keep children of one
race from nurturing arms of adoptive parents of another. This is a
good start, but we must do more.
That is why I have just signed a presidential directive with a
clear goal: We will double the number of children we move from
foster care to permanent homes, from 27,000 a year today, to 54,000
a year by the year 2002. With this effort we're saying no child
should be trapped in the limbo of foster care; no child should be
uncertain about what the word family' or parents' or home
mean, particularly when there are open arms waiting to welcome
these children into safe and strong households where they can build
good, caring lives.
As part of this initiative, I'm directing the Secretary of
Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, who is also with us
today, to launch an extensive effort to determine what steps we
must take to meet our goal. I want the Secretary to report back to
me with her recommendations in 60 days. This report must tell us
how we can help states set and meet urgent new adoption targets. It
must describe how we can improve coordination among local, state
and federal authorities SO that every community has access to the
best ways to encourage adoption. And it must outline what sensible
financial incentives we can provide states to raise adoption rates.
I also want the Secretary to determine what additional changes
we can make in federal laws and regulations to ensure that children
won't get trapped in foster care. And I want to know if there are
any new provisions we can put in place to move children through the
system faster and to protect them when they leave.
There are other steps we are taking immediately. I'm
instructing the Departments of Treasury, Labor, Commerce, and
Health and Human Services to launch an all-out effort to heighten
public awareness about adoption and to recognize those in the
private sector who are committing themselves to this important
cause.
Let me also say how grateful I am to those in Congress of both
parties who are working SO hard to make adoption a reality for
America's most vulnerable children. I want to thank especially
Senators Rockefeller and DeWine, and Representatives Kennelly and
Camp for their efforts.
The fact that we are commemorating the birth of a child that
began life in a manger and became the Prince of Peace should remind
us that the promise of God has been placed in every child. We must
work tirelessly to make sure that every boy and girl in America who
is up for adoption has a family waiting up to reach him or her. No
child should be in foster care for one day longer than he or she
needs to be.
This is a season of miracles, and perhaps there is no greater
miracle than finding a loving home. for a child who needs one.
Thanks for listening.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 14, 1996
RADIO ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
AND THE FIRST LADY
TO THE NATION
The Oval Office
10:06 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today we're taking important new
steps to make adoption easier and to move children out of foster care
faster. These efforts will help to give even more children what every
child needs and deserves, loving parents, and a strong and stable home.
I'm delighted to be joined in the Oval Office today by a
remarkable group of children and parents who know firsthand the
tremendous possibilities of adoption; and by the First Lady who has
worked so long and hard on this issue and whose efforts have made today
possible.
I'm especially pleased. to be able to take this action now, in
this season of hope and light. The holidays we celebrate this month
teach us that through faith and love we can truly repair the world. I
can think of no better way to fulfill the promise of this season than to
bring a child into a family and a family to a child.
There are more than 450,000 children in the nation's foster care
system. They are placed there because of abuse, neglect or a home life
that is neither safe, nor secure. While most of these children
eventually return to their original homes, nearly 100,000 of them simply
don't have that option. Those children wait far too long, typically
three years or more, to find permanent homes and families to love them.
Promoting adoption has been at the heart of our administration's
efforts to protect our children and strengthen our families. Earlier
this year I was proud to sign a $5,000 tax credit to help families adopt
children. We put an end to racial preferences for adoption. No longer
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-1-
can laws keep children of one race from nurturing arms of adoptive
parents of another. This is a good start, but we must do more.
That is why I have just signed a presidential directive with a
clear goal: We will double the number of children we move from foster
care to permanent homes, from 27,000 a year today, to 54,000 a year by
the year 2002. With this effort we're saying no child should be trapped
in the limbo- of foster care; no child should be uncertain about what the
word "family" or "parents" or "home" mean, particularly when there are
open arms waiting to welcome these children into safe and strong
households where they can build good, caring lives.
As part of this initiative, I'm directing the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, Donna Shalala, who is also with us today, to launch
an extensive effort to determine what steps we must take to meet our
goal. I want the Secretary to report back to me with her
recommendations in 60 days. This report must tell us how we
can help states set and meet urgent new adoption targets.
It must describe how we can improve coordination among
local, state and federal authorities so that every
community has access to the best ways to encourage
adoption. And it must outline what sensible financial
incentives we can provide states to raise adoption rates.
I also want the Secretary to determine what
additional changes we can make in federal laws and
regulations to ensure that children won't get trapped in
foster care. And I want to know if there are any new
provisions we can put in place to move children through
the system faster and to protect them when they leave.
There are other steps we, are taking
immediately. I'm instructing the Departments of Treasury,
Labor, Commerce, and Health and Human Services to launch
an all-out effort to heighten public awareness about
adoption and to recognize those in the private sector who
are committing themselves to this important cause.
Let me also say how grateful I am to those in
Congress of both parties who are working so hard to make
adoption a reality for America's most vulnerable children.
I want to thank especially Senators Rockefeller and
DeWine, and Representatives Kennelly and Camp for their
efforts.
MORE
-2-
The fact that we are commemorating the birth of
a child that began life in a manger and became the Prince
of Peace should remind us that the promise of God has been
placed in every child. We must work tirelessly to make
sure that every boy and girl in America who is up for
adoption has a family waiting up* to reach him or her. No
child should be in foster care for one day longer than he
or she needs. to be.
This is a season of miracles, and perhaps there
is no greater miracle than finding a loving home for a
child who needs one.
Thanks for listening.
MRS. CLINTON: We are so happy to have all of
you here in the Oval Office with us today. And I know
that the families that are here and the children and
teenagers who are here all have a story to tell about how
your families were created. And I would like to ask if I
could -- I know that several of you actually were united
with the children who are here because of television shows
that you saw the children on. And perhaps you could tell
us what happened and how that came to be.
Would you like to start? And maybe you should
tell everyone who you are and introduce yourself.
Yes.
MR. BORIE: My name is Glenn Borie. My wife is
Carolyn, and these are our four children -- John, Crystal,
Charity and Dawn.
MRS. BORIE: We had been foster parents and
were looking to adopt and knew that there were a lot of
options. But seeing how children often get lost in the
system, our hearts went towards them, knowing that -- very
desirable and young and end up in the system for a long
time and are less desirable to people at that point when
they are available.
So we have been, by chance, by God's will, had
the television on on a particular day when there was a
talk show about adoption. And for a brief 20 seconds we
saw Crystal on TV and just caught in our heart at that
time. And as we saw the number for the National Adoption
Center we found out she had three siblings.
Within a month the two older ones, John and
Crystal, had moved in. We started visits with Charity and
Dawn and two months later they moved in as well. Before
they were separated in two foster homes for five years, so
when the two younger ones moved in the week before
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Thanksgiving it was the first time in five years that
they'd spent that together. And we just had a very
thankful time to just thank God for an incredible family.
MRS. CLINTON: We're glad you're here today.
Did you also have a television?
MS. GRAY: Actually, no. I had adopted Michael
when he was only eight years old -- I was 44 at the time,
a divorced woman, wanted a child, and I was totally lost.
This is the most amazing thing that I've ever experienced
in my life, is having the gift of this beautiful child
here.
And work for a company, Phoenix Insurance
Company, which is an incredibly supportive company. And
we have a subsidy for people up to $2,000 for adoption of
children. And the company has been supportive in a lot of
ways. Me, as a single parent -- so it's just -- I'm
delighted that you're doing this. Because as I go around
and I tell people I adopted a child and I was 44 and he
came from the state, I get all of these surprised looks --
how could you get him as a single parent, you know, are
there children in the system. I think we have a huge job
ahead of us in terms of educating people about getting
children out of the public system. Kids are there and
they need us.
MRS. CLINTON: I absolutely agree.
MS. GRAY: And they need companies like mine to
support us.
MRS. CLINTON: And what about your family
story.
MR. INGLESE: Hi, my name is Larry Inglese, and
we were a foster family to start off with. I always loved
children and wanted to have a lot of children. I saw this
commercial on TV to open up your heart and your home to a
special needs child. So I responded to that commercial
and, of course, being a foster parent who liked having
children in Pennsylvania, St. Joseph's called about
adopting. And I went through with adoption of -- they set
us up in a match party. And I met Jason there, who was 13
at the time.
THE PRESIDENT: How old are you now, Jason?
JASON INGLESE: I'm 15.
MR. INGLESE: He's going to be 16 next month.
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MORE
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And him and I, we just, like, made eye contact. We sat
down, we had lunch, we looked at each other in the eye and
we both knew at that minute I was his father and he was my
son. There was no doubt, no doubt whatsoever. But they
had another family that had wanted Jason with two parent
-- I'm a single parent, and they had a two-parent home.
But that lady there kept changing her mind back and forth,
so I said the two of us came to -- you know, this isn't
for sure with her, I think I should get first choice over
Jason because I'm willing to make a commitment now. And
she agreed.
He was sure and I was sure, and through
adoption got him. And then sometime later I was ready for
the next one, and the caseworker was calling around,
trying to find a home for Michael. Michael has got
cerebral palsy and he's got mild mental retardation. He
has a lot of problems with -- he came out, it was hard to
find him a home. Anyway, finally, I accepted, I said I
would take him.
But there were some race issues at the time,
but they wouldn't let me have him right away. It took
about -- it was about five or six months. They contacted
me back and they couldn't get another family to take him
so they accepted us. But I was kind of upset at the time
because we were ready to give him a loving home and it
didn't happen -- because of one caseworker, it didn't
happen as fast as it should have. But we finally got him.
MRS. CLINTON: Great.
MR. INGLESE: And we finalized with him in
November, November 15th of this year.
MRS. CLINTON: Well, that's wonderful -- in
time for Thanksgiving. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: You have -- how many kids do
you have now?
MR. INGLESE: I have three biological children,
two adopted, and I've had 23 foster children.
MRS. CLINTON: That's great.
And what about your story?
MRS. BRYANT: My name is Frances Bryant. This
is my husband, Michael Bryant. And we also saw Trey on
the television program. We were watching the news one
night, and normally I don't actually watch this particular
channel, and for some reason I was just glued to this
news. And I had never seen a commercial with children on
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it asking for a home. And then I saw Trey and he was on
there and just touched my heart so much. And I wrote down
the number and it was 1-800-KIDS hotline -- and I got up
right after it went off and I told my husband about it. I
said, you wouldn't believe what I just saw on TV. You
know, I had never seen a child asking for a home.
There was no way that I could refuse this. I
mean, it just touched my heart so. And we called the very
next day and found out the information, and we went
through the process and it only took about two months and
we got Trey in our home. And what the amazing thing is
that I realized how many children are out there waiting to
be adopted. And I encourage anyone who can open up their
heart and their home to a child -- it's a wonderful,
rewarding experience. And I'm also going to do it again.
MRS. CLINTON: Well, we have some children here
who are waiting for homes, and maybe you could introduce
yourself. Which ones -- who wants to go first? Anybody
want to say anything?
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.
DANIEL: My name is Daniel, and I've been
waiting for a family for quite a long time. And
hopefully, in a short amount of time I will probably get
what I'm looking for in a family. My brother has already
been adopted, and hopefully I'll get adopted by his family
at one point of time. And if not, I'll still be able to
get in contact with him.
THE PRESIDENT: How old are you?
DANIEL: Thirteen.
THE PRESIDENT: How old is your brother?
DANIEL: Seventeen.
MRS. CLINTON: How long have you been in foster
care?
DANIEL: About two, three years.
MRS. CLINTON: Two or three years?
DANIEL: I'm not sure, but --
THE PRESIDENT: Where's your home? Where do
you live?
DANIEL: Where do I live now? Alexandria.
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THE PRESIDENT: Anybody else want to talk?
MRS. CLINTON: What's your name? I'm glad
you're here this morning.
One of the goals that we have with trying to do
this and, as you say, talk more about education of people
about adoption, and something the Secretary and the
President and all of us are committed to, is so that more
people know what your experience has been like. And
anytime you raise a child, it is not all easy. We know
that. I mean, there are going to be ups and downs no
matter what. But I think that your stories about the
emotional feeling that you had when you met your children
is something that if we can get more people to see, we
have more response. Do you agree with that, too?
MS. GRAY: Absolutely. I saw Michael the first
time, he was four weeks old, and, as you say, I knew that
this is my little boy. I was all pumped up thinking, oh,
I'm going to adopt a little girl because I know about
girls -- then I saw this little boy and it was all over.
But it has been an enormous blessing for me and
for my family. He's just an incredible, an incredible
gift. And I just wish that more and more people could
have that experience. There is such a mythology about
adoption, and if we could just get the word out and just
get people to go and see and talk to these beautiful
children, we could find them all homes, and have stable,
loving parents who care about them and will raise them as
strong citizens. And it's the greatest thing I've ever
done in my whole entire life.
MRS. CLINTON: That's what we're going to try
to do. And you all are experts because you've been
through the system. What are some of the changes that we
need to make in the system that each of you has dealt with
SO that we can perhaps encourage more people to be
involved? Any thoughts about that?
MS. BORIE: Just the length of time that it
takes. In my situation, I'm thankful that it took longer
only because I would not have had them otherwise. But it
breaks my heart to know that -- these are my children and
to know that they were separated from each other for that
long. It's heart-wrenching. And I may not have been
their parent at that time, but having them now, in my
heart I was their parent all that time. And to think that
they had to go without each other, as a parent, it's just
very sad. And it shouldn't have taken that long.
MRS. CLINTON: How long did it take?
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MRS. BORIE: They were in care for about five
years. Our experience -- happened more quickly than
usual. It was very speedy, thankfully. But to know that
they were apart for that long was unnecessary.
MS. GRAY: I'd like to see us do a lot more
with companies. I'm sure that -- I'm speaking on behalf
my company because it's very supportive getting started,
Phoenix Insurance. And anybody who wants to talk to me
about it, please call because I want to help other
companies do the same thing. If we could just get
companies to tell their employees about these kinds of
opportunities -- to do more through their newsletters and
to say we're offering a benefit -- that would be great.
MRS. CLINTON: And the new legislation that the
President signed to give people the $5,000 tax credit
that's something we need to make sure people know about,
too, because you obviously don't do these things because
of that, but there are expenses associated with taking a
child into your home, especially a child with medical
problems. Have you found that?
MR. INGLESE: Well, I'm lucky as far as my
problems because Michael's medication alone comes to about
$800 a month and I could never afford that on my own. But
I have a Pennsylvania Medical Access Card which covers his
medical, and he needs many operations that he's been in
even before I got him and he still -- he just got an
operation, I think it was last month. They cover
everything, totally. All his needs are met and paid for
by the state. And I think it would be, like, impossible
for me to adopt him if the state didn't pay for his needs
and medical care because it's a tremendous amount and it's
a tremendous expense.
Also what I want to say to others who are
thinking about adopting, I think it's -- from what I find
with some of the children, that they gave the parents too
many years, they keep the children in foster care too many
years. Jason was first in foster care from an infant.
And he didn't get put up for adoption until he was 13
years old. It went so many years back and forth that he
went back to the birth family and then taken away and back
and forth. And Michael was also five years. His mother
abandoned him at birth. He was put in foster care right
from the hospital when he was born. And he's been in
through foster homes in the five years before I adopted
him.
I think it should be a lesser amount of time a
child -- don't give the parents that long to try to get
their children back. I think a year should be good
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enough. If a parent don't clean up their act within the
year, then that child should be put in a loving home where
he will get all the love that his natural parents can't
give him.
MRS. CLINTON: How do you feel about that,
Jason? Do you have an opinion about that?
JASON: Yes. Basically, I agree on the same.
It shouldn't take that much time because with a child," of
course, he's going to think that it should because he's
going to want to go back with his biological parents, but
to sit here and think about it, I would have liked it that
way than to keep going back, keep taken away, keep going
back -- for it to keep happening like that.
MR. INGLESE: Each time a new foster home. The
other foster homes, they fill up. So he was like in, I
think, about 12 or 13 foster homes and it was new one each
time. He couldn't even go back to the same foster home
where he knew the people. So he had to go through that
struggle of trying to fit in with new family all over
again and over and over and over again.
THE PRESIDENT: How many foster homes have you
lived with?
DANIEL: About three.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you feel it's hard when you
change?
DANIEL: It's a bit. After a while, you get
sort of used to it, but it's still hard.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thank
you.
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you for what you're doing
and thank you for the example.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
END
10:26 A.M. EST
-9-
A CHALLENGE TO THE NATION:
SAFE AND PERMANENT HOMES FOR ALL CHILDREN
Today, President Clinton issued a challenge to the nation and signed a directive to members of his
Cabinet to take new actions to move children more rapidly from foster care to safe, permanent
homes. The goal of the President's ambitious new initiative is to at least double, by the year 2002,
the number of children in foster care who are adopted or permanently placed each year. The
directive focuses on securing homes for the tens of thousands of children in foster care who cannot
return safely to their homes and for whom adoption is a goal. After consulting with Congressional,
state and civic leaders, agencies will report back to the President within 60 days on steps to reach
the directive's goals, which include:
I. Doubling the Number of Children Adopted or Permanently Placed by 2002:
Create Incentives for States: To shift the focus from paperwork to successful outcomes, the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will work with states to set specific targets for
increases in the number of children adopted or found permanent placement. In return, the federal
government will provide a new per child financial incentive to states to increase the number of
adoptions from the public welfare system. This action should nearly pay for itself, as increasing the
number of adoptions will reduce expenditures in the foster care system. Progress in meeting the
numerical targets will be compiled and published in a state-by-state annual report. Successful states
will be recognized for their accomplishments.
Breakdown Racial and Ethnic Barriers to Adoption: HHS will continue to aggressively implement
the laws signed by President Clinton in 1994 and 1996, which prohibit adoption agencies from
denying or delaying placement of a waiting child based on race, color, or national origin, and
encourage recruitment of adoptive parents.
II. Moving Children More Rapidly From Foster Care to Permanent Homes:
Decrease Procedural Delays: President Clinton is directing HHS to consult with Congress, states
and civic leaders to propose changes to federal laws, policies and regulations and clarification of the
"reasonable effort" requirement, to help states focus on finding permanent homes for children from
the moment they enter the foster care system.
Help States Identify and Address Barriers to Permanency: As part of his budget proposal in
February, the President will propose financial assistance for states to identify barriers to permanency
and to develop strategies for children who have been waiting for a particularly long time. The
President's initiative also directs HHS to encourage alternative permanency arrangements, such as
guardianship and kinship care, for children for whom adoption is not a viable option.
III. Increasing Public Awareness:
Call to American Families, Communities and Business: The Clinton Administration will launch a
new campaign in partnership with state, civic and business leaders, to increase public awareness
about children waiting for adoption and to encourage all Americans to consider the rewards and
responsibilities of adoption -- in new public service announcements, print materials, and on the
Internet.
Provide Information on the Benefits of Adoption: Federal agencies will form partnerships to inform
people of the new adoption tax credits, the Family and Medical Leave Act benefits, and other
supports for adoptive parents, as well as recognize private sector companies with model policies to
encourage adoption. The Office of Personnel Management will provide support and information to
federal employees who are interested in becoming adoptive parents.
THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION RECORD ON ADOPTION
Our Nation has no greater responsibility than to ensure that every child has the chance to live up to his
or her God-given potential. We can help meet that challenge by identifying a permanent, loving family
for every child waiting in the foster care system.
President Clinton, National Adoption Month Proclamation, November 1996
President Clinton is committed to giving the over 450,000 children in foster care what every child in
America deserves -- loving parents and a healthy,' stable home. The Clinton Administration has taken
several important steps to encourage and increase adoptions and to support the families that choose to
open their hearts and their homes to these children. The President has championed programs that find
and assist adopting families, and has committed his Administration to breaking down barriers, including
high adoption costs and complex regulations.
Today the President announced a new directive to the Departments of Health and Human Services,
Treasury, Labor and Commerce and the Office of Personnel Management to develop a plan to: increase
the number of children who are adopted or permanently placed each year, move children more rapidly
from foster care to permanent homes, and create a new public awareness campaign on the importance
of adoption. These actions build on previous initiatives, including:
MAKING ADOPTION AFFORDABLE FOR FAMILIES
In August, President Clinton signed into law the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 which
provides a $5000 tax credit to families adopting children, and a $6,000 tax credit for families adopting
children with special needs. This policy will alleviate a significant barrier to adoption, helping middle
class families for whom adoption may be prohibitively expensive and making it easier for families to
adopt children with special needs.
BREAKING DOWN RACIAL AND ETHNIC BARRIERS TO ADOPTION
Strengthening the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act which the President signed in 1994, the Small Business
Job Protection Act of 1996 also ensures that the adoption process is free from discrimination and delays
on the basis of race, culture and ethnicity.
PROVIDING SUPPORTS FOR CHILD PROTECTION AND ADOPTION
In 1993, President Clinton signed into law the Family and Medical Leave Act which enables parents
to take time off to adopt a child without losing their jobs or health insurance. In addition, the welfare
reform bill that the President signed into law maintains the guarantee of child protection and adoption,
and does not reduce funds for child welfare, child abuse, foster care and adoption services.
GIVING STATES FLEXIBILITY AND SUPPORT
The Clinton Administration has granted child protection waivers to Delaware, Illinois, North Carolina,
and Oregon, giving the states more flexibility in tailoring services to meet the needs of children and
families. Up to six more states will receive approval for waivers. In addition, this administration has
provided states with enhanced technical support and helped improve court operations so they can focus
on successful outcomes. To prevent children from entering foster care in the first place, in 1993 the
Clinton Administration secured federal funding to work with states, local governments and service
providers to develop effective programs to serve children and families at risk.
RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS
Through speeches, writings, events and public service announcements, the President and First Lady
have promoted the importance and benefits of adoption.
Text of Presidential Directive on Adoption
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ Following is a memorandum
from President Clinton to the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Commerce and
the director of the Office of Personnel Management:
During this Holiday Season, as we reflect on the importance of
family in our own lives, let us remember the tens of thousands of
our Nation's children in the public child welfare system who live
without permanent and caring families. Foster care provides
temporary shelter and relief for children who have been abused or
neglected.
I am committed to giving the children waiting in our Nation's
foster care system what every child in America deserves --loving
parents and a healthy, stable home. The goal for every child in our
Nation's public welfare system is permanency in a safe and stable
home, whether it be returning home, adoption, legal guardianship,
or another permanent placement. While the great majority of
children in foster care will return home, for about one in five,
returning home is not an option, and they will need another home,
one that is caring and safe. These children wait far too long --
typically over 3 years, but for many children much longer to be
placed in permanent homes. Each year, State child welfare agencies
secure homes for less than one-third of the children whose goal is
adoption or an alternate permanent placement. I know we can do
better.
I believe we should increase the number of children who are
adopted or permanently placed from the public foster care system
each year toward the goal of at least doubling that number by the
year 2002. Returning home is not an option for about 100,000 of the
over 450,000 children in the Nation's foster care system, yet only
approximately 20,000 were adopted last year and approximately 7,000
were permanently placed in legal guardianships. While the number of
adoptions each year has been constant for many years, I believe
that by working with States to identify and break down barriers to
permanent placements, setting annual numerical targets, rewarding
successful performance, and raising public awareness, we can meet
the target of at least 54,000 children adopted or permanently
placed from the public foster care system by the year 2002.
Today, therefore, I direct the Secretary of Health and Human
Services, in consultation with State and civic leaders, to report
to me within 60 days on actions to be taken to move children more
rapidly from foster care to permanent homes and at least to double,
by the year 2002, the number of children in foster care who are
adopted or permanently placed out of the public foster care system.
I. To increase the number of children who are adopted or permanently
placed each year, this report should include, but should not necessarily
be limited to, recommendations in the following areas:
(a) Plans to work with States on setting and reaching
State specific numerical targets, using the
technical assistance of the Department of Health
and Human Services National Resource Centers to
make information on best practices available to
States and to engage community leaders, parents,
and the business and faith communities;
(b) Proposals to provide per child financial
incentives to States for increases in the
number of adoptions from the public welfare
system. Options considered should have little
to no net costs, as increases in the number of
adoptions from the public system will reduce
foster care costs, thereby offsetting much if
not all of the incentive payments;
(c) A proposal to ensure continued aggressive
implementation of the Multi-ethnic Placement
Act, as amended by the Inter-ethnic Adoption
Provision of the Small Business Job Protection
Act;
(d) Plans to compile and publish an annual
State-by-State report on success in meeting the
numerical targets; and
(e) Plans to recognize successful States.
II. To move children more rapidly from foster care to permanent
homes, the report shall also recommend changes to Federal law and
regulations and other actions needed to emphasize the importance of
planning for permanency as soon as a child enters the foster care
system. The Secretary's report should include, but should not
necessarily be limited to, recommendations in the following areas:
(a) Plans to provide States with funding to identify
barriers to permanency and to develop targeted
strategies to find permanent homes for children
who have been in foster care a particularly long
time;
(b) Proposals to shorten the period of time between
a child's placement in foster care and his or
her initial hearing at which a permanency
determination is made;
(c) A proposal to clarify that the purpose of
'dispositional hearings" is to plan for
permanency and, as appropriate, to consider
referrals for family mediation, termination of
parental rights, adoption, legal guardianship,
or other permanent placements;
(d) A proposal to clarify the reasonable efforts''
requirement and other Federal policy as it
relates to permanency and safety;
(e) Plans to ensure that States give appropriate
weight to permanency planning by establishing
standards for securing permanency through
adoption or guardianship, once a decision has
been made that a child cannot be returned home;
and
(f) Plans to examine alternative permanency
arrangements, such as guardianship, when adoption
is not possible.
Last month, I signed a proclamation designating November as
National Adoption Month a time to increase awareness about the
tens of thousands of children waiting for families and to encourage
all Americans to consider the rewards and responsibilities of
adoption. However, adoption must be a national concern throughout
the year. Therefore, I direct:
(a) The Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop
and lead a public awareness effort, including use of
public service announcements, print materials, and the
Internet;
(b) The Secretaries of Health and Human Services and
the Treasury in consultation with State, civic, and
private sector leaders to develop and disseminate
information about the new adoption tax credits and
other adoption benefits;
(c) The Secretaries of Labor and Commerce, in
consultation with State and civic leaders, to
identify and recognize companies in the private
sector with model policies to encourage and ease
adoption among employees; and
(d) The Director of the Office of Personnel Management
to direct all Federal agencies to provide information
and support to Federal employees who are prospective
adoptive parents.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
Questions and Answers on Adoption
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE - FOR BACKGROUND ONLY
Q.
What is the purpose of the President's directive?
A.
The purpose of the President's directive is to develop a new plan to move
children more rapidly from foster care to safe, permanent homes, and to at least
double, by the year 2002, the number of children in foster care who are adopted
or permanently placed each year. The directive focuses on securing homes for
the tens of thousands of children in the foster care system who cannot return
safely to their homes and for whom adoption is a goal. It also will increase
public awareness on the importance and benefits of adoption.
Since 1993, the Clinton Administration has taken several important steps to
promote and encourage adoption. President Clinton is committed to giving the
450,000 children in foster care what every child in America deserves -- loving
parents and a healthy, stable home. This directive builds on these commitments
and accomplishments.
Q.
Now that the President signed the directive, what will happen?
A.
The Department of Health and Human Services, working with the Departments
of Treasury, Commerce and Labor and the Office of Personnel Management, will
conduct an intensive consultation process on a bipartisan basis with Congress,
states, civic and business leaders to develop a plan to meet the President's goals
of moving children more rapidly from foster care to permanent homes and
increasing the number of children adopted or permanently placed. The Secretary
of Health and Human Services will report back to the President in sixty days on
specific steps to reach the directive's goals. And many of their recommendations
will be incorporated into the President's budget to be presented to Congress in
February.
Q.
Is this directive ambitious enough?
A.
Today there are 450,000 children in the nation's foster care system. These
children are placed there because of abuse, neglect or a home-life that is neither
safe nor secure. While most of these children eventually return home, nearly
100,000 of them will not. These children that cannot be reunited with their
parents wait typically 3 years or more to find permanent homes. More than half
of waiting children have special needs, such as minorities, children with
disabilities, sibling groups and older children.
Given these circumstances, the President's goal in this directive to at least double,
by the year 2002, the number of children in foster care who are adopted or
permanently placed from the foster care system is extremely ambitious and
exciting. Of course, our ultimate goal is that all children in foster care find what
every child in America deserves -- loving parents and a healthy, stable home.
Q.
Why didn't the President take this step earlier?
A.
Since taking office, President Clinton has made increasing adoption and
improving the foster care system a priority. He has signed critical legislation that
have removed significant financial and racial barriers to adoption. The Small
Business Job Protection Act of 1996 provides a $5,000 tax credit for families who
adopt children and a $6,000 tax credit for families who adopt children with
special needs. Building on the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act which the President-
signed in "1994, the Small Business Job Protection Act also ensures that the
adoption process is free from discrimination and delays on the basis- of race,
culture and ethnicity. He has championed programs like the Family and Medical
Leave Act which supports adopting families and signed a welfare reform law that
preserves the guarantee of and resources for child protection and adoption. The
President and the First Lady have promoted and encouraged the importance and
benefits of adoption through speeches, events and public service announcements.
This directive builds on the President's strong commitment to and
accomplishments on this issue.
Q.
Are you trying to preempt Congress on adoption?
A.
No. We are committed to working with Congress in a bipartisan manner to
develop a plan to increase the number of children adopted or permanently placed
from foster care and move children from foster care to permanent homes more
quickly. Finding safe and permanent homes for all children is a goal to which
we know everyone is committed and should be addressed in a bipartisan way.
There is increasing consensus on this on a bipartisan level.
The President's directive presents an extraordinary opportunity for the Federal
government, Congress, states, communities, and advocacy organizations to work
together toward giving children in foster care what every child in America
deserves -- loving parents and a healthy, stable home.
Q.
How much will this initiative cost?
A.
The directive does not carry any cost right now, as it simply directs members of
the President's Cabinet to consult with Congress, states, and civic leaders to
develop a plan to increase adoptions and move children from foster care to
permanent homes more quickly. The President's FY 1998 budget will contain the
necessary funding for this initiative.
The provision of offering financial incentives to states will nearly pay for itself,
as increasing the number of adoptions will reduce expenditures in the foster care
system.
Q.
Which Cabinet agencies are involved in implementing the President's directive on
adoption?
A.
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, Commerce and Labor
and the Office of Personnel Management were directed by the President to
develop a new plan to move children more rapidly from foster care to safe,
permanent homes, and to at least double, from 27,000 to 54,000, by the year
2002, the number of children in foster care who are adopted or permanently
placed from the public foster care system.
Q.
What role do you see for States in implementing the President's directive on
Adoption?
A.
States are the operators of the public welfare system and therefore are critical to
ensuring the President's goals of moving children more rapidly from foster care
to safe, permanent homes and doubling the number of children adopted and or
permanently placed by the year 2002. We plan to work extremely closely with
states, consulting with them on every aspect of the President's directive. We
know that the states share the President's commitment to increasing adoption and
improving the foster care system and we are counting on them to directly assist
HHS in the formulation and implementation of the new action plan on adoption.
Q.
What role do you see for advocacy groups and foundations in implementing the
President's directive on adoption?
A.
Today, before the radio address, Carol Rasco and Olivia Golden, Acting Assistant
Secretary for Children and Families (HHS) will brief key advocacy groups and
foundations on the directive. We have worked closely with advocacy groups and
foundations on past adoption initiatives and we plan to consult with them on the
President's new directive. We welcome advocacy groups and foundations'
participation in developing and helping states implement new strategies on
adoption, as they have immense knowledge and experience in this area.
Q.
What were the adoption-related provisions in the Small Business Job Protection Act?
A.
The Small Business Job Protection Act does three things:
Strengthens the language of the 1994 Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) to
make it even clearer that neither foster placements nor adoptions may be delayed
or denied solely on the basis of the cultural, ethnic or racial background of the
child or the prospective foster or adoptive parents;
Imposes financial penalties for States (and other agencies receiving federal funds)
which fail to comply with MEPA; and
Provides a $5,000 adoption tax credit for all adoptions, and a $6,000 tax credit
for special needs adoptions.
MEPA also included the State Plan requirement for States to provide for the
diligent recruitment of potential foster and adoptive families that reflect the ethnic
and racial diversity of children in the State for whom foster and adoptive homes
are needed.
Q.
What has HHS done to implement these new inter-ethnic provisions of the Small Business
Job Protection Act?
A.
On November 14, the Department issued an Information Memorandum to give the States
and the public the details of the inter-ethnic adoption legislation. That issuance (which
also announced the new kinship preference which Congress added to the child welfare
laws) informed the public that the procedures for applying the penalty would be published
at a later date.
The Department has taken or begun a number of other actions to implement the
provisions of the Small Business Job Protection Act. These include meeting with the
Internal Revenue Service to develop a public information strategy on the adoption tax
credit, and establishing a working group of Children's Bureau and Office of Civil Rights
staff to begin work on a procedure and protocol to ensure consistent application of the
new penalty provisions.
Q:
What is the Draft National Adoption Strategic Plan and how does it relate to the
President's Directive?
A:
Last year, HHS's Children's Bureau organized a national meeting, which included State
adoption managers, representatives from national advocacy organizations and private non-
profit organizations, adoptive parents and Federal staff to draft a strategic plan to
increase the number of children adopted from the public child welfare system. This Plan
was written as a draft or working document to provide an outcome-focused framework
for all those involved with the adoption of special needs children from the public child
welfare system. The President's directive will build on many ideas put forth in Draft
Plan
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
LIVE WEEKLY RADIO ADDRESS
DATE:
December 14, 1996
LOCATION: Oval Office
TIME:
10:06AM EDT
FROM:
Nicole Rabner, Laura Schwartz
I.
PURPOSE
To deliver your weekly radio address on the importance of adoption and announce a
Presidential memorandum directing members of your Cabinet to take specific steps to
increase adoptions and move children more quickly from foster care to safe, permanent
homes.
II.
BACKGROUND
Surrounded by adoptive families and children in local foster care, you and the First
Lady will deliver the weekly radio address, in which you will announce a
memorandum to members of your Cabinet.
Presidential Memorandum
The Presidential memorandum instructs the Secretaries of Health and Human Services,
Treasury, Labor, Commerce and the Director of Personnel Management to undergo
wide consultation and report to you in sixty days with a specific proposal to move
children more quickly from foster care to safe, permanent homes and at least to
double, by the year 2002, the number of children adopted or permanently placed each
year. Specifically, the memorandum:
calls for the creation of state-specific numerical targets and financial incentives
to states to increase the number of adoptions. The bonus payments will be
offset by decreases in foster care costs and will nearly pay for themselves.
asks for proposed changes to federal regulations and legislation to emphasize
permanency and decrease delays.
calls for the Departments to take appropriate action to disseminate materials,
challenge businesses to support adoptive parents, and raise public awareness on
the importance of adoption.
Your FY98 budget proposal will include the necessary funding allocation for the
memorandum.
You will sign the memorandum just prior to the radio address during the event
briefing:
Discussion
Following the radio address, you and the First Lady will lead a brief discussion with
the assembled families and waiting children (see attached bios).
Invited Guests
Approximately 70 leaders on adoption issues in the foundation and advocacy
communities have been invited to the event. They will gather in the Roosevelt Room
where, prior to the radio address, Carol Rasco and Olivia Golden, HHS, will conduct a
briefing on the initiative you will announce. They will then watch your radio address
on closed-circuit television, and, following your address and discussion, have an
opportunity to meet you and the First Lady in the Oval Office.
Press Notes
The press pool will be in the Oval Office for your radio address. You do NOT need
to look at the camera while reading the radio address; please note that the
cameras will start to roll as soon as you and the First Lady walk through the
door. There will be a cough button on the water table next to you should you need it.
PLEASE NOTE: the press pool will remain in the Oval Office for this discussion.
III.
PARTICIPANTS
The President
The First Lady
Adoptive Families and Waiting Children (see attached bios)
Foundation and Advocacy Leaders (see attached list)
White House Communications Agency (WHCA) staff
White House Television(WHTV)
White House photographer
Special guests (See attached)
IV.
PRESS PLAN
Your radio address and discussion following will be covered by the White House press
pool. The networks will have the opportunity to take it LIVE.
The ABC, CNN, AP, C-SPAN, CBS, NBC, Mutual, UPI, USA, American Urban
Radio Network, and Standard News radio networks will carry the address live in its
entirety to their thousands of stations across the country Saturday at 10:06 AM EDT.
V.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
9:45am
Briefing (Oval study)
10:06am
Live Radio Address with the First Lady (on camera in Oval)
Discussion with families and children (on camera in Oval)
App.10:30am Greet Guests (off camera in Oval)
VI.
REMARKS
To be provided by David Shipley.
ADOPTIVE FAMILIES AND CHILDREN
ATTENDING THE PRESIDENT'S RADIO ADDRESS
December 14, 1996
The Bryant Family, Manhattan, KS
Francis Bryant first saw Trey on a regularly scheduled waiting
child feature on a local television news station and told her
husband, Michael, and birth son, Lydell, about him. The next
day, the Bryants contacted Lutheran Social Services, and began
the process to adopt him. Now 13, Trey had been in a foster care
group home since he was 9; having been taken from his birth
family because of abuse and neglect. In August 1996, Trey was
formally placed with the Bryants. Vocal supporters of adoption
from the foster care system, the Bryants plan to adopt again.
The Borié Family, Philadelphia, PA
Carolyn and Glenn Borié [Ba-ree] were looking for a child to
adopt in 1994 when they saw Crystal, now 11 years old, on the
Maury Povich Show. The show featured children from across the
country who needed adoptive families. They quickly discovered
that Crystal had three siblings, John, now 13, Charity, 9, and
Dawn, age 8. For five years, the four children had been in
foster care, in separate families because a family who could take
all four children could not be found. When the Boriés met them,
the two oldest children had not seen their two younger sisters in
nine months. After meeting the four children, instead of
adopting one child, the Boriés decided to adopt all four
children. The Borié family's first Thanksgiving together was
also the children's first Thanksgiving together in five years.
The Gray Family, Hartford, CT
A single mother, Ms. Fredrica Gray adopted Michael, now 6 years
old, from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families
when he was 2 months old. She works in the marketing division of
Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became part of the
U.S. Department of Labor's Honor Roll of companies committed to
making their workplaces more family-friendly as the result of its
pledge to institute an ambitious Adoption Assistance Program.
Ms. Gray is an advocate for adopting from the public child
welfare system and feels that more people need to know that it is
"a great place to find a child."
The Inglese Family, Tobyhanna, PA
Lawrence Inglese [pronounced In-glee-zey] is a retired, single
parent of two adoptive children and three children by birth.
Based on his experience as a foster parent, Mr. Inglese decided
to adopt a child who had been in foster care. for too long. He
met Jason, then age 13, at a "match party, sponsored by the
National Adoption Center, designed to bring potential adoptive
parents and waiting children together. After consulting with his
birth children, Mr. Inglese adopted Jason. For eight years,
Jason had shuttled back and forth between his birth family and
foster care. While in foster care, Jason did poorly in school
and was often in trouble, but now that Jason has a loving,
permanent home and a brother who is also his close friend, he is
earning As and Bs and was recently voted 'Student of the Month'
at the public school he attends.
Mr. Inglese's experience with Jason led him to adopt another
child, Michael, now age 6. Michael has cerebral palsy and global
developmental delays and was abandoned at birth by his mother who
had used crack cocaine during her pregnancy. Mr. Inglese's
enthusiasm and experience has led several other families also to
adopt waiting children.
Mr. Inglese will be accompanied by his three youngest children:
Jason and Nicholas, both age 15, and Michael, age 6.
Local Children in Foster Care Waiting for Adoption
Frank, 15 and Adam, 7
Caucasian brothers in foster care
Gail, 9
African American girl in foster care since May 1989
Daniel, 13
Hispanic boy in foster care since 1992 due to mother's terminal
illness
DISCUSSION WITH FAMILIES AFTER THE RADIO ADDRESS
FLOTUS OPENS DISCUSSION: We have here in this room adoptive families and some
children in foster care who are. looking for permanent homes. I want to thank you each for
coming here today. To the families. I want to say a special thank you for opening your hearts
and your homes to children who needed and deserved one. I know first hand that raising a
child is a huge responsibility.
Question #1 TELEVISION SHOWS (FOR EITHER POTUS OR FLOTUS)
Two of the families here today met their adoptive children through television programs
highlighting children in foster care who were looking for permanent homes. Can the Borié
[Ba-ree] and Bryant Families tell us a little bit about that?
POTUS FOLLOW-UP COMMENT: I hope that every local TV station will consider doing
what the Bryant's local station and others across the nation are already doing -- regularly
featuring children waiting for loving and safe, permanent homes.
Question #2 MOTIVATION TO ADOPT (FOR EITHER POTUS OR FLOTUS)
Can you tell us what motivated you personally to want to adopt a child in foster care?
[Bryant and Gray families; NOT the Ingleses if possible]
Question #3 CHANGES SINCE ADOPTED (FOR EITHER POTUS OR FLOTUS)
We have had the opportunity to know children both before and after they were adopted and
have often been astonished by the difference it has made in their lives and how they have
changed. Has that been true for any of you?
[Mr. Inglese's [In-glee-zee's] son Jason has gone from doing poorly in school and often getting
in trouble to being chosen at Student of the Month]
Question #4 FOR THE WAITING CHILDREN (EITHER POTUS OR FLOTUS)
With us today are some of the children who this event is really all about -- children in foster
care who are waiting for permanent homes -- would any of you like to say something?
[Note: If no one immediately answers, you could ask Daniel, a 13 year old Hispanic boy who
has been in foster care since 1992 because of his mother's terminal illness.]
Question #5 PRIVATE SECTOR ROLE (FOR EITHER POTUS OR FLOTUS)
We all have an opportunity and responsibility -- families, communities, government, religious
organizations, and the private sector -- to do our part to help every child have the loving,
permanent family they deserve. Businesses nationwide have established policies to support their
employees who adopt children. Fredrica Gray works for such a company, the Phoenix Mutual
Life Insurance Company in Hartford, CT, one of the company's on the Honor Roll of the
Women's Bureau at the Labor Department. Fredrica is here with her adoptive son, Michael.
Can you tell us about your employer's policies and the motivation behind those policies?
2/14/97
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Adoption 2002 responds to President Clinton's Executive Memorandum and takes its name
from one of its central goals -- to double by the year 2002 the number of children adopted or
placed in other permanent homes each year. On December 14, 1996, the President directed
the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct wide consultations and report to him
with specific recommendations for strategies to move children more quickly from foster care
to permanent homes and to meet the goal of at least doubling adoptions and other permanent
placement over the next five years.
The Department developed Adoption 2002 as a blueprint for bipartisan Federal leadership in
adoption and other permanency planning for children in the public child welfare system. To
prepare this report, the Department of Health and Human Services consulted with child
welfare professionals, policy experts, advocates, and foster and adoptive parents at the
national, State and local levels. Adoption 2002 first examines the existing barriers to
expediting the placement of children from foster care to permanent homes. Delays in making
timely permanency decisions result from high caseloads for judges and caseworkers; incorrect
beliefs and outdated assumptions about the adoptability of children; the limited pool of
permanent families for children with special needs; and the varied interpretation of the
"reasonable efforts" requirement to reunify a child in foster care with his or her birth family
before another goal, such as adoption, can be pursued for the child.
Adoption 2002 outlines an agenda to help overcome these barriers and to accelerate the path
to permanency for all waiting children in the public child welfare system. First, the report
articulates a guiding set of principles centered on the needs of the child to give direction to
the overall agenda. These principles include that every child deserves a safe, permanent
family; that the child's health and safety should be the paramount considerations in all
placement and permanency planning decisions; and that foster care is a temporary situation --
it is not an appropriate place for children to grow up. Adoption 2002 establishes
unequivocally that the Federal goals for children in the child welfare system are safety,
permanency, and well-being.
The Adoption 2002 agenda is multifaceted to address the range of barriers and challenges that
exist in the child welfare system. The report presents strategies to establish, track, and meet
State-by-State annual, numerical targets for adoptions and other permanent placements --
targets that will bring us to a national doubling of adoptions and permanent placements in the
year 2002. To help States reach their targets, the Department commits to providing expanded
technical assistance, rewarding States for incremental increases in adoption levels with per-
child financial bonuses, and otherwise recognizing successful performance. The bonus system
proposed in Adoption 2002 is an example of common-sense government, as it not only
provides an incentive for increasing the number of adoptions, but also pays for itself, with the
cost of the bonuses offset by savings in foster care costs. Adoption 2002 also includes a
proposal to establish competitive grants available to States for dismantling barriers to
permanency.
In addition to providing incentives to States to meet new targets, Adoption 2002 outlines
ways in which the Federal government can assume leadership in breaking down barriers to
permanency for children in foster care. The Department will issue strong guidance on the
implementation of the law signed by President Clinton which established penalties for
denying or delaying the placement of a child based on race, color, or national origin.
Perhaps most important, while working with Congress on its legislative proposals that seek to
define the "reasonable efforts" provision, the Department will issue guidance that clarifies its
meaning. This guidance will make it clear that in determining whether and when to remove a
child from his or her family and whether and when to reunify the family, Federal law requires
that the child's health and safety shall be the paramount concern.
The Department also will issue model guidelines for State legislation to emphasize that the
child's health and safety is the paramount concern in decisions to terminate parental rights.
In addition, the Department commits to exploring alternative permanency options for children
for whom adoption is not possible. Furthermore, the Adoption 2002 report urges that the
Administration seek legislation that shortens the time before a child's first dispositional
hearing -- the hearing in which a permanency decision is first made -- from 18 months to 12
months and changes its name to a "permanency planning hearing."
Information gained by the Department in developing the details of the Adoption 2002 agenda
will form the basis of the public awareness campaign that the President directed the Secretary
of Health and Human Services to undertake, in cooperation with other heads of Federal
Departments or Agencies, as part of his Executive Memorandum. The strategies outlined in
Adoption 2002, coupled with a strong public information campaign and joined by efforts by
State and local officials and by community, business and religious leaders, will ensure that we
live up to President Clinton's call that "no child should be trapped in the limbo of foster care;
no child should be uncertain about what the word 'family' or 'parent' or 'home' means,
particularly when there are open arms waiting to welcome these children into safe and strong
households where they can build good, caring lives." (12/14/96)
ii
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
VIDEO REMARKS FOR
THE NACAC NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH CELEBRATION
OCTOBER 29, 1996
I am pleased to join all of you observing National Adoption
Month -- a time to celebrate adoption as a way to build families
and to raise public awareness about the tens of thousands of
children across our nation who today wait in the foster care
system for homes of their own.
In proclaiming November National Adoption Month, the
President said, "Our Nation has no greater responsibility than to
ensure that every child has the chance to live up to his or her
God-given potential. We can help meet that challenge by
identifying a permanent, loving family for every child waiting in
the foster care system." My husband is committed to facilitating
adoption, encouraging parents to adopt and using government as an
active partner to meet this critical challenge.
I want to congratulate the North American Council on
Adoptable Children for your ambitious Adoption Month Awareness
campaign on behalf of waiting children. And I particularly want
to thank the children who are here today to share their hopes and
dreams of finding permanent homes. You and the thousands of
children you represent remind us of the urgency of our mission.
Last year, I invited children from around the country to
join me at the White House to celebrate National Adoption Month.
I especially remember Deanna [dee-ann-ah], a young woman living
in foster care in Kansas, who talked about her yearning to be
adopted. I don't think there has ever been a more eloquent
speaker in the East Room of the White House than Deanna. Seven
months later, I met Deanna again in Kansas City; with her was her
newly adoptive mother. Deanna was transformed, beaming as she
told me about her new home, new contact lenses and, finally, her
new-found sense of security.
I hope and pray that all waiting children will experience
the joy and fulfillment I saw in Deanna's eyes and heard in her
words. But it will take all of us -- from the individual family
to the business sector to the faith community to our schools to
the government -- working together to make it happen.
This Holiday season, as we all reflect on the importance of
family in our own lives, I hope we will also think about adoption
-- about the rewards of joining children in need with adults who
want the responsibility and the joys of parenthood.
Thank you for doing your part in this campaign.
###
05/15/96 WED 11:09 FAX
CREATORS SINDICATE
file adoption
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The woman visited her new daughter in the hospital every day, reaching into
the incubator to stroke her foot. The receiving blanket seemed heavier than the baby,
who was being fed by a tube in her stomach.
The woman is not the baby's birth mother, but she is her mother in every way
that matters.
She and her husband already had a 3-year-old adopted son when they heard
about a premature 1-pound baby girl whose birth parents could not take care of her.
The couple decided to adopt the tiny baby. Her start was rocky, but now the child is a
healthy 3-year-old.
"She was just like a little flower that blossomed," the mother says. "She is a
burst of energy."
Now, the couple, who are African-American, are in the process of adopting a
12-year-old girl who was abused. They also are encouraging more African-American
families to open their homes to children in need.
Last summer, 1 wrote about this important issue. I'm writing about it again
because so many children's lives would be better if they could only find a home.
Today, 21,000 children are ready and waiting for families to nurture and care for them.
Tens of thousands of others will be eligible for adoption in the coming months and
years.
Not all these children are healthy, white babies. Many are physically and
developmentally disabled. Many are minorities. Many suffer from emotional traumas
wrought by abuse, neglect and unstable living arrangements. And many are teen-
agers who already have been shuffled from home to home.
Fortunately, some steps have been taken in recent years to make adoption
easier. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which became law three years ago,
ensures that parents can take time off when they adopt a child without fear of losing
their jobs. The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 prohibits adoption agencies from
denying the placement of a child solely on the basis of the adoptive parents' race,
color or national origin. Over the past three years, adoption subsidies have helped an
increasing number of families cope with the costs of adopting and raising children with
special needs.
05/15/96 WED 11:09 FAX
CREATORS SYNDICATE
LISA CAPUTO
003
TALKING IT OVER 5/14/96
Page 2
The President is supporting legislation in Congress that will give tax credits to
families that adopt. The House, for example, just approved a bill that would give
adoptive families a $5,000 tax credit. The Senate, meanwhile, is considering a $7,500
credit for families who adopt children with special needs. This may not be enough to
cover medical and emotional health care costs for special-needs kids, or even
education, but it's a step in the right direction.
Not only is adoption good for children, it saves taxpayers a lot of money. As one
woman said at a recent adoption discussion at the White House her family has saved
the state and the federal government in excess of $1 million by adopting several
special-needs children.
In addition to government, the private sector also has a role to play. Wendy's,
the hamburger chain founded by adoption advocate Dave Thomas (who himself was
adopted), gives workers paid leave and financial assistance with adoption costs.
Margaret Fitzgerald, who participated in our gathering, said her employer,
AT&T, gave her six weeks of unpaid leave when she and her husband adopted a son
four years ago. The company also reimbursed her legal fees.
But the most important thing of all is for more people to reach out and give every
child, regardless of age, disability, race or ethnic origin, the chance to be part of a
loving family.
Just ask Julie Stinger, a teacher with five adopted children - four biracial and
one white several of whom had health problems. She told us how, as a white
woman, she had to fight to adopt her first two black children, even though the birth
parents agreed to the adoption and she had cared for them as a foster parent for 18
months. "I fought tooth and nail," she said.
Later, she had similar trouble when she wanted to adopt her fifth child, who is
white. Authorities were concerned about placing a white boy with four non-white
brothers and sisters.
"Even though we went through some traumas in the adoptions, I would do it
again, I would do it 10 times over," she said. "Adopting a child is the most gratifying
thing that ever happened to me."
After Julie recounted her story, I asked her oldest son, Joey, if he had anything
to add. He nodded.
"I just want to thank my mother," he said.
COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
May 14, 1996
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The woman visited her new daughter in the hospital every day, reaching into
the incubator to stroke her foot. The receiving blanket seemed heavier than the baby,
who was being fed by a tube in her stomach.
The woman is not the baby's birth mother, but she is her mother in every way
that matters.
She and her husband already had a 3-year-old adopted son when they heard
about a premature 1-pound baby girl whose birth parents could not take care of her.
The couple decided to adopt the tiny baby. Her start was rocky, but now the child is a
healthy 3-year-old.
"She was just like a little flower that blossomed," the mother says. "She is a
burst of energy."
Now, the couple, who are African-American, are in the process of adopting a
12-year-old girl who was abused. They also are encouraging more African-American
families to open their homes to children in need.
Last summer, I wrote about this important issue. I'm writing about it again
because so many children's lives would be better if they could only find a home.
Today, 21,000 children are ready and waiting for families to nurture and care for them.
Tens of thousands of others will be eligible for adoption in the coming months and
years.
Not all these children are healthy, white babies. Many are physically and
developmentally disabled. Many are minorities. Many suffer from emotional traumas
wrought by abuse, neglect and unstable living arrangements. And many are teen-
agers who already have been shuffled from home to home.
Fortunately, some steps have been taken in recent years to make adoption
easier. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which became law three years ago,
ensures that parents can take time off when they adopt a child without fear of losing
their jobs. The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 prohibits adoption agencies from
denying the placement of a child solely on the basis of the adoptive parents' race,
color or national origin. Over the past three years, adoption subsidies have helped an
increasing number of families cope with the costs of adopting and raising children with
special needs.
TALKING IT OVER 5/14/96
Page 2
The President is supporting legislation in Congress that will give tax credits to
families that adopt. The House, for example, just approved a bill that would give
adoptive families a $5,000 tax credit. The Senate, meanwhile, is considering a $7,500
credit for families who adopt children with special needs. This may not be enough to
cover medical and emotional health care costs for special-needs kids, or even
education, but it's a step in the right direction.
Not only is adoption good for children, it saves taxpayers a lot of money. As one
woman said at a recent adoption discussion at the White House her family has saved
the state and the federal government in excess of $1 million by adopting several
special-needs children.
In addition to government, the private sector also has a role to play. Wendy's,
the hamburger chain founded by adoption advocate Dave Thomas (who himself was
adopted), gives workers paid leave and financial assistance with adoption costs.
Margaret Fitzgerald, who participated in our gathering, said her employer,
AT&T, gave her six weeks of unpaid leave when she and her husband adopted a son
four years ago. The company also reimbursed her legal fees.
But the most important thing of all is for more people to reach out and give every
child, regardless of age, disability, race or ethnic origin, the chance to be part of a
loving family.
Just ask Julie Stinger, a teacher with five adopted children -- four biracial and
one white -- several of whom had health problems. She told us how, as a white
woman, she had to fight to adopt her first two black children, even though the birth
parents agreed to the adoption and she had cared for them as a foster parent for 18
months. "I fought tooth and nail," she said.
Later, she had similar trouble when she wanted to adopt her fifth child, who is
white. Authorities were concerned about placing a white boy with four non-white
brothers and sisters.
"Even though we went through some traumas in the adoptions, 1 would do it
again, I would do it 10 times over," she said. "Adopting a child is the most gratifying
thing that ever happened to me."
After Julie recounted her story. I asked her oldest son, Joey, if he had anything
to add. He nodded.
"I just want to thank my mother," he said.
COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
May 14, 1996
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the First Lady
For Immediate Release
November 13, 1995
REMARKS BY FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
AT NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH EVENT
WASHINGTON, D.C.
MRS. CLINTON: Good Afternoon. Thank you. Thank you.
Please be seated and please be welcomed to the White House. This
is a very special day for all of us. And there have been many
very important events that have occurred here in the East Room of
the White House, but I honestly don't believe there is any that
is more important then what we are doing by celebrating National
Adoption Month. And November is a particularly appropriate time
to highlight the importance of adoption in this country.
It's hard to believe but Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season
are a little more than a week away. And during this season we
traditionally focus on family. And we recognize how much we need
and depend on the love of our parents and spouses and children
and other relatives. So for all of you who are gathered here to
begin this celebration, that we hope will ignite a fire of
enthusiasm throughout the country about adoption, I want to say
thank you.
There are several members of Congress here and I am
delighted that all of you could join us. Secretary of Health and
Human Services, Donna Shalala, a long time advocate of family and
children services is here with us because all of us believe that
there isn't anything more important than our families and that
the families formed by adoption are special and deserve the
support of all the rest of us. Because we want to emphasize that
there's a need in our country to bring the richness and love and
support and guidance and discipline and attention of family life
to every one of America's waiting children.
As we go into the Holiday Season, I hope every American will
recognize that there are tens of thousands of children waiting
for the love of a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, to have
grandparents and aunts and uncles, to have a dog or a cat like
Socks. Tens of thousands of those children, every single day,
are growing up without mothers or fathers to help teach them, to
nurture them and to tell them that they are special. We know
1
they are, but they need someone in their family to tell them
that.
Often when we think of adoption, we have a picture in our
mind of infants being welcomed into a family. But adoption today
involves children and teenagers of all ages, backgrounds and
circumstances. In this room today are adoptive families and
waiting children who demonstrate the range of adoptive
experiences. Adoption has provided a new beginning for school-
aged children, for adolescents, for children with physical and
emotional and educational disabilities, children of different
races and cultures, and brothers and sisters who want to remain
together.
Let me give you a picture of the children in America who are
waiting. Six out of ten of them are school-aged children. Four
out of ten are white. Four out of ten are African-American. The
rest, Hispanic, Native American and every other race and color
that you can imagine. Two out of three have special needs. Each
one of these children has the capacity to love, to bring new joy
and energy into a family. Most of you who are here, the families
that already know that, are living proof of how adoption can be
successful and emotionally rewarding. But we need more of you.
I recently met with Shane Salter, a young man who grew up in
foster care without ever being placed in a permanent family. He
described what that meant to him. He talked about his continued
longing for parents who would not only care for him but who could
be grandparents to his own children. Adoption can change lives,
not only of those in the immediate family, but through
generations.
I know that adoption in America today can by frustrating and
emotionally draining and expensive. A newspaper column I wrote
about adoption this summer generated more responses than any
other I've written. I meet people throughout the country who
come up and say they have read my column and they're an adoptive
parent. or they have read my column and they're a foster parent.
Or they read my column, and they were adopted. Prospective
parents have written to tell me of the immense obstacles, the red
tape, and the costs, particularly the legal costs, that have led
them to despair of ever being able to adopt a child.
I want you to know that the President is committed to easing
and encouraging the adoption process. And I recently convened a
group of experts to discuss how to make the government a better
partner, and more responsive to the needs of prospective parents
and children. In particular, the administration is working hard
to ease the adoption of minority and special-needs children. The
President is committed to enforcing the Multi-Ethnic Placement
Act which prohibits adoption agencies from denying the placement
2
of a child solely on the basis of race, color, or national origin
of a child or prospective adoptive parents.
The administration also championed -- and the first bill the
President signed -- was the Family and Medical Leave Act which
ensures that parents can take time off when they adopt a child
without fearing the loss of their jobs. And the administration
has launched a public education campaign about adoption. A
campaign in which I am very honored to participate. These are
just some of the many initiatives, both in the government and in
the private sector, and in partnership between both the public
and private sectors, that are designed to support the placement
of children in loving homes.
But all of your efforts and all of the administration's
efforts to strengthen our families and children could be
jeopardized by actions in Congress. The government currently
provides essential recruitment and training services for
prospective adoptive parents. As well as subsidies to families
who adopt special-needs children, those living with Cerebral
Palsy, or HIV, or some other disability, since those children
have large medical and educational expenses. Many of the
children who are special-needs, when they are adopted into
families, bring with them such large medical costs, that if
Medicaid is cut back substantially, the medical insurance for
many of those special-needs children will no longer be available
after they are adopted. Which would be a great tragedy, because
there are so many parents who just need a little bit of financial
help with the costs. Need a little bit of subsidy but then do
need continuing medical help to be able to open their lives to
these children. So we must all who care about adoption know that
putting our nation's economic house in order does not mean
sweeping out compassion and caring for our neediest children and
families, making it less likely they will ever have a house of
their own.
We have to work together to improve our adoption system. In
the Proclamation for National Adoption Month the President said
that citizens from all communities and organizations from the
public and private sectors must join together to renew our
commitment to finding permanent homes for each one of America's
children. Two of the private foundations doing this important
work are the Ann E. Casey Foundation which is active in five
states, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Families For Kids,
active in ten states.
I wish we could re-double, re-triple our efforts. I believe
that if we really put our minds to it, if we could recruit
qualified volunteers out of our judicial system and our legal
system and our social work system, to be assigned to each child
who is waiting to be adopted. We could make it possible for
thousands and thousands more children to be adopted by this time
3
next year. We have to put our minds to it but there is no more
important task than trying to do everything in our power to
ensure that every child has a family.
Perhaps no person has been a more effective advocate for
children waiting to be adopted, than our next speaker. The
founder of Wendy's, the star of T.V., Dave Thomas started
speaking out on adoption in 1990 when he became the national
spokesperson for the White House Initiative on Adoption. As an
adopted child himself, he says he would not have become the
successful father, husband and businessman he is today, had he
not been able to grow up in a supportive family.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption seeks to make
adoption more affordable, streamline the adoption process, and
educate the public about the potential joys of adoption. Mr.
Thomas believes that no child is unadoptable and every child
deserves a home and a loving family. But he knows, as we all do,
that we have to overcome some misconceptions about adoption. We
have to make it very clear that the children who are waiting are
children just like yours and mine and every other child who goes
to school and plays in playgrounds. They are America's children.
And we have to make it clear to America that they would benefit
greatly from having one of these children in their lives.
Mr. Thomas has also been a leader in the campaign to
encourage corporations to extend maternity benefits to adoptive
parents. This is so important. We do a terrible job in our
country of ensuring maternity benefits in nearly every instance
in most of the businesses in our country. It's important for new
parents to be able to spend time with that child. Think how
important it is for a new child coming into a strange home,
filled with anticipation to have some time where he is the center
of that family's attention, and that at least one parent gets a
chance to spend that time with the child.
Within Wendy's, adoption benefits are paid leave and
financial assistance with adoption costs. Available to employees
who have been with the company for at least one year. All of us
are very proud of Mr. Thomas' leadership and grateful to him for
it.
Following him to the podium will be the Reverend Wayne
Thompson, President of One Church-One Child. This is one of the
great ideas in America. And I wish every church would join One
Church-One Child. Because through One Church-One Child, we have
seen literally hundreds of thousands of children being given
homes who might otherwise not have been known to anyone. And the
church serves as a back-up extended family for the members who
adopt children. Through this work, thousands of African-American
children have found loving homes and supportive church
congregations.
4
You will also be hearing from the Marshall Family. The
proud parents of two beautiful little girls, they have
experienced so much love and happiness with their two daughters,
that they have spent considerable time promoting adoption in
their own community. In fact, they are the family featured in
the posters supporting adoption that appear in Wendy's
restaurants around the world.
And then finally, we will hear from a young woman who knows
exactly what's at stake. Deanna is 13. She lived in a foster
home for seven years before moving into a group home in Topeka,
Kansas. Though she no longer lives with her two foster sisters,
she is still close to them and she is still waiting. She is a
cheerleader, an avid reader, and a budding poet -- and a lovely
young woman based on my experience with her a few minutes ago.
So these people who will be speaking to you have the
experience that we would like to see transmitted to every
American. They know what it's like to form a family by choice.
To be able to say, I choose you to be my son or daughter. And in
return to know what it's like as a child to have the love and
support that can only come from one's own family. So please join
me in welcoming Mr. Dave Thomas."
Dave Thomas: "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I thank
you Mrs. Clinton. I asked Mrs. Clinton about, something like
about a year ago, if she would help. And she said, "I will."
And that's the reason why we're here today so I just want
everyone to know that Mrs. Clinton and the President are
dedicated to adoption. So let's give them a big hand, because
they did it.
Let me tell you why I'm interested in adoption. I was
adopted as Mrs. Clinton said, and my mother, my foster mother
died when I was about five years old. And I was born out of
wedlock and I had nothing to do with it -- trust me. And I had
nothing to do about being adopted, it wasn't my fault. But I was
adopted and I had six, no not six, I had three more foster
mothers and step-mothers and then I left when I was 15 years old.
But I do know how important it is, a family. And all through my
life I've always been envious of mothers and fathers. Because
I've never seen my mother and father. And if you have never seen
your mother and father and the nurturing, you know everyone
deserves the love and nurturing, when you grow up. I never had
it, and I've always been kind of jealous of it.
And my kids, I have five children, fourteen grandchildren,
and I probably spoil them for that reason. Now whether that's
good or bad, but it's one of the things that, I wasn't spoiled.
But I know one thing, I did have a grandmother that did care for
5
me. She was my foster grandmother and I didn't find out until I
was 13 years old that I was adopted, and I was really hurt. So I
do know how important it is and I feel so sorry for these
children today, in particular, parents who don't take care of
their children. I mean I just think it's a crime. I think we
need to have an education to educate these parents about
responsibility. I don't know how you feel about it but I'm real
strong on responsibility.
You know, in foster care, there is almost a half-million
children in foster care right now. And there's about 100,000
waiting to be adopted. And when we started the foundation, we
said, well, we need to have some goals. And our objective was to
make adoption affordable and take the red tape out of adoption,
and so that's what we've really been trying to do. And so the
first thing we did, we put adoption benefits right with the
maternity benefits. And I want everybody to understand it's kind
of a no-brainer. If you have maternity benefits, add adoption
benefits. And we've done that--
I'm even trying to get the federal government to do the
same. Right Mrs. Clinton? Mrs. Clinton said she's going support
me. Congressmen? -- Women? -- Senators? Don't forget now,
because it's really important. But right now we have, in about
thirty-five states, we have adoption benefits. And in cities and
in corporations. We wrote all kinds of letters and it's really
the right thing to do. We have not said how much, but just to
help.
And we also have a bill in the Congress to a tax-credit.
And I think it's something for -- adoption is expensive. And we
need to help people to adopt as Mrs. Clinton said. And I hope
this bill -- Debby -- is going to work out real well. I hope
everybody supports it because it's really an important thing.
And then, I think that the next thing that we've been
working on, is that we've tried something that we call a
computer. Does everybody understand what computers are? And Jan
Heffner is the Director of the Dave Thomas Foundation -- stand up
Jan -- Jan has been working on this real, real hard.
You know what it is, it's really children with willing
parents. Now the children need to be matched with willing
parents. And what's happened is IBM, AT&T and Marriot have
helped with some government agencies working to make this happen.
And the first example case of adoption's waiting children on-line
through the National Adoption Center, there was 100,000
inquiries. Am I right Jan? Over 100,000. So Internet is really
something that we're really trying to work on.
6
We're trying to do everything we can to make it possible and
remind people about adoption. Because, what happens, these kids
are out there, and they go from foster home to foster home. I
was in Chicago not too long ago and a little boy, six years old,
was in sixteen foster homes. Can you imagine that? I mean
that's not fair. So that's what we're really trying to do and if
we can get the federal government -- that would really be a good
example to put in for all the federal workers adoption benefits.
Don't you think so?"
Mrs. Clinton: "I do."
Dave Thomas: "So, I'd just like to say this, I'd like to
just say this. I think this is really a great event. I think
it's something that we need to work on. And the more awareness
and the more we talk about it. And I just keep talking about,
and some people like to listen to me and some don't. But I'm
going to keep talking because that -- every boy and every girl
deserves a loving family. So thank you, and god bless you. "
Wayne Thompson: "Thank you Mrs. Clinton for the opportunity
to be a part of this historic day, and for your help in raising
the awareness of the need for adoptions in our nation. The
importance of adoption of children throughout our country can
never be overstated. For these children are fortunate enough to
have loving, permanent homes, in which they have been nurtured
and cared for. They're led into adulthood with the support of
parents which every child is entitled to and every child
requires.
The family values are embodied by those parents who choose
to bring children into their families and experience the joys of
parenthood. The mission of the National One Church-One Child is
to challenge each and every African-American congregation to
adopt one African-American child. We believe that this furthers
our need in our community for taking responsibility for our
children. Believe me, this plan works.
In our church, we have had over sixteen adoptions since my
involvement in this worthwhile program. In fact, there's one
little boy who thinks he's pastor. When he was adopted I noticed
that -- I always go to the door to greet the members as they
leave -- I noticed that my line was shorter than usual, and I
became a little bit concerned. I looked around and saw him
shaking hands. And he had been adopted by a single-parent, a
young woman who was an accountant; so I went over to him and I
said, 'Now listen, there are some ground rules in this church.
I'm the pastor -- and I shake everybody's hands so if you want to
shake hands, come stand by me.' Well the brightness of his eyes
7
told the whole story. That where he had had no friends, no
extended family, no church home, he was rejoicing, because now he
had a new family and new friends.
We've had enormous success in placing children in our
community in much needed adoptive homes. Many families, however,
cannot adopt children without the help of the federal guarantee
of financial assistance for every child and especially for
special-needs children. This includes the children with Downs
Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy and HIV AIDS and crack-cocaine
addictive. These children are important too. And children are
important to god and so our mission is one that we feel that we
must continue to fight until the battle has been won.
The average family could not accept the responsibility for
these children without the federal guarantee of financial
assistance that is currently provided. This guarantee enables
these families to care for children who would otherwise languish
in the foster care system. And we are aware that there are
welfare reform proposals that are pending now in Congress that
would eliminate this much needed guarantee. And so our aim, and
our struggle continues as we sound the alarm throughout our
communities and from our pulpits, that there are children who are
needed to be adopted, but that the government needs to accept the
partnership which we offer. We offer it willingly. We offer it
gladly.
Two out of three children who are waiting for adoption in
this country have special-needs, making this federal guarantee
more essential than every before. In the history of One Church-
One Child, since 1980, more than 90,000 children have found homes
through our congregations across this nation.
We thank god for the vision of Father Clemence many years
ago and we thank you, Mrs. Clinton, for the vision you've cast
forth today, because with your support and the support of those
who represent and make up our government, we know that the
prayers of the righteous will be answered. And so we offer, in
this partnership consortium, the prayers of many people who want
children to have permanent loving homes. Many pastors who work
in our programs have themselves, like me, become adoptive parents
and so we know that we practice what we preach. And we know that
the children are the ones who get the blessing.
Again, thank you for making this a special day for children
across this nation. We know that they long and deserve
permanent, loving homes. And so that the need for further
guaranteed federal protection most come and we believe with the
help of god it will come. Thank you.'
8
Mrs. Marshall: "First of all, I'd like to thank Mrs.
Clinton, Mr. Thomas and all others involved, for inviting my
family to be a part of this special event for a very important
issue.
First of all, I would like to say that if only everyone out
there knew, how much joy and happiness Kayla and Terry have
brought into me and my husband's life, everyone would be lined up
at all adoption agencies everywhere to adopt a child.
My husband and I have been married for 12 years. After
being married 9 years, we decided we wanted children. I went to
the doctor and found out that I wasn't able to have children. I
used to always watch a local spot on our local news program
called, 'Wednesday's Child'. They highlight on children that are
up for adoption and need homes. So we decided to call Franklin
County Children's Services and see how we could go through the
adoption process.
They invited us to an adoption party in April of 1992. We
were there for about an hour and there were hundreds of kids
there from the ages of new-born to 7 years of age. We were there
and we played with kids, we made balloons, we jumped rope and
then all of a sudden, a little girl comes in. She was late. She
came in and she had her little friend's hand and I looked at my
husband and I said, 'Look at those jaws, I just love her.' When
I first saw her, we knew that she was the one.
She talked to us at lunch, she asked for our fruit that we
didn't want. She wasn't shy at all. And so we knew that she was
the one and we called the next day and said that we wanted to
start our class immediately, we wanted to get her as soon as
possible. After we adopted Terry, she wanted sisters and
brothers and so we said, 'Hey, we're willing to go and adopt
another.' So then, Kayla comes into our life and there's not a
day that doesn't go by that she just makes us smile and laugh so
much. And if we had room in our home we would adopt 1,000 kids,
no matter what race, what religion, color. We just love kids,
because children are our future.
I remember when one day we didn't have kids, back when we
didn't have kids, we adopted 15 children, nieces, nephews,
neighbors' kids, and we went to the Ice Capades. We took up a
whole row. We came back to our one bedroom apartment, we threw a
big pajama party for 15 children. So, I mean, if we had room, we
would adopt more, but we don't have the room in our home but we
do have the room in our hearts. And we would like to let the
kids know that are waiting for families and homes to keep the
faith and with a little bit of help, hope and prayer, you'll all
have a family and a home some day. Thank you."
9
Deanna Moppin: "My name is Deanna Lee Moppin. I have been
in SRS custody ever since I was five years old. I was removed
from my birth home because of sexual abuse. I was then placed in
a new home where I remained for seven years, but then we seemed
to have some problems so I was removed from that home along with
two other of the girls that were in there.
We were placed in a shelter in Topeka, Kansas where we.
remained for a few nights before moving on to the villages. In
the villages, I have two foster parents and there are nine other
kids living with me. The foster parents try to help us feel good
about ourselves and they try to help us with our problems and
they do the best to find us all good homes that we will happy in.
Some of the kids have nowhere to go, so they just have to
keep putting one foot in front of the other and hope for the best
while making goals for themselves until they reach their
destination.
For most of them their destination is adoption. It is also
one of mine. The reasons that I want to get adopted is usually
if I want to go to the movies, I have to ask my house parents and
they have to ask my village social worker who has to ask my
social worker -- and then it has to come back the same way. That
usually takes awhile. And if I want clothes, I have to ask my
house parents who have to ask my village social worker who has to
ask my social worker. There is also paper work that needs to be
done and that usually takes up to about three weeks.
The other reasons that I want to be adopted is I would have
a place that I could call home. I would have a room that I could
call my room. I would have a family that I could love and would
love me back.
I wrote a poem about waiting for a home and I would like to
share it with you now:
My nerves cringe with excitement as I must wait.
I don't know when it will happen, there is no date.
My one wish that I hope to come true.
Will you make my wish come true, will you?
I don't want to be here forever, I want a home.
Please get me out of this system and out of this dome.
Does anyone want me; it feels like three whole years.
I am still waiting for you, I'm so close to tears.
I want to live happy with my spirit so free.
Only you can make it happen; when will it be?
10
The papers are here, you have finally heard.
I'd fly to you now if I were a bird.
One question left; Do we make a pair?
Are you somebody who will really care?
I hope you're the one for other choices have come.
I'll go through them all for my choice should not be dumb.
I've always been hoping for this day to arrive.
Without a good family I could not survive.
My nerves boil with excitement I no longer wait.
I know when it will happen and I do know the date.
Mrs. Clinton: "I want to thank everyone who's here and all
of the participants. I want to invite all of you into the State
Dining Room where there will be a reception and some cookies and
things for all of the children who have demonstrated
extraordinary patience this afternoon. I just want to end with
something that really, I think, echoes what everyone said. The
primary responsibility for children lies with the parents and
parents have the highest obligation to their own children and
should do everything in their power to take care of those
children. But sometimes for a lot of reasons that go back to the
beginning of human history, that responsibility is not accepted.
And then all the rest of us, I think, have the responsibility.
We are a part of every child's family whether we acknowledge it
or not. And so in any way that we can, we should try to accept
that responsibility and give the love and attention that every
child who was born deserves to have. And so that's what we hope
the result of this National Adoption Month campaign will lead to
-- more and more Americans accepting responsibility for all our
children. Thank you very much. "
11
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
RELEASE: WEEKEND, OCTOBER 28-29, 1995
When I first began writing this column more than three months ago, I hoped to
occasionally use this space to respond to the many people who write to me.
So far, I have received more heartwarming and thought-provoking letters than I
can count. I also have received a few angry letters whose contents cannot be
published In a family newspaper.
I've heard from a class of second- and third-graders in Kansas who are
concerned about pollution, a man from Illinois who is campaigning against tobacco
use, and a retiree in Florida worried about the high cost of health care.
A boy from Texas wanted to know what Socks eats (dried cat food) and a
10-year-old In Minnesota asked how many rooms are in the White House (132).
1 wish I could respond to all of these letters in this column. Instead, I can only
answer a few.
Many readers wrote In response to my column in July about our nation's
complicated system of adoption and the thousands of needy children who are waiting
for permanent, loving homes. Not surprisingly, I heard from lots of people who said
they were eager to adopt children but had become overwhelmed by the long wait, red
tape and high cost involved.
A Florida woman, frustrated by a lack of communication among adoption
agencies and government social workers, summed up the feelings of many
prospective adoptive parents: "I know there Is a little girl in this country somewhere
waiting for my home."
One couple from Oregon, trying to adopt through a county agency. was told that
it might take several years before a child was available. Their alternative, to adopt
through a private agency. could cost $16,000 or more.
Because these problems are SO widespread - and because so many children
continue to languish in foster care - I recently got together a group of experts,
adoption advocates and concerned parents to help people learn more about adoption
and to make the process simpler and more efficient for waiting parents. There is no
reason so many loving parents cannot be united with children desperate for their care
and attention.
I also have received mailbags of letters about my trip to the United Nations
Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing In September. Some people were
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 10/28-29/95
Page 2
concerned about my participation, and many others were enthusiastic about it. A few
expressed their outrage over Infanticide and coerced abortions In China, problems
that people became more aware of because the conference was held there. Others
wondered If the conference would really make a difference In Improving women's
rights around the world.
I believe the conference was an Important and historic first step In giving women
the tools they need to lead productive lives. More than 180 nations agreed for the first
time that women are Integral to the economic, political and social life of every country
and that global peace and prosperity depend on the well-being of women.
However, the conference In Beijing will only be a lasting success If
governments, Institutions and each of us in our own lives work to ensure that women
are full and equal partners in society. Here at home. for example, the President has
created a special White House Council on Women that will enable government
agencies to work together and reach out to private organizations to fulfill the goals of
the women's conference.
Health Issues were on the minds of many readers. I heard from scores of Gulf
War veterans and their families, who were concerned about the government's
response to Illnesses commonly referred to as Gulf War Syndrome. I hope those
families, many of whom have suffered greatly, know that the President has established
an advisory committee to Investigate Gulf War veterans' illnesses.
Perhaps the most gratifying health-related letter I received came from Miriam
Murtha, a Virginia woman who got a mammogram as a result of our breast cancer
awareness campaign that began earlier this year. Her screening found two malignant
tumors before they could spread to other parts of her body. "I will be having regular
checkups from now on." she wrote.
Children also wrote to me with suggestions and questions. Many wondered If I
could raise their allowances, lower the voting age or send them free tickets to
Washington. (Sorry, I can't.)
And quite a few offered their own editorial comments. "I think there should be no
more drugs. 1 don't want any more guns and no more pollution." wrote Brandon
Jackson, a second-grader from Kansas.
To Brandon and everyone else who wrote to me over these last few months,
thanks for talking things over with me.
COPYRIGHT 1995 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED