Legal Authority/Introduction

LEGAL AUTHORITY:

• 25 USC 1902 Indian Child Welfare
• 42 USC 622 State plans for child welfare services
• 42 USC 671 State plan for foster care and adoption assistance
• 42 USC 1996 Protection and preservation of traditional religions of Native Americans
• 42 USC 1996b Interethnic Adoption
• 922 KAR 1:100 Public agency adoptions.
• 922 KAR 1:140 Foster care and adoption permanency services

Practice Guidance

• If all parties cannot agree on what is in the best interests of the child(ren) regarding the adoption, including the proposed adoptive family, the referral is withdrawn in TWIST.
• If at any time a referral does not result in a finalized adoption, all materials and information related to the child will be returned to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Procedure

The following steps are initiated to match a family with a child available for adoption:

1. The Kentucky Adoption Profile Exchange (KAPE) specialist in central office (CO) receives current adoptive home studies for adoptive families interested in specific children registered with the KAPE program. 
2. The KAPE specialist e-mails a copy of the family’s home study to the child’s SSW and Child Focused Recruitment Model (CFRM) specialist  to review with other members of the adoptive review committee, within three (3) working days of receiving the home study.
3. After reviewing the home study, if the family appears to be a potential match, the SSW and/or CFRM specialist contacts the adoptive family’s worker to discuss the family’s availability and suitability to meet the child’s needs.
4. The adoption review committee reviews each adoptive family’s home study and attachments, documents their comments on the DPP-193-Adoption Review Committee Comments Form, and consults/selects an appropriate adoptive family within fifteen (15) working days of receiving the home study. 1
5. The CFRM specialist returns the DPP-193 to the KAPE specialist within fifteen (15) working days of receiving the home study.  If the DPP-193 is not received within fifteen (15) working days of receiving the home study, the KAPE specialist will send a follow up email to the CFRM specialist within one (1) month of the original date that the home study was sent to inquire about the status of the review.
6. In cases that the family was not identified as a potential match, the KAPE specialist informs the family of the adoption review committee's decision.  The KAPE specialist explains that the family may submit an inquiry for another child at this time, if the family is interested in other children.
7. When the committee selects a family for consideration of adoptive referral, the SSW completes the referral in TWIST in the permanency/agency case. The SSW and/or the CFRM specialist will notify the KAPE specialist within three (3) working days of the committee's selection so the child's status can be updated on the AdoptUSKids and KAPE websites. 
8. The SSW retains the home study and attachments of the selected family.  
9. The SSW and/or CFRM specialist will send the family’s worker (only non-DCBS families) a confidentiality agreement to be given to and signed by the family. 
10. The SSW and/or CFRM specialist should verbally share as much information as known about the child’s needs and behaviors with the family and the family’s worker once he/she receives the signed confidentiality agreement. 
11. The family’s worker, the child’s SSW, and the CFRM specialist will discuss the placement and when everyone agrees to proceed they begin planning the pre-placement conference.
12. If making an interstate placement, the SSW follows all requirements in SOP 10 regarding making interstate adoptive placements, prior to planning or holding the pre-placement conference.  
13. The SSW or CFRM specialist will send the presentation summary packet to the adoptive family’s recruitment and certification (R&C) worker. 2
14. The family’s R&C worker, after reviewing the presentation summary packet, contacts the child’s SSW to discuss the placement.  When both workers agree to proceed, the R&C worker does the following:
1. Contacts the adoptive family within five (5) working days either by telephone, email, or letter;
2. Provides the adoptive family the sex, age, and a brief description of the child without disclosing identifying information of the biological family, (i.e., names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and other identifying government program numbers);
3. Makes an appointment to meet with the prospective adoptive family to:
1. Request the family sign the DPP-171-Notice of Confidentiality and explain the importance of maintaining the child’s information and their biological family’s information confidential;
2. Sign the confidentiality agreement after specifying what information has been shared with the prospective adoptive parent;
3. Verbally share all presentation information;
4. Encourage the adoptive parents to discuss feelings and reactions to the information;
5. Determine if additional information is needed to assist the family in making an informed decision;
6. Provide a copy of the presentation summary packet with all identifying information redacted to the family; 3
7. Discuss the placement process (e.g. pre-placement conference, visitation, and adoption assistance); and
8. Offer the family time to make their decision about the referral.
4. Places the original DPP-171 in the foster/adoptive family's case file and a copy in the child’s agency case;
15. When the family does not accept the referral, the R&C worker notifies the following staff in writing identifying the reason for non-acceptance:
1. The FSOS for the child and the adoptive family;
2. KAPE specialist (if child is registered);
3. CFRM specialist;
4. Adoption review committee permanency lead; and
5. Service region pre-placement conference chair (if applicable).
16. The R&C worker for the adoptive family obtains all information regarding the child from the prospective adoptive family and returns it to the child’s SSW. 
17. If any other staff has information regarding a child they also return this information to the child’s worker if the adoption is not finalized.

Footnotes

1. The KAPE specialist may assist with reviewing home studies if needed as a member of the adoption review committee as outlined in SOP 13.13.
2. Additional copies of the notification of interest can be sent to the FSOS for the child and the adoptive family, to KAPE (if child is registered), to the adoption review committee permanency lead (if child is still registered), and to the service region pre-placement conference chair (if applicable).
3. Since confidentiality is always an issue, the entire packet is recopied with names, addresses, and any other identifying information deleted.