Aderholt Remarks at Hearing on Advancing Permanency in Child Welfare - Leveraging Federal Funding for Adoption Programs

Good morning. Thank you to our witnesses who have come to testify before us today on the topic of Advancing Permanency in Child Welfare in the United States.  Adoption has long played an important role in building families and providing children with safe, stable homes. Today, adoption remains a critical part of our child welfare system, but the data also shows that there is still significant need and opportunity for improvement. Currently, more than 325,000 children are living in the U.S. foster care system, many of whom entered care because of abuse, neglect, or family instability. Among these children, tens of thousands are waiting for permanent adoptive families. 

In fact, recent national data show that over 70,000 children were waiting to be adopted at the end of 2023, and many had already spent years in foster care. Each year, adoption helps thousands of children find permanent homes—more than 45,000 children were adopted from foster care in fiscal year 2024 alone. Despite this progress, challenges remain. Some children age out of the foster care system without ever finding a permanent family. In 2023, over 15,000 young people left foster care without adoption or reunification, entering adulthood without the long-term stability that family support often provides. Encouraging adoption can change these outcomes in powerful ways. First, adoption provides stability and permanence. Children who are adopted often gain the emotional security of a lifelong family connection, something every child deserves. Stable homes improve outcomes in education, health, and overall well-being. 

Second, adoption strengthens communities and society as a whole. When children grow up in supportive environments, they are more likely to succeed in school, contribute to their communities, and avoid many of the challenges associated with instability or homelessness later in life. Third, encouraging adoption supports the child welfare system itself. By helping more children transition from temporary foster care to permanent homes, adoption reduces the strain on foster care resources and allows agencies to focus on the children who most urgently need care. Importantly, adoption today takes many forms. Families adopt through foster care, kinship adoptions, private domestic adoption, and international adoption. Many adoptive families are single parents, relatives, or blended families. What unites them is not their structure, but their commitment to providing love, stability, and opportunity. 

As policymakers, advocates, and citizens, we have an opportunity to encourage adoption by supporting adoptive families, improving adoption awareness, and ensuring that the process is accessible and ethical. Policies such as post-adoption services and recruitment of adoptive parents can make a meaningful difference.  Ultimately, adoption is about more than policy—it is about people. It is about ensuring that every child has the chance to grow up in a safe, supportive, and loving home. And when we encourage adoption, we invest not only in individual children, but in the future of our communities and our country.

Before I turn to Ranking Member DeLauro for her remarks, I will introduce our panel of witnesses. First, we have Ms. Kate McLean, executive director of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.  I look forward to hearing from an industry leader about how your institution works to identify and remove barriers for vulnerable children and families. I will add a quick side note here that I’ve had the chance to get to know Kate over the last several years as I also serve as a co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and we work hand-in-hand with her team at CCAI.  

Next, we will hear from Ms. Debbie Riley, CEO of the Center for Adoption Support and Education, whose expertise includes adoption, therapy, and developing adoption-competent training programs. We will also hear from Dr. Sarah Font, who is a professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on the impacts of the child welfare system on families and using data to improve agencies’ outcomes. And last, but not least, we will hear from Ms. Aurene Martin, Board Secretary of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, who has extensive experience in federal Indian Law and Policy, having served in several Tribal and Federal key government positions. We appreciate you taking time to share your insights with us today.

I would now like to turn to the Committee’s Ranking Member for any remarks she would like to make.