BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota Health and Human Services is rolling out a series of changes to its adoption program to simplify the process for kids, families and case workers.
The department redesigns its programs on an ongoing basis with the aim of making them more efficient, said Julie Hoffman, the agency’s adoption services administrator. Often, the goal is to cut down on bureaucracy, she said.
The first phase of the adoption redesign took effect Feb. 1. One major area of focus was streamlining regulatory requirements for potential foster care providers and adoptive families.
“There has been a long standing concern about the duplication between the foster care licensing process and the adoptive study process,” she said.
Among the many changes introduced in the redesign was the creation of a new template that social workers can use to assess families seeking to adopt.
“They can complete a lot of it as they’re talking with the family — which is unlike what it used to be,” Hoffman said. “They would compile all this information and then go back to their office and spend a half a day writing a 22-page study.”
Another goal was improving outreach efforts to extended family members of children who come into foster care. To that end, the redesign team developed scripts for case managers to reference when attempting to contact relatives, among other recommendations.
“One of the things that we know is that when relatives are involved, it’s better for kids and it’s better for families,” Hoffman said. “So we wanted to make sure that we’re engaging relatives as early as we can in the child welfare process.”
Health and Human Services also consolidated several forms needed for adoption referrals — the process of connecting a child with prospective families — into one.
The work isn’t over yet, Hoffman said. Health and Human Services is still working on implementing several of the recommendations. The department is planning to launch a second phase of the redesign within the next six to 12 months.
The hope is that a more streamlined program means children will spend less time in the foster care system.
“Certainly, we will be looking at timeframes — how long from the point that we get a termination of parental rights for a child before that child is adopted,” Hoffman said.
As of Feb. 1, North Dakota had 386 children in foster care who were seeking adoption or some other permanent placement due to a termination of parental rights, Hoffman said in an email.
Over the 2023 fiscal year, 232 children in state and tribal custody were adopted, according to a February announcement by Health and Human Services.
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