Department highlights adoption progress, Prospera program and private grant for harder‑to‑place children

Department leaders told the House Budget Committee on April 30 that adoption-related work is a priority and provided recent counts and a private grant intended to accelerate placements of older children and sibling groups.

Secretary Susan Roy Fuentes and agency administrators said roughly 276 families had registered interest on a new adoption platform and that 43 children were in active matching processes as of the date of testimony; the department reported about 80 adoptions during the fiscal year with 36 occurring since January. The secretary described a formal agreement with the Dave Thomas Foundation (Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program) that will provide approximately $385,000 for the first year to fund evidence-based recruitment and casework focused on children older than nine, sibling groups and children with special needs.

Administrators said the grant will fund social‑work hires (master’s-level staff) and training to implement practices shown in other jurisdictions to improve adoption outcomes for children who historically are harder to place.

Separately, the administration described the Prospera program (a state program providing food-support-related claims for older adults whose descendants carry legal obligations) and said roughly 200 cases are active under Prospera; officials said they are evaluating ways to strengthen Prospera and to pursue measures that increase collections or supports for older adults who depend on descendant payments.

The committee requested documentation on the Dave Thomas grant agreement, the current adoption platform’s statistics, and a plan to scale evidence‑based adoption work across the department’s service regions.