findings and declaration of purpose

findings and declaration of purpose Sec. 201. The Congress hereby finds that many thousands of children remain in institutions or foster homes solely because of legal and other barriers to their placement in permanent, adoptive homes; that the majority of such children are of school age, handicapped, or both; that adoption may be the best alternative for assuring the healthy development of such children; that there are qualified persons seeking to adopt such children who are unable to do so because of barriers to their placement; and that, in order both to enhance the stability and love of the child’s home environment and to avoid wasteful expenditures of public funds, such children should not be maintained in foster care or institutions when adoption is appropriate and families for them can be found. It is, therefore, the purpose of this title to facilitate, the elimination of barriers to adoption and to provide permanent and loving home environments for children who would benefit by adoption, particularly children with special needs by— (1) promoting the establishment of model adoption legislation and procedures in the States and territories of the United States in order to eliminate jurisdictional and legal obstacles to adoption; and (2) providing a mechanism for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to (A) promote quality standards for adoption services (including preplacement, post-placement, and post-adoption counseling and standards to protect the rights of children in need of adoption), and (B) provide for a national adoption and foster care information data gathering and analysis system and a national adoption information exchange system to bring together children who would benefit by adoption and qualified prospective adoptive parents who are seeking such children.