Frankfort—A new website aims to make it easier for Kentucky parents to navigate the foster care and adoption process.
“Every child deserves a loving home,” First Lady Glenna Bevin said in unveiling the adopt.ky.gov website with Kentucky Health and Family Services Secretary Vickie Yates Brown Glisson.
Bevin said her office worked closely with the state’s Department for Community Based Services to create a website to clearly show each step in becoming a foster or adoptive parent—at no additional taxpayer expense.
The Bevins have nine children, and four are adopted. Bevin has said that her top priority as first lady is child and family advocacy.
Glisson said the new website is an important first step toward making the adoption process less stressful and confusing.
“For prospective parents wanting to complete their ‘forever families,’ the steps of adopting can seem endless,” Glisson said. “This improved website is meant to make the process understandable from the start by explaining options and providing contacts to ask for help.”
According to DCBS, about 8,100 children are in Kentucky foster care, and many of them are awaiting adoption.
“Foster care is meant to be a temporary setting until families can be safely reunified,” DCBS Commissioner Adria Johnson said. “But when children cannot return home, we work to find loving, permanent homes for them. This new website has revitalized the entry point for families to learn about opening their hearts and homes to a vulnerable child.”
The new site, unveiled June 8, also includes regional contact information and a link to the Special Needs Adoption Program photo search database where families can use criteria like gender, age and siblings to search the listings of children awaiting adoption.
“It’s important that families seeking to adopt find the child match who is right for them.” Johnson said. “This initial database search, with guidance from DCBS caseworkers, can help parents find children who are a good fit for their families.” (BP)