INDIANAPOLIS — To help get more kids adopted in Indiana, the state is creating a new adoption unit.
Gov. Eric Holcomb said the state facilitated nearly 2,500 adoptions last year, but he wants to better organize how the Department of Child Services handles those adoptions.
Currently, 1,400 children are waiting to be adopted in Indiana. To shorten the wait time for them to find their forever families, DCS director Terry Stigdon is adding more jobs to build a new adoption unit.
"We can't be afraid to say that we need to be better, so let's just work on it and get better," Stigdon said.
That's why Gov. Holcomb announced at his State of the state address that they're creating an adoption branch within the department of child services.
"Not only to streamline it for the kids so that it isn't taking nearly as long, but to help it make a lot more sense to the parents," Stigdon said.
She said the same family case managers that were working with the children throughout the case were also helping find them an adoptive family. Now, they're separating the roles to make the process quicker and more efficient.
"So this unit will help to relieve a lot of the load so that the family case managers in the field in the front line can really focus on the safety and permanency for the children that we have open cases for," Stigdon said.
DCS will hire for 14 positions within the unit that will help with marketing, recruiting families, assess if the child and family are ready, and bring awareness to the need for adoption.
