(a) The department shall conduct a comprehensive baseline assessment of the performance of lead agencies and subcontracted providers related to adoption of children from foster care. The assessment shall compile annual data for each of the most recent 5 years for which data is available. The department shall update the assessment annually. At a minimum, the assessment shall identify:1. The number of families attempting to adopt children from foster care and the number of families completing the adoption process.
2. The number of children eligible for adoption and the number of children whose adoptions were finalized.
3. The amount of time eligible children waited for adoption.
4. The number of adoptions that resulted in disruption or dissolution and the subset of those disrupted adoptions that were preventable by the lead agency or the subcontracted provider.
5. The time taken to complete each phase of the adoption process.
6. The expenditures made to recruit adoptive homes and a description of any initiative to improve adoption performance or streamline the adoption process.
7. The results of any specific effort to gather feedback from prospective adoptive parents, adoptive parents, children in the child welfare system, adoptees, and other stakeholders.
8. The use of evidence-based, evidence-informed, promising, and innovative practices in recruitment, orientation, and preparation of appropriate adoptive families, matching children with families, supporting children during the adoption process, and providing postadoptive support.
