Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas will receive $822,078 for increasing the number of children adopted from foster care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today.

Arkansas’ funding is part of $35 million awarded to 38 states and Puerto Rico, the department said.

“Adopting a child from foster care is a wonderful way to enrich any family’s life,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a news release. “We congratulate Arkansas on performing so well this year and we thank the parents who are providing loving and permanent homes.”

Arkansas received the funding for increasing its adoption rate of foster care children every year since 2002, according to DHHS. The incentive program was created as part of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.

The federal funding, plus $4.5 million in federal stimulus funds and $4 million from savings incurred by a lower federal matching funds rate, are to be used to speed up implementation of measures taken to improve the state’s child welfare system.

The improvements include the hiring of 153 new case workers and other staff to handle foster care cases and staff training, among other things.

Last year, Arkansas’ foster care system drew criticism following the deaths of four children in state custody and the conviction of a Northwest Arkansas man on charges he sexually abused foster children in his care.

Gov. Mike Beebe ordered a top-to-bottom review of the system.