Since 1979, the Administration for Children and Families section of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been home to the Children’s Bureau. However, the Children’s Bureau, the world’s first organization for children’s welfare, was established by President Taft in 1912. The Bureau has been important not only in efforts against child abuse and for children’s wellbeing, but also in support and regulation of adoption in the United States. This year’s leadership for the Children’s Bureau has brought the connection with adoption back to the forefront.
Ryan Hanlon leads the Children’s Bureau
Ryan Hanlon was president and CEO of the National Council for Adoption and executive director of America World Adoption as well as a teacher at the Catholic University of America. Hanlon was the 2022 recipient of the Angel in Adoption award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. He has been Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau since January, 2026.
Hanlon has an adopted son, and has said that this experience has given him important insights about adoption. He is passionate about the need for support for adoptive families, and for birth mothers. He has spoken about the need for financial support for people wanting to grow their families through adoption.
“We should be sending a message to all potential parents that they will be supported after they complete an adoption,” he wrote at The Imprint. “But right now, only middle-income families get that message; families with a low household income are left to wonder how they can afford to support a child.” He favors making adoption tax credits refundable, saying, “With over 117,000 kids in the U.S. foster care system waiting on adoption, we should ensure there is not a financial barrier that keeps a child from the love of a permanent family.”
In addition to his calls for increased adoption tax credit eligibility, Hanlon also supports the ADOPT Act.
Favoring information
Hanlon also stresses the importance of adequate information. for everyone considering adoption. Writing about research he was involved in, he said, “Our findings point to misunderstandings that depress consideration of adoption: confusion between private adoption and foster care, uncertainty about open adoption, and lack of awareness that expectant parents can choose the adoptive family and receive services at no cost.”
Expectant moms often worry that if they give up their babies for adoption, the child will end up in foster care. While the Children’s Bureau strongly supports foster care and it is a very important and necessary service, it is not the same as a permanent place in a loving adoptive home.
Private adoption allows families wanting to grow their families through adoption and parents or expectant parents with an unplanned pregnancy to work together to provide that loving home for the child without the long wait that can result from foster care placement.
Open adoption is now the norm. It allows continued contact between the birth mother and the adoptive parents and often the child as well. The birth parent(s) and adoptive parents work together with their adoption professional to create a plan that meets the needs of all parties.
Expectant birth parents can choose the adoptive family for their child, and there is no cost to placing a child for adoption. In fact, Arkansas law allows support for expectant moms.
Do you have questions about adoption? Heimer Law can help.
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