D S S   P R E S S   R E L E A S E

For Immediate Release:
May 12, 2006

Contact: Deborah Scott
(573) 751-4815

Blunt Directs Social Services to Restructure Adoption Subsidy Program

Jefferson City - Governor Matt Blunt has directed the Department of Social Services to review the adoption subsidy program for prospective redesign that focuses on meeting the needs of children.

K. Gary Sherman, Director of the Department of Social Services, also has requested that the Attorney General vigorously pursue the important right of the state to design, administer and manage programs funded solely with state revenues, but to drop the issue of reviewing existing contracts from the appeal filed by the Attorney General in the case of E.C. v Blunt pending in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Changes made last year to the adoption subsidy law should not impact those that have already entered into contracts with the state,” said Director Sherman. “The intent of the changes was to ensure that resources were conserved for the families who most needed them to be able to adopt. “If any changes are made they should be made prospectively and in a way that focuses on the needs of the children."

Attorney General Jay Nixon filed the appeal after a ruling in the District Court by Judge Scott Wright. The ruling issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the state from implementing changes made to the state's adoption subsidy program last year. The Department requested that the Attorney General drop his appeal regarding the review of existing contracts with adoptive parents.

However, Judge Wright also ruled that Missouri's state funded adoption subsidy program must mirror the federally funded adoption subsidy program precisely. The court ruled that to operate the programs using different criteria was a violation of the equal rights protection clause of the 14th amendment. This portion of the ruling puts at risk the right of states to determine how programs solely funded by state revenue may operate.