Established pursuant to the Missouri Constitution.

The committee shall consist of five members, three Republicans and two Democrats, and will be responsible for studying Adoption Promotion in the state of Missouri. The duties of the committee shall be:

1) To study the recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive parents in Missouri.

2) To examine the use and effectiveness of funding with regard to promoting the adoption of foster children in this state.

3) To examine the practices and outreach efforts this state has undergone in the past and make recommendations to improve their effectiveness.

4) To evaluate the current adoption processes and review them in order to identify obstacles and barriers associated with the adoption process.

5) To review current law relating to adoption and termination of parental rights (TPR) to determine whether modifications could be made to encourage adoptions in Missouri and to make the adoption and TPR processes more efficient and more cost effective.

6) To explore ways to improve customer service, and the timeliness and accuracy of processing and disbursing child support collections.

7) To study the state's responsibilities including locating parents, establishing paternity, establishing child and medical support orders, monitoring and enforcing compliance with child and medical support orders, reviewing and initiating modification of support orders and distributing support collections.

The committee shall be staffed by counsel from Senate Research and may hold public hearings at locations to be determined by the chairman. Reasonable, actual and necessary expenses of the committee shall be reimbursed by the Missouri Senate.

The committee shall issue a report and make recommendations, as deemed appropriate by a majority of the members of the committee, to the general assembly for legislative action no later than January 26, 2007.

Report of the Committee