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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday awarded the state of Utah more than $432,000 for helping more children get adopted out of foster care in 2009.

The award comes through an annual federal incentive program created 13 years ago to prevent children from lingering in the foster system, said Utah Division of Child and Family Services adoption program administrator Marty Shannon.

"When kids age out of the foster system, [at age 18] their chances for success are greatly diminished," she said. "Every kid needs a family."

The number of children adopted out of foster care in Utah has steadily increased since 2005, according to DCFS numbers. Though the total number of children in the foster care system is also increasing, the number of children adopted as a percentage of the total also increased last year to 18 percent, according to a Tribune analysis of DCFS numbers.

Younger children are often adopted by their foster family. But it's harder for older children to find a family, Shannon said. So adoption workers dig through their files to find a relative, a teacher, any connection that might give a child a link to a new home.

The adoption program also runs the Heart Gallery event. A series of portraits designed to capture the child's personality are shot and donated by professional photographers, then displayed at the state Capitol rotunda. The program kicks off Nov. 3.

The Health and Human Services incentive program offers states $4,000 for each child or special-needs child adopted, and $8,000 for each child adopted at 9 and older.

A total of 38 states received awards; the program distributed a total of $39 million. Utah's money will go toward general DCFS programs, including those that help kids stay at home, if possible, and programs that help kids in the foster system, Shannon said.

"All children deserve loving, safe and permanent homes," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a news release. "It is gratifying that most states continue to excel in promoting the adoption of children from foster care. I sincerely thank every adoptive family in the state of Utah that has welcomed a child into their home." —

Utah foster adoptions

Number of children adopted out of foster care compared with total number of foster kids:

2005 • 300/2,226 = 13 percent

2006 • 385/2,386 = 16 percent

2007 • 392/2,699 = 15 percent

2008 • 443/2,661 = 17 percent

2009 • 479/2,695 = 18 percent

Source: Department of Children and Family Services