This post is written by the Stability, Permanency, and Adoption MSW Intern, Andrea Brubaker, with additional content from editor Heidi Ombisa Skallet.
Yesterday I provided some background information on adoption assistance and the Adoption and Safe Families Act. As a follow up, I will now lay out two bills about adoption incentives—The Promoting Adoption and Legal Guardianship for Children in Foster Care Act (H.R. 3205; henceforth Promoting Adoption Act) and the Strengthening and Finding Families for Children Act (henceforth Strengthening Families Act). The Promoting Adoption Act was passed by the House without amendment and with bipartisan support on October 22, 2013.
The bills propose to reauthorize the Adoption Incentives Grant Program and the Family Connections Grant Program, as well as continue the method of calculating each state’s “base rate” for finalized adoptions for funding purposes (source: Chronicles of Social Change).
Post-adoption services
Both bills also include a requirement for States to spend a certain portion of savings incurred due to the “phase-out of eligibility requirements for adoption assistance” on post-adoption services. The Promoting Adoption Act requires a minimum of 20 percent of the savings to be spent on post-adoption services, while the Strengthening Families requires a minimum of 40 percent.
Legal guardianship
Both bills add a legal guardianship component to permanency, a move that will open up the pool of options for children. For one, it allows relatives who care for children in a permanent legal way to receive assistance without having to adopt. This also acknowledges the importance of trust and emotional well-being for children being involved in relationships that are not necessarily biological or strictly based upon resources.
Categorical formulas for incentive payments to states
Another area of change is in the focus on different demographic groups for which states receive funding (see current categories here). Each bill specifies four categories; however, the different bills are dissimilar in the amounts they apportion to certain categories:
- Foster child adoptions: Current incentive payment is $4,000 per additional child above the base rate.
- Promoting Adoption Act: $2,000 per additional child above the base rate
- Strengthening Families Act: $4,000 per additional child above the base rate
- Pre-adolescent child adoptions: Currently there is no such category in place.
- Promoting Adoption Act: $4,000 per additional child age 9-14 above the base rate
- Strengthening Families Act: No such category
- Older child adoptions: Both bills stress the disproportionate number of older children in foster care and the difficulties finding permanent placements for this age group. Current incentive payment begins at age 9 and is set at $8,000 per additional child above the base rate.
- Promoting Adoption Act: $8,000 per additional child age 14+ above the base rate
- Strengthening Families Act: $8,000 per additional child age 9+ above the base rate
- Special needs adoptions: Current incentive payment is $4,000 per additional child above the base rate, provided it is not also an “older child” adoption.
- Promoting Adoption Act: No such category
- Strengthening Families Act: $4,500 per additional child under age 9 above the base rate
- Foster child guardianships: Currently there is no such category in place.
- Promoting Adoption Act: $1,000 per additional child age 14+ above the base rate
- Strengthening Families Act: $4,000 per additional child age 9+ above the base rate
Previous legislation highlighted the need to increase adoptions nationwide, including the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, which doubled the adoption incentive payment amounts for both older child adoptions and special needs adoptions. What impact will the elimination of the “special needs” category have on the rate of special needs adoptions? Will adoption incentive payment reductions in general have an impact on permanency for children and youth in foster care?