Too often, when children leave foster care to be adopted they risk losing the financial support and other benefits provided in foster care. In too many cases, adoptive families later must relinquish their parental rights in order to get children the help they need. Subsidies and benefits for adoptive children should be consistent with what they received while in foster care or would receive if they aged out of care.

Policymakers can make progress on timely adoptions from foster care by setting adoption subsidies at a level that is meaningful to adoptive parents. Adequate subsidy levels will ensure that more adults step forward to make a long-term commitment to children with special needs.

What Can Policymakers Do?

• Establish adoption benefits that are consistent with what children receive in foster care. The Minnesota Permanency Demonstration Project establishes a single benefit for adoption and permanent legal custody so that children in foster care do not face reductions in benefits once they are adopted or in permanent legal custody of a relative. Minnesota statute permits the state to transfer state and federal funds to conduct the demonstration.[i] In Connecticut, funding was appropriated so the adoption subsidy would be comparable to the foster care subsidy.
• Ensure the subsidies are adequate to meet the needs of children exiting foster care. In its biennial budget, Virginia raised foster care and adoption subsidies by 23% for 2008 and 2009, even when the state was experiencing substantial fiscal constraints.[ii] The governor included the increase in his budget package in response to studies that demonstrated the inadequacy of the existing payments. The Governor and First Lady are also promoting a permanent home for older youth through their For Keeps Initiative.
• Provide educational benefits for adopted youth. Policymakers can ensure that benefits such as tuition assistance are available to all older youth previously in foster care, regardless of their living situation. In Connecticut, legislation was enacted in 2005 to allow adopted youth to receive tuition assistance similar to what youth in or aging out of foster care receive.
• Provide comprehensive post-adoption supports. In Florida the Governor announced a new post adoption services model that includes supportive assistance, education and training, and mental health assistance