The Senate Finance Committee has passed a bill that would reauthorize a $43 million incentive program that rewards states for moving foster care children—particularly those with special needs— from foster care to placement in safe, permanent homes.
The bill, S. 3038, new bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), would increase funding for adoptions and help children with special needs to move
Grassley's new bill would increase payments to states for finalizing adoptions for children with special needs, create an additional payment for states that exceed the state's highest rate of all adoptions from foster care and make all children with special needs eligible for federal adoption assistance (current law limits assistance to children removed from very low income families).
The bill makes a significant change in the way that states earn Adoption Incentive awards. Under current law, they can earn the rewards if they increase the number of children who are adopted out of foster care. The bill would change that.
The bill would also establish a new pathway for permanence by allowing states to receive federal reimbursement for payments made to relatives who are legal guardians and are caring for children who would otherwise be in foster care. For these children, courts have already ruled out reunification and adoption, Grassley noted.
Awards for an increase in the rate of these adoptions are made available in any year beginning with FY 2009, provided that funding is available.
A state's foster child adoption rate would be determined by dividing the number of foster child adoptions finalized in the state in a given fiscal year by the number of children in that state's foster care caseload on the last day of the previous year. (For example: If a state finalizes 150 adoptions in a given fiscal year and on the last day of the previous fiscal year it had 1,500 children in its foster care caseload, its foster child adoption rate for the given fiscal year is 10%.)
A state earns an award if it achieves a foster child adoption rate that is above its "highest ever foster child adoption rate" – meaning the highest foster child adoption rate that the State achieved in any year beginning with FY 1998 and before the award year. The amount of this award would be equal to $1,000 multiplied by the number of adoptions that occurred as a result of the state exceeding its highest ever foster child adoption rate (and holding the foster care caseload constant).
For example: If a state had previously achieved a highest ever foster child adoption rate of 9%, then, when it achieved the rate of 10%, its award for this increased rate would be calculated by multiplying that highest rate (9%) by the 1,500 children in its caseload on the last day of the fiscal year prior to the award year, subtracting this number (135) from the actual number of foster child adoptions achieved in the award year (150) and multiplying the difference (15) by $1,000 to determine the award amount of $15,000.)
Further, the bill permits Health & Human Services Dept. to make pro rata adjustments to these amounts if funds appropriated are insufficient to cover the full awards earned. Nationwide, more than 500,000 children are in foster care and 127,000 of them are eligible for placement in a permanent home.
Special Needs
Under current law, a state earns Adoption Incentive awards for increasing the number of adoptions out of foster care in the following amounts: $4,000 for each foster child adoption that is above its base number of adoptions in this category; $4,000 for each adoption of a child from foster care who is age 9 or older that is above its base number of adoptions in this category; and (provided the state has also earned either a foster child or older child adoption award), $2,000 for each special needs adoption of a child (who is under the age of nine) that is above its base number of adoptions in this category. The bill would raise the award amount for each increase in older child adoption to $8,000, and for adoption of a child with special needs (who is under age 9) to $3,000. (The bill would maintain the current law award of $4,000 for each increase in foster child adoptions overall.
"This bill is about giving hope and opportunity to some of the most vulnerable kids in the country," Grassley said.
"Today, 15,000 children could leave foster care for good and enjoy the security and stability of a permanent home if we provided federal assistance to their legal guardians who are also their relatives, and that's just one aspect of this comprehensive legislation," Grassley said.
Info: http://grassley.senate.gov or http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG%202008/091008%20S%203038%20Substitute%20Improved%20Adoption%20Incentives%20and%20Relative%20Guardianship%20Support%20Act.pdf
To read the full story Subscribe now!
