Adoption Subsidies: A Great Investment for Kids Who Need Families

By Adam Pertman and Georgia Deoudes

September 25, 2012 / Huffington Post

More than 104,000 children in the United States are waiting in foster care to be adopted by permanent, loving parents. These girls and boys, who are on average 8 years old, typically remain in temporary situations for over three years before being placed with "forever families."

The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 aimed to help waiting children achieve permanency by requiring states to provide subsidies to parents who form families through adoption, thereby removing financial barriers that prevented many of them from doing so. These subsidies, at a median of just $485 a month, help families meet the basic needs of their children, including such critical services as health care, therapy or tutoring to address their sons' and daughters' physical, mental, cognitive and developmental challenges.

Adoption assistance helps many families adopting from the child welfare system -- the vast majority of whom are foster parents (54%) or relatives (31%) who have very low incomes. Nationally, nearly half (46%) of families adopting from care are at or below 200 percent of the poverty level. State data reveal a similar trend: In Illinois, one study found most (56%) of families had annual incomes under $35,000 (excluding subsidies) and another found almost one-third (30%) had annual incomes under $20,000 (including subsidies).

Many parents report they could not have afforded to adopt without a subsidy. Among adoptive and prospective adoptive parents of foster children in a multi-state study, a big majority (81%) said subsidies were important to their decision to adopt and more than half (58%) said they could not have done so without them. In a study of success factors associated with families' adoption of children from care, two-thirds (66%) of parents said they needed the subsidy to be able to adopt. The top barrier to foster care adoption cited by African-American families is the lack of financial resources to support additional children.

According to economic analyses, subsidies "have a positive and statistically significant effect on adoption rates" and "subsidy policy is the most important determinant of adoptions from foster care that is under the direct control of policymakers." A Department of Health and Human Services' evaluation found that "adoption subsidies are perhaps the single most powerful tool by which the child welfare system can encourage adoption and support adoptive families."

Finally (for now) research shows that adoption yields cost savings versus foster care. One economist found that every dollar invested in adoption of a child from care returns about three dollars in public and private benefits. Another study concluded that the government cost savings for the 50,000 children adopted annually from foster care ranges from $1 billion to $6 billion.

Despite all of this evidence (and more) about the value of adoption subsidies, when states experience budget shortfalls, they often decrease child welfare spending -- including by limiting adoption subsidy amounts and/or restricting eligibility. To counter this trend, the Adoption Institute and the North American Council on Adoptable Children have created advocacy materials for parents, professionals and other activists to use at the state level. These resources are available at http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/advocacy/subsidies.php. They include:

• An Issue Brief, "The Vital Role of Adoption Subsidies: Increasing Permanency and Improving Children's Lives (While Saving States Money)," that presents research illustrating the critical value of subsidies to parents, states and, most pointedly, to children who need families.
• Resources with state data (as well as general legislative, budget and child welfare policy sources) to supplement the national information in the Issue Brief. This information is designed to make the most compelling case possible to state legislators and their staffs.

As part of this campaign, the Adoption Institute and NACAC are seeking feedback from adoptive parents and child welfare professionals about the specific need for adoption subsidies in their states and any proposed limits to those subsidies, as well as their experiences educating lawmakers' offices. To provide input, ask questions or offer suggestions, please visit http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/advocacy/subsidies.php.

In an era of increased emphasis on evidence-based policy, maintaining adequate adoption subsidies is not only in the best interests of children, it is a sound investment in an effective strategy to saves states money. Modest payment increases of 10 percent could result in nearly 100 additional adoptions from foster care in a state in one year, while reducing these allowances undercuts vulnerable children's chances of placement in secure families, gaining stability in their lives, and achieving better outcomes and prospects for their futures.