Federal money pays for adoption, not for bringing families home
- What the rule rewards
- Title IV-E Adoption Assistance is an open-ended federal entitlement, matched at 50 to 83 percent, that pays a monthly subsidy for each child adopted out of foster care, often until 18. The Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive program pays states bonuses on top of that for adoptions above a baseline: $5,000 per foster child adoption, versus $4,000 per guardianship. A child returned home to their parent earns the state no incentive payment.
- The harm
- When adoption is the outcome that pays and gets counted, agencies and courts drift toward adoption, even when a family wants guardianship or reunification is within reach.
- How we fix it
- Pay reunification and kinship guardianship at least as much as adoption. Fund family preservation and treatment services as open-ended entitlements like adoption assistance, and count safe reunification as a permanency success in federal reviews.
- What we've checked
- Adoption incentives were created by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, originally $4,000 per adoption above baseline plus $2,000 more for a child with special needs.
- In 2014, Congress renamed the program and added guardianship. A foster child adoption earns $5,000 and a guardianship earns $4,000. Older children earn $7,500 or $10,000 for either outcome.
- Reunification with a parent is not an eligible outcome under the incentive program.
- Responsible
- U.S. Congress (Social Security Act, Title IV-E) · HHS Administration for Children and Families
Raised in: Borrowed Time by Ciara Mason