This guest post was written by Molly Lewis.
The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) posted an article to their website titled “How the Adoption Incentives Program Can Incentivize Adoptions.” This article discusses a federal program called the Adoption Incentives Program, which began in 1997 under the Adoption and Safe Families Act. The author of this article believes that although there have been some successes of children finding their forever homes, trends predict that about 50% of the 100,000 children who are still waiting to be adopted will not, in fact, be adopted. The article goes on to address that the Adoption Incentive Program should be re-evaluated and the ways in which states receive these funds should be changed.
Currently, states receive funds based strictly on the number of adoptions that they have. CCAI believes that older and special needs children could be better served on a different model. CCAI also believes that states should be implementing different strategies for social welfare systems to be able to reduce the number of children living in foster care who need a permanent home. Some strategies suggested include diversifying the ways in which families are recruited, partnering with community and faith-based partners and embracing the belief that all children need and deserve a forever family.
This article addresses a huge concern that is faced by most child welfare agencies in this country. The article discusses several approaches to how the Adoption Incentive Program could reallocate funds. States and their systems should be challenged to reduce the length of time that children remain in foster care while waiting for their forever homes.
What this article doesn’t address is that some for some children, in some situations, adoption might not be the best outcome. Often times, older children may not wish to be adopted. In situations like this, finding a permanent connection might be just as beneficial. I believe that states should be rewarded for their efforts on permanency in general and not only being rewarded based on the number of children who are placed in adoptive homes.
In addition, when I first read the title of this article, I believed that it would be in regards to incentives for families who would adopt a child from foster care. It is interesting that the title of this program, the Adoption Incentive Program, is about incentives for the state governments and not about incentives for families who make the decision to change their lives and impact the life of a young person who needs them.
