On September 10, the Senate is scheduled to take action on key child welfare legislation. Between now and then, NACAC encourages you to contact your Senators and ask them to support S. 3038.

On June 24, the bi-partisan Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307) passed in the House of Representatives. The bill would promote permanency for foster children in several ways:

• reauthorize and expand the adoption incentive program (due to expire in September)
• enable states to receive federal Title IV-E funds for subsidized guardianship payments made on behalf of children who leave foster care permanently to live with relatives
• extend, at state option, adoption assistance and foster care maintenance up to age 21
• promote the adoption tax credit, encourage placement of siblings together, and seek educational and health continuity for foster youth
• provide tribes with direct access to Title IV-E funding to help children and families in their care
• expand access to Title IV-E training funds

Now NACAC hopes that the Senate will pass the Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act (S. 3038), which would:

• reauthorize and expand the adoption incentive program
• make all foster children with special needs eligible for federal adoption assistance (de-linking from old AFDC income standards)
• create a federal subsidized guardianship program to support relatives who become guardians so that their kin can permanently leave care

We hope that, in conference, the final bill will also include de-linking of federal adoption assistance and the tribal direct funding included in H.R. 6307.

Ask your Senators to sign on to S. 3038 as co-sponsors today.

Learn More

Do you know individuals or organizations that are truly making difference in the adoption arena? Please nominate them for a 2009 NACAC award by November 7.

Learn more

If you would like to present a workshop or institute at the 2009 NACAC conference in Columbus, Ohio, you can submit a proposal between now and October 18.

Learn more

n late May, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released Finding Families for African American Children: The Role of Race and Law in Adoptions from Foster Care, which calls for changes that will better serve the needs of children of color in foster care. Among the study's findings are:

• MEPA/IEP have not resulted in equity in adoption for African American children.
• The "color blind" interpretations of MEPA-IEP run counter to widely accepted best practices in adoption.
• MEPA's call for "diligent recruitment" of prospective parents who represent the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children in foster care has not been well implemented or enforced.

Download report

With state budgets getting tighter, some state leaders are eyeing adoption assistance payments as a possible way to save money.

Learn more

Read NACAC's new report on how important subsidies are to ensuring that children leave foster care to adoption:

Download report

Voice for Adoption has released a fact sheet about the new provision that allows foster teens to be adopted without losing access to college financial aid. The provision will take effect in July 2009.

Learn more

Child Trends analyzed the recently released results of a Treaury Department study on the use of the Adoption Tax Credit and found that the credit is not fulfilling its original purpose.

Read Child Trends' press release

Read NACAC's analysis

Download Department of
Treasury report

Download PDFs of NACAC's latest publications:

• The Value of Adoption Subsidies: Helping Children Find Permanent Families
• Successes for Chldren in Families: It's Time to Build on What Works in Child Welfare
• Post-Adoption Services: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Children Adopted from Foster Care