Connecting Today...Transforming Tomorrow
Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Act
Late breaking news update as of 9/10/08
The Senate Finance Committee approved the Chairman’s Mark of the bill on 9/10 and the bill now goes to the Senate for final approval. FCAA members and other advocates were instrumental in building the support needed to get the bill this far, but our work isn’t done!
Please contact your Senator today and urge him or her to co-sponsor the pending Senate bill. To contact your senator, follow instructions below:
This bill takes several important steps toward improving the lives of our brothers and sisters in care:
- extends and increases incentives for permanency, particularly incentives for the adoption of children with special needs and older youth in foster care.
- allows states to offer federal assistance to children who are in foster care but who have grandparent or other relative guardians who want to care for them permanently outside of the formal foster care system.
- makes it easier for relatives to step in to raise children when their parents cannot.
- improves educational opportunities for children and youth in foster care.
- significantly increases resources available to young people as they age out of foster care to help them successfully transition into adult life.
To contact your Senator by email:
Visit this link and complete the simple form. You'll see this is a form letter through the Kids Are Waiting campaign, of which FCAA is a proud partner.
There is an optional section for you to complete. Sharing something about yourself and your own experiences is a powerful way to make sure our voices are heard. We recommend you use a message like the one below with your own additions:
I am a member of Foster Care Alumni of America and an alumnus of the foster care system. I understand just how urgent it is that we make sure youth grow up in permanent families. People in and from foster care have the government as our legal parents and we are counting on you to make good decisions as both our Senator and our parent. Please support this important legislation.
Enter your contact information and the automated system will automatically send it to the two Senators from your state, and also to the email address you provided for yourself.
Send us a message at FCAA letting us know you've done this - we love to hear about our members taking action!
Today, more than 127,000 children and young people in foster care are waiting to leave the system – for good – to join permanent families. Every day without a permanent family can feel like a lifetime to those of us in and from foster care.
The bipartisan Adoption Incentives Program has helped more than 443,000 children leave the uncertainty of foster care to join adoptive families – but unless Congress acts now, it will expire on September 30, 2008. The House acted unanimously to reauthorize the Adoption Incentives Program in late June and included provisions to provide relative guardianship as an additional way for children to exit foster care for permanent families. Our members were instrumental in the passage of the House version (learn more here), and FCAA members from around the country contacted their Senators in July to urge reauthorization before the August recess, but the Senate did not act.
As a community of alumni and our allies who support us, we are keenly aware of just how long another day without a family can be. Please take action.
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