NCFA Media : Archived News

Congress passes Adoption Promotion Act of 2003

On November 14, 2003, Congress passed the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), one of the House co-chairs of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, sponsored the legislation, which the House of Representatives passed on October 8, 2003. The Senate unanimously passed the bill on November 14, 2003. Senator Chuck Grassley, one of the Senate co-chairs of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, had sponsored a companion bill.

The Adoption Promotion Act reauthorizes the ASFA adoption incentive payments program through FY2007. The law expands the current adoption incentive program to include additional incentive payments for the adoption of children age 9 years and older. Previously, states were awarded $4,000 incentive payments for each foster care adoption that exceeded a predetermined baseline, and an additional incentive payment of $2,000 for each special needs foster care adoption above a separately established baseline. The Adoption Promotion Act retains the $4,000 incentive payments applicable to all foster care adoptions and alters the special needs adoption incentive payments to distinguish between the adoption of children age 9 years and older, for which there will be additional incentive payments of $4,000, and all other special needs adoptions for which the existing additional $2,000 incentive will continue to apply. The increased incentive payments for the adoption of older children are designed to address their overrepresentation in the foster care population.