Making Adoption Accessible and Reforming the Foster Care System Nationwide - full policy written out

Liberty
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Policy Proposal: Making Adoption Accessible and Reforming the Foster Care System Nationwide

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Purpose

Every child deserves a stable, loving home where they feel safe, valued, and supported. Families across the country dream of adopting a child and completing their households, yet many are prevented from doing so by the overwhelming financial burden and complex, frustrating bureaucracy of the current adoption system. Meanwhile, over 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system—many in temporary or overcrowded settings—wait for permanent homes. These children long for the stability, love, and support that a family can provide, but barriers within private adoption and failures in the foster care system keep too many from finding their “forever” families.

This policy aims to remove financial barriers to adoption, ensuring that qualified families aren’t priced out of the opportunity to adopt. It also calls for deep reform and increased funding for the foster care system, which too often leaves children underserved and at risk. By prioritizing these objectives, we can better connect children with caring families, reduce placement disruptions, and provide consistent support to foster parents and caseworkers alike.

Objectives

  1. Make Adoption Affordable for All
    Currently, private adoption costs range from $30,000 to $70,000, putting adoption out of reach for many families who could otherwise provide a loving, stable home. Public welfare adoptions, on the other hand, are often free or come at a very low cost. This disparity reflects a system that favors the financial gain of private agencies over the needs of children and families. Our policy seeks to cap adoption costs at a standardized, affordable flat rate, with funding for qualified adoptions covered through taxpayer or federal funds. This change would eliminate excessive fees and make adoption accessible to more families .

  2. Reform the Foster Care System
    The U.S. foster care system faces multiple challenges, including underfunded programs, high caseworker turnover, and an inadequate support structure for children and foster families. Overloaded caseworkers and limited resources result in placement instability and children “aging out” of the system without the skills or support they need for independence. Our policy aims to streamline the foster care process, increase support for foster families, and introduce accountability measures that ensure a child-centered approach in every aspect of foster care .

  3. Massive Funding for Foster Care and Caseworker Support
    High turnover and burnout rates among caseworkers lead to inconsistent care for children and overburdened foster families. This policy advocates for substantial funding increases to raise caseworker salaries, reduce caseloads, and provide comprehensive training programs. Increased funding will also allow for more resources, such as mental health services for foster children, educational support, and respite care for foster parents. These reforms will create a more sustainable, supportive system that better serves children’s needs.

Key Provisions

1. Adoption Fee Reform

  • Affordable Flat Rate: Set a manageable, flat-rate fee for adoption that caps private agency costs and prevents prohibitive expenses, ensuring fair access to adoption for all qualified families.
  • Funding Through Public Sources: Cover adoption fees through taxpayer or federal funds to make adoption financially accessible for families across all income levels.

2. Streamlined and Fair Qualification Process

  • Transparent and Efficient Vetting: The qualification process for adoptive and foster parents will be clear, accessible, and manageable, with requirements focused on the capacity to provide a safe, nurturing environment.
  • Comprehensive but Manageable Requirements: Requirements will be thorough yet streamlined, ensuring a balance between safeguarding children and reducing unnecessary obstacles for capable families.

3. System of Regular Checks and Balances in Foster Care

  • Regular Support and Monitoring: By implementing consistent check-ins, we can ensure foster families have the support needed to provide a stable environment for children. This also helps address potential issues early, reducing placement disruptions.
  • Ensuring a Child-Centered Approach: Increased funding and resources for mental health, educational support, and stability-focused placements will create an environment in which children can thrive .

4. Increased Funding for Foster Care and Caseworker Support

Guiding Principles

  • Child-Focused: Every provision in adoption and foster care reform should prioritize the well-being of the child, emphasizing safety, stability, and emotional support.
  • Accessible and Friendly Process: Both foster and adoptive parents should navigate a transparent, supportive process without excessive barriers.
  • Commitment to Systemic Change: To create lasting impact, this policy includes a commitment to ongoing evaluation and improvement of adoption and foster care practices.

Vision

This policy envisions a future in which all children in need of a home can be placed with a family, free from financial or procedural obstacles. By investing in foster care and adoption reform, we can reduce the number of children aging out of the system without support—a situation currently linked to higher risks of homelessness, incarceration, and unemployment. We aim to provide every child the chance to thrive in a safe, loving, and permanent home .

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While I agree that it would be nice for the government to find a way for these agencies to charge adoptive families less money, working class tax payers should not have to fund elective adoptions for middle to upper class people. Adopting a newborn baby is a PRIVILEGE, not a right, and there are waiting lines out the door of families who CAN afford it.

Lowering the cost will not make more babies available for adoption, it will just add up to longer waitlists and more competition.

You know one idea that would ACTUALLY increase access to adoption of newborns for more families?

  • Give pregnant women the RIGHT to choose adoption. Some mothers do not actually have this right, especially married women, because the law sometimes requires women to get the father’s permission first. Perhaps we could set limitations on that right. I definitely think that women who are pregnant with a child with a fetal abnormality, like Down Syndrome, should ALWAYS have the right to choose adoption, because the majority of Down Syndrome babies get aborted and she knows more than anyone whether she has the resources to properly care for and take responsibility for that child for the rest of that child’s life, on top of her responsibilities to other children and her own life.

  • Give birthmothers federally protected visitation rights. Many states do NOT enforce visitation agreements, and in some cases, the mothers get screwed over and don’t get to see her child again. This idea would accomplish two things: give more women the confidence to choose adoption (instead of abortion), and it would likely make the legal negotiation process simpler and perhaps less costly.

  • I would support the federal government paying the legal fees for adoptions of disabled children, such as babies with Down Syndrome. In addition, there should be education and awareness about the needs of children with all kinds of disabilities and disorders and letting people know that there are many families who seek to adopt babies with various disabilities and abnormalities, including Down Syndrome. Those things would give pregnant women more confidence in choosing adoption (instead of abortion in cases in which she knows she can’t keep the child) and simultaneously increase the number of available families seeking to adopt those babies.

  • More general awareness and education given to young people about their options to adoption and hear about perspectives from birthparents, adopted children and adoptive families. Some pro-choicers trash-talk adoption and birth mothers really bad. One person even had the nerve to tell me that adoption can be as “inhumane” as abortion. Young people need to know the truth.