# Child Welfare: The Adoption Incentive Program and Its Reauthorization

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URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR43025

## Record

- **Collection:** Congressional research report
- **Document type:** CRS Report
- **Published:** July 15, 2014
- **Citation:** R43025

## Text

Child Welfare: The Adoption Incentive
Program and Its Reauthorization
(name redacted)
Specialist in Social Policy
July 15, 2014

Congressional Research Service
7-....
www.crs.gov
R43025

Child Welfare: The Adoption Incentive Program and Its Reauthorization

Summary
Under the Adoption Incentive program (Section 473A of the Social Security Act), states earn
federal incentive payments when they increase adoptions of children who are in need of new
permanent families. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have earned a part of
the $424 million in Adoption Incentive funds that have been awarded since the program was
established as part of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA, P.L. 105-89).
Discretionary funding authorized for this program has been extended twice since it was
established, most recently in 2008 (P.L. 110-351).
Although funding authority for the Adoption Incentive program expired on September 30, 2013,
the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76) permits states to continue to receive the
Adoption Incentive payments and appropriates $37.9 million for them. In addition, Title II of the
Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (H.R. 4980), which was introduced on
June 26, 2014, would extend current annual discretionary funding authority ($43 million) for
Adoption Incentive payments through FY2016. Beyond this, Title II of H.R. 4980 would add
incentive payments for states that make improvements in appropriately moving children from
foster care to legal guardianship and would determine awards based on the percentage (or rate) of
children leaving foster care to adoption and/or guardianship, instead of the absolute number of
children leaving. In similar statements issued on June 26, 2014, by the House Committee on
Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance, Representatives Camp and Levin, along
with Senators Wyden and Hatch, announced H.R. 4980 as “bipartisan legislation [that] reflects
agreements reached between House and Senate negotiators” on legislation previously approved in
the House and in the Senate Finance Committee. Specifically, Title II of H.R. 4980 draws on H.R.
3205, passed by the House in October 2013, and provisions included in Title I of S. 1870,
approved by the Senate Finance Committee in December 2013.
Congress has long shown interest in improving the chances of adoption for children who cannot
return to their parents and who might otherwise spend their childhoods in temporary foster homes
before “aging out” of foster care. Since ASFA’s enactment in 1997, the annual number of children
leaving foster care for adoption has risen from roughly 30,000 to more than 50,000 and the
average length of time it took states to complete the adoption of a child from foster care declined
by close to one year (from about four years to less than three). Over the same time period, and in
significant measure due to the greater number of children leaving foster care for adoption and at a
faster pace, the overall number of children who remain in foster care declined by 29%—from a
peak of 567,000 in FY1999 to 400,000 in FY2012. Despite these successes, however, the number
of children “waiting for adoption” (102,000 on the last day of FY2012) remains about double the
number of children who are adopted during a given year. Adoptions of older children remain far
less common than adoptions of younger children, and some 23,000 youth aged out of foster care
in FY2012, compared to just 19,000 in FY1999.
Under the current award structure, a state’s adoption incentive payment equals the specified
incentive amount for a given category of adoptions multiplied by the number of adoptions in the
category that is above the number completed by the state in FY2007. The specified incentive
amount is $4,000 for foster child adoptions, $8,000 for older child (9 years or more) adoptions,
and—provided a state is eligible for an incentive in another award category—$4,000 for special
needs (under age 9) adoptions. Additionally, if sufficient appropriations are available in the fiscal
year, a state may also earn incentive payments for improving the rate (or percentage) of foster
child adoptions. In the five years (FY2008-FY2012) that this incentive structure has been in

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Child Welfare: The Adoption Incentive Program and Its Reauthorization

place, states received combined incentive payments of nearly $202 million, including $95 million
for increases in the number of foster child adoptions, $57 million for increases in older child
adoptions, and $48 million for increases in special needs (under age 9) adoptions. They also
received about $2 million for increases in the rate of foster child adoptions. (This amount was
significantly less than the nearly $12 million states were eligible to receive based on improved
adoption rates. However, that full amount was not paid because nearly all appropriations provided
were needed to make incentive payments for increased numbers of adoptions.)
States are permitted to use Adoption Incentive payments to support a broad range of child welfare
services to children and families. Many states report spending incentive funds on adoption-related
child welfare purposes, including post-adoption support services, recruitment of adoptive homes,
and training or conferences to improve adoption casework. A smaller number of states report
using these funds for adoption assistance payments, improved adoption homes studies, child
protection casework, foster care maintenance payments, or other child welfare purposes.
In addition to amending and extending Adoption Incentive payments, Title II of H.R. 4980 would
extend funding for Family Connection Grants (Section 427 of the Social Security Act) for one
year, add new reporting and spending requirements for states with regard to certain federal funds
they receive under the adoption assistance component of the Title IV-E program, and make
possible continued federal Title IV-E guardianship assistance eligibility for children already
receiving that assistance who are subsequently placed with a “successor guardian.” Additionally,
the bill would make changes to federal foster care requirements intended to further facilitate
placement of siblings together while in foster care.

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Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 1
Legislation to Extend Adoption Incentive Payments ....................................................................... 2
Improving Adoption Incentives and Extending Family Connection Grants .................................... 3
Extension and Revision of Adoption Incentive Payments......................................................... 3
Three-Year Extension of Funding Authority ....................................................................... 3
Revised Award Categories................................................................................................... 4
State Performance to be Determined Based on Rate ........................................................... 4
Award Amounts by Category .............................................................................................. 5
Counting Foster Child Guardianships ................................................................................. 5
Additional Award, Provided Sufficient Appropriations ...................................................... 5
Delayed Effective Date and Transition Rule for New Incentive Structure ......................... 6
Other Changes to Adoption Incentive Payments ................................................................. 6
State Reinvestment of Any Adoption Assistance Savings ......................................................... 6
Successor Guardianship............................................................................................................. 7
Family Connection Grants ......................................................................................................... 8
Promoting Sibling Connections ................................................................................................. 8
Data Collection on Prior Adoptions and Guardianships ............................................................ 9
Earlier Reauthorization Activities in the 113th Congress ................................................................. 9
Subcommittee on Human Resources Hearing ........................................................................... 9
Subsequent Activities in the House ................................................................................... 11
Senate Finance Committee Hearing ........................................................................................ 11
Subsequent Activities in the Senate................................................................................... 12
Background .................................................................................................................................... 13
Congressional Interest in Adoptions ........................................................................................ 13
Adoptions with Public Child Welfare Agency Involvement.................................................... 14
Growth in the Number of Adoptions Out of Foster Care .................................................. 14
Decline in Children in Foster Care Waiting for Adoption ................................................. 15
Reduced Time to Adoption................................................................................................ 15
Adoption Incentive Payments ........................................................................................................ 16
How Do States Earn Incentive Payments? .............................................................................. 17
Amount of Incentive Payments ............................................................................................... 17
Eligibility for Adoption Incentive Payments ........................................................................... 17
Awards and Appropriations ..................................................................................................... 18
Awards by Category for Adoptions Finalized in FY2008-FY2012 ......................................... 20
Foster Child Adoptions...................................................................................................... 21
Older Child Adoptions ...................................................................................................... 21
Special Needs (Under Age 9) Adoptions........................................................................... 21
Adoption Rate ................................................................................................................... 22
Spending Award Money .......................................................................................................... 22

Tables
Table 1. Adoption Incentive Payments Summary of Appropriations and Award History.............. 19
Table 2. Adoption Incentive Payments for Adoptions Completed in FY2008–FY2012................ 20

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Table A-1. Selected Provisions to Reauthorize Adoption Incentive Payments and Make
Other Child Welfare Changes ..................................................................................................... 24
Table C-1. Adoptions with Public Child Welfare Agency Involvement, FY1995-FY2012................. 35
Table C-2. Number of Children Waiting for Adoption and Percentage of Waiting Children
Adopted, FY1998-FY2011 ......................................................................................................... 36
Table C-3. Average and Median Length of Time to Finalized Adoption, In Months,
FY2000-FY2012 ......................................................................................................................... 37
Table D-1. Evolution of Adoption Incentive Payment Structure ................................................... 38
Table E-1. Children in Foster Care on the Last Day of the Fiscal Year by State,
FY2007-FY2011 ......................................................................................................................... 40
Table E-2. Children Waiting for Adoption, FY2007-FY2011, Percentage Change in the
Number of Those Children and Share Adopted by State ............................................................ 42

Appendixes
Appendix A. Comparison of Current Law and Selected Reauthorization Proposals .................................. 24
Appendix B. Glossary of Terms..................................................................................................... 33
Appendix C. Trends in Adoptions with Public Child Welfare Agency Involvement ..................... 35
Appendix D. Adoption Incentive Payments................................................................................... 38
Appendix E. Children in Foster Care and Waiting for Adoption by State ..................................... 40

Contacts
Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 44

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Introduction
The Adoption Incentive program (Section 473A of the Social Security Act) provides federal
payments to state child welfare agencies that increase adoptions of children who are in need of
new permanent families. Generally, these are children for whom reuniting with their biological
parents is not possible and who would otherwise be expected to remain in public foster care until
they “age out” (i.e., reach the state age of majority or the age at which state custody of children in
foster care is ended).
The first Adoption Incentive payments were made to states in FY1999 based on improvement in
the numbers of adoptions completed in FY1998, and the most recent were announced in late
FY2013 (August 2013) based on improvements in the numbers of adoptions completed in
FY2012. Since the inception of the program, states (including the 50 states, the District of
Columbia, and Puerto Rico) have collectively received close to $424 million in federal incentive
payments for increased adoptions.
The Adoption Incentive program was most recently extended through FY2013 by the Fostering
Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351). However, as part of
the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76), Congress extended states’ eligibility to
earn adoption incentive payments for an additional year and appropriated $37.9 million to make
those payments. Legislation to reauthorize and extend the Adoption Incentive Payments program
through FY2016 has passed the full House (H.R. 3205) and was approved in the Senate Finance
Committee (Title I of S. 1870). Title II of H.R. 4980, introduced on June 26, 2014, draws on
language in both of those legislative proposals.
In addition to extending funding authority for incentive payments through FY2016, Title II of
H.R. 4980 would make changes to the incentive structure established in the 2008 law—including
by changing the award categories to focus more on permanency for children 9 years of age or
older, establishing incentive payments for states that appropriately move children from foster care
to legal guardianship, determining improvements in state performance based on the rate (or
percentage) of children leaving foster care to adoption or guardianship (rather than the number),
and putting additional focus on achieving permanence through adoption or guardianship for
older children.
Apart from reauthorizing the Adoption Incentive program, the Fostering Connections to Success
and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 made several other changes to federal law, which Title II of
H.R. 4980 would amend or otherwise address. Specifically, the bill would
•

extend $15 million in annual mandatory funding for Family Connection Grants
for one year (FY2014); that grant program was first established and funded in the
2008 law;

•

adjust eligibility criteria for Title IV-E kinship guardianship assistance (which
was first established in the 2008 law) to ensure continuous program eligibility for
a child who must go to live with a “successor guardian” due to the incapacitation
or death of his/her relative guardians;

•

seek to further ensure siblings have the opportunity to live together while in
foster care, by specifying that a 2008 requirement for state agencies to identify
and give notice to grandparents and other relatives of children entering foster

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care includes identifying and providing notice to any parent of a sibling of a child
entering care (provided that parent has custody of the sibling); and
•

require additional reporting by states to ensure they spend any savings resulting
from the expanded federal support for Title IV-E adoption assistance provided for
in the 2008 law, and require that no less than 30% of any identified savings be
used by the state to provide post-adoption or post-guardianship services and
services to ensure safety and well-being of children who might otherwise enter
foster care.

This report begins by describing in greater detail the legislation under consideration in the 113th
Congress that would reauthorize and extend the Adoption Incentive Payments program and make
additional child welfare-related changes described above. (Appendix A includes a table
comparing current law with several reauthorization proposals, including Title II of H.R. 4980.) It
also discusses hearings and other legislative actions taken in this Congress as part of the
reauthorization effort. Additionally, the report provides background related to the Adoption
Incentive program, including a discussion of the long-standing congressional interest in domestic
adoption, the significant increases in adoption from foster care that have occurred since the mid1990s, and the Adoption Incentive Payments program as it has functioned since the program’s
2008 reauthorization.
Throughout this report some unique terms related to adoption, foster child adoptions, or the
Adoption Incentive program are used (e.g., “special needs” and “adoption rate”). While each of
these terms is explained in the body of the report, for ease of reference they are also included in a
“Glossary of Terms” provided in Appendix B to this report.

Legislation to Extend Adoption Incentive Payments
On June 26, 2014, Representative Camp, with Representatives Levin, Reichert, and Doggett,
introduced the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (H.R. 4980).1 The bill’s
introduction was jointly announced by Representatives Camp and Levin, along with Senators
Wyden and Hatch, and was described as “bipartisan legislation [that] reflects agreements reached
1

H.R. 4980 includes three titles but only the provisions of Title II are discussed in the body of this report. Title I of
H.R. 4980 includes amendments to the Title IV-E program that would require state child welfare agencies to have
procedures to identify and determine services for certain children and youth who are victims of sex trafficking, increase
their efforts concerning children who run away from foster care, and to report certain information related to these
identified victims of trafficking as well as certain missing children. Title I of H.R. 4980 would also make other changes
to the law intended to increase the ability of children in foster care to participate in “normal” age and developmentally
appropriate activities, including by establishing and requiring use of a “reasonable and prudent parent standard” for
foster caregivers, permitting states to use Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) funds to support foster
children’s participation in such activities, and by increasing funding for the CFCIP by $3 million annually (as of
FY2020). Title I of H.R. 4980 would also restrict the use of the case plan goal “another planned permanent living
arrangement” (to children in care at age 16 or older and for whom additional case review requirements are met), seek to
increase opportunities for youth in care at age 14 or older to participate in their own case and permanency planning,
and provide certain identity documents to youth leaving foster care at age 18 or older. Title I of the bill would also
authorize a National Advisory Committee on Sex Trafficking of Children. These provisions draw on a variety of earlier
introduced legislation, including the House-passed H.R. 4058 and provisions approved by the Senate Finance
Committee as Title II of S. 1870 (also introduced as S. 1878). Title III of H.R. 4980 includes amendments related to the
Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act). Those provisions draw on earlier
House-passed legislation (H.R. 1896) and provisions approved by the Senate Finance Committee as Title III of S. 1870
(also introduced as S. 1877).

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between the House and Senate negotiators.”2 Title II of H.R. 4980 draws on provisions included
in both the Promoting Adoptions and Legal Guardianships for Children in Foster Care Act (H.R.
3205, introduced by Representative Camp, with Representatives Levin, Reichert, and Doggett),
which was passed by the House in October 2013, and Title I of the Supporting At-Risk Children
Act (S. 1870), which was approved by the Senate Finance Committee in December 2013. (The
Title I provisions of S. 1870 were also introduced in S. 1876, the Strengthening and Finding
Families for Children Act, which was introduced by Senator Baucus, with Senators Hatch,
Wyden, Rockefeller, Grassley, and Casey.)
H.R. 3205 and S. 1870, in turn, drew on other introduced bills, which sought to extend Adoption
Incentive Payments and/or make other amendments to child welfare law. In the 113th Congress,
these bills included the Guardians for Children Act (H.R. 2979, introduced by Representative
Doggett, with Representatives Danny K. Davis, Bass, Lewis, Rangel, McDermott, and
Blumenauer); Investing in Permanency for Youth in Foster Care Act (H.R. 3124, introduced by
Representative Danny K. Davis); Removing Barriers to Adoption and Supporting Families Act of
2013 (S. 1511, introduced by Senator Rockefeller, with Senator Casey); Supporting Adoptive
Families Act (S. 1527, introduced by Senator Klobuchar, with Senators Landrieu and Blunt/H.R.
3423 introduced by Representative Langevin, with Representatives Wittman, Frederica Wilson,
Sean Patrick Maloney, Norton, Bass, and Grimm); and the Sibling Connections Act (S. 1786,
introduced by Senator Grassley, with Senator Kaine).

Improving Adoption Incentives and Extending
Family Connection Grants
This section describes Title II provisions of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening
Families Act (H.R. 4980). For a comparison of these Title II provisions to current law and
provisions included in H.R. 3205 and S. 1870/S. 1876, see Appendix A.

Extension and Revision of Adoption Incentive Payments
Three-Year Extension of Funding Authority
The Adoption Incentive program was authorized to receive up to $43 million in annual
appropriations through the end of FY2013. Despite the expiration of funding authority, Congress
chose to provide $37.9 million in FY2014 appropriations for these payments (P.L. 113-76).
Title II of H.R. 4980 would renew discretionary funding authority for the program, renamed as
Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments, at the current annual level ($43 million)
through FY2016. The proposed three-year reauthorization time frame would align the funding
authorization for the incentive payments program with the funding authorizations provided for
2

Similar press releases, both including the quoted statement above, were issued by the Senate Committee on Finance
and the House Committee on Ways and Means. See Committee on Ways and Means, “House and Senate Leaders
Announce Bipartisan Agreement to Prevent Child Sex Trafficking, Increase Adoptions, and Improve Child Support
Collections,” Press Release, June 26, 2014 and Committee on Finance, “Senate and House Leaders Announce
Bipartisan Agreement to Prevent Child Sex Trafficking, Increase Adoptions, and Improve Child Support Collections,”
June 26, 2014.

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two child welfare programs authorized under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (Stephanie
Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families).3

Revised Award Categories
Title II of H.R. 4980 would revise the categories for which states may earn incentive payments,
expanding them to include exits from foster care to legal guardianship and placing additional
focus on states’ abilities to appropriately move children age 9 or older to permanent homes via
adoption or guardianship. It would retain an award category for improving foster child adoptions
and add a separate award category for foster child guardianships. Awards in these categories
would be available with regard to adoptions and guardianships for children of any age.
Additionally, H.R. 4980 would split the current “older child adoptions” award category into two
groups and add foster child guardianships to both categories. The two new award categories
would be for adoptions and foster child guardianships of children ages 9 through 13 years
(defined as “pre-adolescent” adoptions and guardianships) and for those aged 14 or older (defined
as “older child” adoptions and guardianships). Finally, H.R. 4980 would eliminate the award
category tied to adoptions of children less than 9 years of age who are determined by their state to
have special needs.4

State Performance to be Determined Based on Rate
Further, H.R. 4980 would base all awards on improvements a state makes in the rate (or
percentage) of children moving to adoption (or guardianships). An improved rate would mean
that the percentage of adoptions (or guardianships) achieved in the fiscal year for which an
incentive payment is being determined is greater than the percentage achieved in the baseline
year. Under H.R. 4980, a state’s baseline year would be either the fiscal year immediately
preceding the one for which the award is being determined, or the average rate for the three fiscal
years immediately preceding the year for which the award is being determined, whichever has a
lower rate. 5 (Effectively, this means awards would be based on whichever of these two rates
produces the greatest measured improvement.)
Comparing percentages (or rates) to determine improved performance—instead of using the
absolute numbers of adoptions achieved as is currently done in this program—removes the effect
of overall caseload changes from the measurement. For states with declining numbers of children
in foster care but continued strong performance with regard to appropriately placing children for
adoption or in legal guardianships, comparing rates (instead of absolute numbers) can ensure
access to incentive payments. For states with increasing caseloads, it can ensure that increases in
3
For more information on these programs, see CRS Report R43458, Child Welfare: An Overview of Federal Programs
and Their Current Funding, by (name redacted).
4
“Special needs” in the context of this program means a state has determined that 1) the child cannot or should not
return to his home; 2) assuming this is in the child’s best interest, efforts to place the child without providing medical or
adoption assistance have been made but have not been successful; and 3) the child has a condition or factor (e.g., age,
membership in a sibling group, physical condition, mental or emotional disability) that makes it reasonable to conclude
that the child will not be placed without medical and/or adoption assistance. For additional information see "Conditions
or Factors Used by States in Determining Special Needs," in CRS Report R42792, Child Welfare: A Detailed Overview
of Program Eligibility and Funding for Foster Care, Adoption Assistance and Kinship Guardianship Assistance under
Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, by (name redacted).
5
A rate for a fiscal year is defined as the number of children who moved to adoption (or guardianship) during the year
divided by the number of children in foster care on the last day of the previous fiscal year.

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the number of adoptions or guardianships completed by the state are related to improved
permanency efforts by the state, not simply the availability of more children for placement.

Award Amounts by Category
Under current law, a state’s total adoption incentive payment is generally equal to the number of
increased adoptions multiplied by the incentive payment amount tied to each category—$4,000
for foster child adoptions, $4,000 for special needs (under age 9) adoptions,6 and $8,000 for older
child adoptions. By contrast, H.R. 4980 provides that a state’s incentive payment would equal the
number of adoptions and/or guardianships calculated to have been completed because the state
improved its rate (or percentage) of those adoptions and/or guardianships, multiplied by the
award amount in that category. For each such foster child adoption, the award amount would be
$5,000; for each such foster child guardianship, $4,000; for each such pre-adolescent (9 through
13 years) adoption or guardianship, $7,500; and for each older child (14 or older) adoption or
guardianship, $10,000.

Counting Foster Child Guardianships
H.R. 4980 would stipulate that for a foster child guardianship to be counted in the incentive
program, the child must leave foster care for placement with a legal guardian. Further, the state
must report to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that it has determined for
that child that being returned home or placed for adoption are not appropriate permanency
options, that the child shows a strong attachment to the prospective legal guardian, that the
prospective legal guardian has a strong commitment to providing permanent care for the child,
and, if the child is age 14 or older, that he or she has been consulted regarding the legal
guardianship arrangement.7 As an alternative, the state may inform HHS that it used “alternative
procedures” to determine that legal guardianship was the appropriate option for a child who
exited foster care to live with a legal guardian.

Additional Award, Provided Sufficient Appropriations
Under current law, in any year when appropriations are sufficient, states that improve their
highest-ever foster child adoption rate (beginning with the rate achieved in FY2002) are eligible
for additional incentive payments. H.R. 4980 would amend this policy to instead provide a
“timely adoption award” in any fiscal year when appropriations remain after all incentive
payments for improved rates of adoptions and/or guardianships have been made. A state would be
eligible to receive this award in any fiscal year that HHS determined that on average, children
who left foster care for adoption during that year had been in foster care for less than 24 months
(from removal to finalized adoption).
6

Under current law, states may only earn payments in this category if they also earn an award in that year for increases
in the number of foster child or older child adoptions, or if they improve on their “highest ever” rate of foster child
adoptions.
7
These provisions are similar to eligibility requirements associated with the Title IV-E kinship guardianship assistance
program. However, unlike those requirements, they do not require that the legal guardian must be a relative of the
child; nor do they require that the child must have been living in foster care and with the prospective relative guardian
for at least six months or that the child was eligible for Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments while living with
the prospective legal guardian.

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Delayed Effective Date and Transition Rule for New Incentive Structure
As discussed above, H.R. 4980 would significantly alter the incentive structure, including by
changing the categories for which awards are provided, changing award amounts, and calculating
all awards based on improvements in a state’s rate of adoptions or guardianships. However, the
bill would provide a transition period before this new incentive structure would be fully
implemented. Specifically, the renaming of the program and the changes in the incentive structure
would not begin to take effect until FY2015 (October 1, 2014). This means incentive payments
expected to be made this fiscal year (i.e., in August or September 2014 for adoptions finalized in
FY2013) would be paid under the incentive structure in current law (including award categories,
baseline numbers, and award amounts). H.R. 4980 also stipulates that incentive payments made
in the second year of the reauthorization (FY2015) would equal one-half of the amount a state
earns under the current law structure, plus one-half of what it would earn under the incentive
structure included in H.R. 4980. In the third year of the reauthorization (FY2016), the award
structure included in H.R. 4980 would be used exclusively to determine the state’s incentive
payments.8

Other Changes to Adoption Incentive Payments
36 Months to Expend Award Funds
Apart from extension of the program and changes in the incentive structure, H.R. 4980 would
amend the law to permit states up to 36 months from the month they receive any incentive
funding to use those funds. (Current law allows states up to 24 months from the date payments
are made to use the funds.)

No Supplantation
Under current law, states must spend any incentive payments they receive on the kinds of child
and family services that may be supported under the federal child welfare programs included in
Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. Further, current law specifies that any
incentive spending must not be counted as the non-federal share of funding required under Title
IV-B or Title IV-E programs. H.R. 4980 would keep each of those provisions in place and would
additionally stipulate that states must use the incentive funds to supplement, not supplant, any
current spending of federal or non-federal dollars for these child welfare activities.

State Reinvestment of Any Adoption Assistance Savings
Title II of H.R. 4980 would also amend provisions of the adoption assistance component of the
Title IV-E program under the Social Security Act. Under current law, states are required to
document savings in state spending (if any) that result from expanding federal eligibility for Title
IV-E adoption assistance. That eligibility expansion was allowed by the Fostering Connections to
8

Adoption incentive payments are typically made at the end of a fiscal year for adoptions completed in the previous
fiscal year. Therefore, payments made in the first year of the reauthorization (FY2014) would be expected to be paid in
August or September of 2014 and would be based on adoptions finalized in the state in FY2013. Payments in the
second year of the reauthorization (FY2015) would be expected to go out in August or September 2015 for adoptions
and/or guardianships finalized in FY2014, and payments in the third year of the reauthorization would be expected to
go out in August or September of 2016 for adoptions and/or guardianships completed in FY2015.

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Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351) and is primarily the result of
removing income eligibility criteria for Title IV-E adoption assistance. The eligibility expansion
began to be phased in with FY2010 and will be fully implemented as of FY2018. Soon after
enactment of this expanded eligibility provision, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
projected that it would increase federal Title IV-E spending by $1.4 billion from FY2009FY2018, with the bulk of that increase ($1.3 billion) projected to occur in FY2014-FY2018.9
Some or all of this increase in federal outlays is likely to represent savings of state monies.
Under H.R. 4980, the requirements related to reinvestment of these funds would be restated and
expanded. States would be required, beginning with FY2015, to calculate any savings in state
spending based on the federal adoption assistance provided to children made eligible by the less
restrictive federal criteria. States would be required to do this calculation using a methodology
specified by HHS, or proposed by the state and approved by HHS. Further, each state would need
to annually submit to HHS the methodology it used to calculate savings (whether or not any were
identified); the amount of any savings identified; and how the savings are to be spent. HHS would
be required to post this state-reported information on its website.
Finally, Title II of H.R. 4980 would require states to spend no less than 30% of any identified
savings to provide post-adoption services, post-guardianship services, and services to support and
sustain positive permanent outcomes for children who might otherwise need to enter foster care.
Further, of that 30%, no less than two-thirds must be spent for post-adoption and postguardianship services. H.R. 4980 would also amend the law to stipulate that the spending of any
such savings would need to supplement, rather than supplant, any federal or non-federal money
already being used to support child welfare services available under programs included in Title
IV-B or Title IV-E.

Successor Guardianship
Title II of H.R. 4980 would amend the guardianship assistance provisions of the Title IV-E
program to provide that if the relative legal guardian of a child who is receiving Title IV-E
kinship guardianship assistance dies or is incapacitated, the child continues to be eligible for this
assistance so long as he or she is placed with a successor legal guardian. The successor legal
guardian must have been named in the Title IV-E kinship guardianship agreement that was earlier
entered into between the state child welfare agency and the child’s previous relative legal
guardian.10 Under current law, a child receiving Title IV-E kinship guardianship assistance whose
legal relative guardian dies or becomes incapacitated cannot be certain that this assistance will
continue with a successor guardian. Instead, the child must have eligibility for this Title IV-E
assistance redetermined. Among other things, this redetermination requires the child to return to
foster care for at least six months (and while living with the prospective successor guardian). The
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates this change in Title IV-E eligibility criteria (which

9

CBO Cost Estimate, H.R. 6893, Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, as signed by
the President October 7, 2008, December 23, 2008.
10
This provision incorporates language of the Guardians for Children Act (H.R. 2979), which was introduced by
Representative Lloyd Doggett on August 2, 2013, with Representatives D. Davis, Bass, Blumenauer, Lewis, and
Rangel.

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would prevent the need for children to re-enter more costly foster care) would reduce federal
outlays by $7 million across 11 years (FY2014-FY2024).11

Family Connection Grants
Title II of H.R. 4980 would appropriate $15 million to continue Family Connection Grants for
one year (FY2014).12 (According to CBO, the cost of this one-year appropriation would be fully
offset by other changes included in H.R. 4980.)13 Family Connection grants are competitively
awarded to public or private organizations to carry out kinship navigator programs, intensive
family finding efforts, family group decisionmaking policies, and residential family treatment
programs. The grants were established and funded (FY2009-FY2013) by the Fostering
Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. 14
Beyond extending program funding for one year, H.R. 4980 would expand the list of entities
eligible to apply for Family Connection grant funding to include institutions of higher education.
It would seek to encourage greater support for foster parents who are willing to care for youth in
care who are themselves parents (through kinship navigator programs) and it would remove from
the law a provision ensuring the reservation of no less than $5 million in Family Connection
Grant funding, annually, to support kinship navigator programs. (Accordingly, under H.R. 4980
funding for kinship navigator programs would be available under Family Connection Grants on
the same basis as for any other authorized service.)

Promoting Sibling Connections
Under the federal foster care program (Title IV-E of the Social Security Act), states are required
to “exercise due diligence” to identify grandparents and other adult relatives of children being
removed from parental custody and to provide those relatives notice of the child’s removal from
his/her parent(s), as well as of the options the grandparent or other adult relative has for
participating in the child’s care or placement.15 Title II of H.R. 4980 would amend this provision
to specify that states must identify and provide this notice to a parent of a sibling of a child,
provided that parent has legal custody of the sibling. Further, for purposes of the federal foster
care program, it would define “sibling” to mean an individual recognized as a sibling under the
state’s law, or an individual who would be defined as a sibling except for the legal termination or
other disruption of parental rights (such as the death of a parent).
11

Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 4980, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, as
introduced June 26, 2014.
12
The competitive grant funding awarded under this program is typically awarded at the end of the fiscal year for
which it was provided. Accordingly, this funding is expected to be awarded to grantees in August or September 2014
(and used by them in FY2015). Most of the funding is expected to be used to provide a third year of funding for
grantees who were initially awarded three-year grants (subject to available appropriations) in late FY2012. See
Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 4980, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, as introduced
June 26, 2014, June 26, 2014.
13
Principally these offsetting changes are made in Title III of H.R. 4980 and concern required use of electronic income
withholding orders under the Child Support Enforcement program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act).
14
For more information on Family Connection Grants, including grantees and their projects, see the information
available at the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections http://www.nrcpfc.org/
grantees.html, which is supported by HHS, Children’s Bureau.
15
Section 471(a)(29) of the Social Security Act.

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Data Collection on Prior Adoptions and Guardianships
As part of the Title IV-E program, states are required to regularly report and collect data on
children in foster care and those leaving foster care for adoption. Title II of H.R. 4980 would
require HHS to issue new regulations providing for collection of data specifically concerning
children who enter foster care after having been previously adopted or placed in a legal
guardianship. (This may include children who were, or were not, previously in foster care.) The
legislation notes that the data to be collected under the regulation are to promote increased
knowledge on how best to ensure strong, permanent families for children in foster care, must
include the number of children who enter foster care after a prior finalized adoption or legal
guardianship, and may include information on the length of the prior adoption or guardianship,
the age of the child at the time of the prior adoption or guardianship, the age of the child when he
or she subsequently entered foster care, the type of agency involvement in making the prior
adoptive or guardianship placement, and any other information determined necessary to better
understand the factors associated with the child’s post-adoption or post-guardianship entry to
foster care.16

Earlier Reauthorization Activities in the
113th Congress
Subcommittee on Human Resources Hearing
On February 27, 2013, the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Ways and Means
Committee held a hearing on “Increasing Adoptions from Foster Care.” Subcommittee Chairman
Dave Reichert, noting the increase in adoptions and decline in the foster care caseload since the
enactment of the Adoption Incentive program and other changes to the law in 1997, said that the
hearing was to consider if other changes were needed to encourage adoption from foster care.17
Four witnesses discussed the importance of adoption as a way for children to find permanent
homes, and they gave particular attention to the need for adoptions of older children and those
with special needs. Each of the witnesses supported reauthorization of the Adoption Incentive
program.
Several witnesses described successful efforts to recruit adoptive families for older or harder to
place children as those that start with a focus on the individual children or youth in need of
families and engage them in the search for those families.18 One recruitment model, known as
16

The CBO estimated total costs of $3 million (across FY2014-FY2024) for data collection and reporting requirements
included in H.R. 4980. Title I of H.R. 4980 also includes some data collection and reporting requirements and the cost
estimate does not specify whether this total $3 million cost is associated with provisions in Title I, Title II or both.
However, it does show all of these costs fully offset by other changes to the law. See Congressional Budget Office,
H.R. 4980, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, as introduced June 26, 2014.
17
See Opening Statement of Chairman Dave Reichert, Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Ways and
Means Committee, Hearing on Increasing Adoptions from Foster Care, February 27, 2013. (Hereinafter Hearing,
February 27, 2013.)
18
Testimony of Rita Soronen, President and CEO, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Testimony of Pat
O’Brien, Executive Director and Founder, You Gotta Believe! The Older Child Adoption and Permanency Movement,
Inc., Hearing, February 27, 2013.

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“Wendy’s Wonderful Kids,” includes small caseloads that allow adoption caseworkers to get to
know and work with the children for whom they are seeking permanent homes. A rigorous study
of the model’s effectiveness found that children served under this recruitment and placement
model were one and a half times more likely to leave foster care for permanent homes than those
who received traditional adoptive home recruitment services. The model’s impact is greatest
among older children and those with mental health disorders.19 The state of Ohio has recently
contracted to use the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids model (on a nearly statewide basis) to find homes
for harder to place children age 9 or older. By moving children from foster care to permanent
homes more quickly, Ohio anticipates significant fiscal savings.20
Raising awareness of the need for adoptive families is a central goal of the Wait No More
campaign, discussed by another hearing witness. This campaign brings together public child
welfare agencies, private and public adoption agencies, church leaders and other support partners
to promote and host adoption events at churches around the country. Interested families may
begin the adoption process at the event, where speakers stress that adoption is about meeting the
needs of the child (not the needs of adults), discuss common behavioral challenges for adoptees
from foster care, and offer strategies to enable successful child and family outcomes.21
Witnesses also focused on the need for post-adoption services, including counselors with specific
training and knowledge about the needs of adoptive families, to ensure safety and stability of
these families.22 One witness asked that the longer-standing federal focus and financial support
for increasing adoptions be coupled with a greater focus on (and financial support for) postadoption services and suggested that Congress require states to spend their Adoption Incentive
funds on post-adoption support.23 Another asked that Congress ensure that children who were
adopted did not lose access to education, mental health-related, or other services that would be
available to them if they remained in foster care.24
Several witnesses mentioned assignment of the case plan goal “another planned permanent living
arrangement” (APPLA) as a potential barrier to finding permanent families for youth in care.25
Once a youth’s goal is fixed as “APPLA,” one witness noted the child welfare agency stops
19

Karin Malm, Sharon Vandivere, with Tiffany Allen, Kerry DeVooght, Raquel. Ellis, Amy McLindon, Jacqueline
Smollar, Eric Williams, and Andrew Zinn, Evaluation Report Summary: The Wendy’s Wonderful Kids’ Initiative, Child
Trends, Washington, DC: 2011, pp. 9-11, 14-15.
20
Testimony of Rita Soronen, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Hearing, February 27, 2013.
21
Testimony of Kelly Rosati, Vice President, Community Outreach, Focus on the Family, Hearing, February 27, 2013.
22
Ibid. See also Testimony of Nicole Dobbins, Executive Director, Voice for Adoption, Hearing, February 27, 2013.
23
Testimony of Nicole Dobbins. Dobbins also sought more accountability from states on their use of projected savings
from the growing federal investment in Title IV-E adoption assistance (authorized by the Fostering Connections to
Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, P.L. 110-351). She maintained that states should be required to invest a portion
of any savings they experience (due to this increased federal adoption assistance support) in post-adoption support
services.
24
Testimony of Rosati, including response to questions at Hearing, February 27, 2013. While states may make certain
benefits available only to youth who remain in care, Congress has provided that certain education benefits and other
assistance available to youth who “age out” of care (under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act) may also be available
to youth who leave foster care for adoption or guardianship on or after their 16th birthday. In addition, as part of the
Higher Education Act, Congress permits any youth who was in foster care on or after his/her 13th birthday to apply for
federal financial aid as an “independent” student. For more information, see CRS Report RL34499, Youth
Transitioning from Foster Care: Background and Federal Programs, by (name redacted).
25
Testimony of Nicole Dobbins, Executive Director, Voice for Adoption and Testimony of Pat O’Brien, Hearing,
February 27, 2013.

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searching for a permanent family and focuses exclusively on preparing the youth for
“independent living.” He asserted that federal policy should always require efforts to find a
permanent home for youth in care and noted that those efforts could continue even as the agency
worked to help the youth develop independent living skills.26
Other issues raised at the hearing included a call for reauthorization of the separate competitive
grant program known as Family Connections, which one witness noted supports projects that can
help connect youth with permanent families through greater kinship support, intensive familyfinding efforts and family group decision-making meetings, and greater use (by states) of Title
IV-E training funds to support more competent adoption casework.27 As part of the hearing
question and answer, witnesses also supported expanding the Adoption Incentive program to
reward states that help youth gain a safe, permanent family through means other than adoption. In
particular, several mentioned the importance of legal guardianship to achieving a permanent
family for some older youth.28

Subsequent Activities in the House
On August 7, 2013, the House Ways and Means Committee posted on its website a “discussion
draft” bill to re-authorize the Adoption Incentive Payments program. The accompanying
announcement sought comments on that draft bill as well as comments on the Guardians for
Children Act (H.R. 2979).29
After receiving comments and revising the proposal, the Promoting Adoption and Legal
Guardianship for Children in Foster Care Act (H.R. 3205) was introduced on September 27, 2013,
by Representative Camp, along with Representatives Levin, Reichert, and Doggett. The full
House considered and passed this bill, under suspension of the rules, on October 22, 2013. A
requested roll call vote tallied 402 for the bill and 0 opposed. As noted earlier, and shown in
Appendix A, Title II of H.R. 4980 draws significantly from this bill.

Senate Finance Committee Hearing
On April 23, 2013, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to consider reauthorization of
the Adoption Incentive program; to extend funding for Family Connection Grants; and, more
broadly, to consider the kinds of changes necessary to make further improvements in the
provision of foster care.30 The hearing revolved around the story of Antwone Fisher, who spent
his entire childhood in foster care before “aging out” (just before his 18th birthday) to live in a
homeless shelter.
At the hearing, Mr. Fisher recounted his story, and, among other things, highlighted the need for
child welfare agencies to actively work to find a permanent family for each child in foster care,
26

Testimony of Pat O’Brien, Hearing, February 27, 2013.
Testimony of Nicole Dobbins, Hearing, February 27, 2013.
28
See response of each witness to question raised by Representative Danny Davis, Hearing, February 27, 2013.
29
For more information on this proposal, request a copy of CRS Congressional Distribution (CD) Memorandum,
“Proposal to Revise and Extend Adoption Incentive Payments and Related Matters,” August 14, 2013.
30
Senate Finance Committee, Hearing on the Antwone Fisher Story as a Case Study for Child Welfare, April 23, 2013.
(Hereinafter Hearing, April 23, 2013.)
27

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ensure the safety and well-being of children while they are in care, and provide them with
meaningful opportunities to prepare for adulthood.31
Other witnesses at the hearing stressed many of these same points. One witness focused on the
need to engage youth in taking charge of their lives, including through transition planning and a
form of individual development accounts known as “Opportunity Passports.”32 A former child
welfare agency director talked about the efforts of his agency to move from a “punitive” system
with a single “fault-finding” response to one that was collaborative and family-centered
(providing responses commensurate with a family’s needs and concerns).33 Additionally, one
witness asserted the need for child welfare agencies to place a greater value on finding and
involving family members in meeting the needs of the children they serve. He suggested the need
for states to develop a more systemic approach to identifying family members and advocated
more enforcement of, and new reporting on, the existing federal requirements34 for child welfare
agencies to identify and give notice to adult relatives of children entering foster care.35

Subsequent Activities in the Senate
On September 30, 2013, the Senate Finance Committee posted a discussion draft bill to
reauthorize Adoption Incentive Payments and make certain other changes to federal child welfare
policies.36 After receiving comments on this draft, a version of that discussion draft bill became
Title I of the Chairmen’s Mark version of the Supporting At-Risk Children Act, which was
considered at a December 12, 2013, Finance Committee mark up.37 The Chairman’s Mark was
modified to include two child welfare-related amendments (concerning promoting sibling
connections and establishing a timely adoption award) before being approved on a voice vote.38
The bill was reported to the Senate (as S. 1870) on December 19, 2013. (A written report, S.Rept.
113-137, to accompany this legislation, was filed later.) Also on December 19, 2013, the
provisions of Title I of S. 1870 (as approved by the Senate Finance Committee) were introduced
in a stand-alone bill, known as the Strengthening and Finding Families for Children’s Act (S.
1876). That bill was introduced by Senator Baucus, with Senators Hatch, Wyden, Rockefeller,
Grassley, and Casey. As discussed earlier and shown in Appendix A, Title II of H.R. 4980 draws
significantly from Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876.

31

Testimony of Antwone Fisher, Author, Director and Film Producer; former foster youth, Hearing, April 23, 2013,
Testimony of Gary Stangler, Executive Director, Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, Hearing, April 23, 2013.
33
Testimony of Eric Fenner, Managing Director for Strategic Consulting, Casey Family Programs, Hearing, April 23,
2013. Mr. Fenner, a former director of the public children’s services agency for Franklin County, Ohio, also discussed
the county’s use of flexible federal funding (made possible under Ohio’s Title IV-E waiver) to invest in communitybased services.
34
Section 471(a)(20) of the Social Security Act, as added by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing
Adoptions Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351).
35
Testimony of Kevin Campbell, Founder, Center for Family Finding and Youth Connectedness, Hearing, April 23, 2013.
36
Senate Finance Committee, Chairman’s News, “Baucus Unveils Discussion Draft of Bill to Strengthen Adoption
Programs,” September 30, 2013.
37
Senate Finance Committee, An Open Executive Session to Consider an Original Bill to Repeal the Sustainable
Growth Rate and to Consider Health Care Extenders; and the Supporting At-Risk Children Act, December 12, 2013.
(Hereinafter Mark-up December 12, 2013.)
38
The amendment related to promoting sibling connections was brought by Senators Grassley, Rockefeller and Casey;
the amendment concerning a timely adoption award was brought by Senator Hatch. See Senate Finance Committee,
“Modifications to the Chairman’s Mark of the Supporting At-Risk Children Act,” Mark-up, December 12, 2013.
32

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Background
The remainder of this report reviews past congressional interest in use of adoption to move
children from foster care to permanency, including the creation of the Adoption Incentive
Payments program in 1997 legislation (ASFA, P.L. 105-89), before discussing this program as it
has operated since its 2008 reauthorization (Fostering Connections, P.L. 110-351).

Congressional Interest in Adoptions
Foster care is a temporary living arrangement for children for whom remaining in their own
homes is not safe or appropriate. Most children who enter foster care are ultimately reunited with
their parents. However, when reunification is determined not possible or appropriate, adoption is
generally considered the best way to achieve a new permanent family for a child.
Congress has long shown an interest in encouraging adoptions of children who would otherwise
remain in foster care until they age out. In 1978, the Adoption Opportunities program (Title II of
the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act, P.L. 95-266) was enacted to
require federal administrative coordination of adoption and foster care programs and to support
research and other activities to “facilitate elimination of barriers to adoption and to provide
permanent and loving home environments for children who would benefit from adoption,
particularly children with special needs.” In 1980, Congress enacted the Adoption Assistance and
Child Welfare Act (P.L. 96-272), including the first federal support for ongoing subsidies to
eligible adoptees with “special needs” (under a new Title IV-E of the Social Security Act). In this
context the “special needs” designation applies to children in need of new permanent families
(i.e., they cannot be returned to their parents) and who have conditions or factors that make it
harder to find them adoptive homes without offering assistance. States may establish their own
factors to determine special needs, but commonly used factors include a child’s age; membership
in a sibling group; medical condition; mental, physical or emotional disability; or membership in
a minority race/ethnicity.39
By 1997, a renewed concern about the failure to move children from foster care to permanent
families was an important impetus for the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA, P.L. 105-89).
As part of that law, Congress made changes to federal child welfare policy that were intended to
ensure that states focused on achieving expeditious permanence for children in foster care,
including through adoptions whenever appropriate. Among other changes, the law tightened or
added new permanency planning timelines for children in foster care, required states to spend
certain federal child welfare funds (under the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program) for
adoption promotion and support services, and authorized financial incentives to states that
increase adoptions of children out of foster care under the newly created Adoption Incentive
program.40
In 2008, as part of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (P.L. 110351)—and in addition to extending the Adoption Incentive program—Congress expanded
39

See “Conditions or Factors Used by States in Determining Special Needs,” in CRS Report R42792, Child Welfare: A
Detailed Overview of Program Eligibility and Funding for Foster Care, Adoption Assistance and Kinship
Guardianship Assistance under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, by (name redacted).
40
CRS Report RL30759, Child Welfare: Implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (P.L. 105-89), by (name redacted).

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eligibility for federal (Title IV-E) adoption assistance principally by removing income criteria tied
to the family from which a child had been removed (usually this is the child’s biological family).
The revised eligibility criteria are being phased in and now apply to only some children
determined to have special needs. However, as of FY2018 any child determined by a state to have
special needs may be eligible for ongoing, federally supported adoption assistance.41

Adoptions with Public Child Welfare Agency Involvement
Adoption is a social and legal process by which a child gains a new and permanent family. For
each child in foster care who cannot be reunited with his or her parents and for whom adoption is
determined to be the child’s route to permanency, the state must identify suitable and willing
adoptive parent(s). States may begin the process of recruiting an adoptive family before a child is
“legally free” for adoption. However, before the child’s adoption may be finalized a state (or
tribal) court must generally terminate any existing parental rights or responsibilities to a child.
Once this process, referred to as “TPR” (for termination of parental rights), has been completed,
the child’s adoption by new parents may be finalized by a state or tribal court.42
Since the 1997 enactment of ASFA, the annual number of adoptions out of foster care rose
significantly and the rate of adoptions has doubled. There are fewer children in foster care who
are “waiting for adoption,” and the average time it takes to complete an adoption has declined by
roughly one year. At the same time, the number of children waiting for adoption remains more
than double the number of those adopted each year and adoptions of older children remain less
common than those of younger children.

Growth in the Number of Adoptions Out of Foster Care
The annual number of adoptions from foster care climbed from less than 30,000 in the mid1990s, to a peak of some 57,000 in FY2009. Since then (through FY2012) the number has
remained at, or above, roughly 50,000. The rise in the number of adoptions played a significant
role in the decline in the overall number of children in foster care, which peaked in FY1999 at
567,000 children and had declined by 30%, to 397,000 children, as of the last day of FY2012.
The fact that the number of foster child adoptions has remained relatively high, despite the
decline in the overall number of children in foster care, is notable. 43 Viewed as a rate—that is the
41

See CRS Report RL34704, Child Welfare: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of
2008 (P.L. 110-351), by (name redacted) and “Federal Adoption Assistance Eligibility Criteria” in CRS Report
R42792, Child Welfare: A Detailed Overview of Program Eligibility and Funding for Foster Care, Adoption Assistance
and Kinship Guardianship Assistance under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, by (name redacted).
42
Adoptions are generally a matter of state law and most termination of parental rights (TPR) proceedings and adoption
finalizations occur in state courts (although they may also occur in tribal courts). While TPR is required for nearly all
adoptions, a few states (and certain tribes) recognize “tribal customary adoptions,” which do not require TPR.
43
For information by state on the decline in the number of children in foster care and the number waiting for adoption
see Table E-1 and Table E-2 in Appendix E. The state data shown compare caseload and waiting children just before
most recent reauthorization (FY2007) to most current national data available (FY2012). Across that time period, the
number of children in foster care declined by close to 19% (from 488,000 to 397,000) and the number of those children
in foster care who were counted as “waiting for adoption” declined by 24% (from 134,000 to 102,000). While the
amount and kind of change in the foster child and “waiting” population varied greatly by state, only seven states saw an
increase in their foster care caseload from the last day of FY2007 to the last day of FY2012 and just six saw an increase
in the number of children waiting for adoption.

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number of children adopted during a given fiscal year for every 100 children who were in foster
care on the last day of the preceding fiscal year—public child welfare agency adoptions more
than doubled since the late 1990s (from a rate of roughly 6 adoptions per 100 children in foster
care to 13 per 100). (See Table C-1 in Appendix C for annual data on number and rate of
adoptions.)

Decline in Children in Foster Care Waiting for Adoption
For roughly one-quarter (24%) of the children in foster care on a given day, adoption has been
identified as their case plan goal—that is, their exit strategy to permanency.44 Some children with
a permanency goal of adoption, and certain other children in foster care, are “legally free” for
adoption—meaning the rights of both parents have been terminated. These children—those with a
case plan goal of adoption and/or for whom all parental rights have been terminated are generally
referred to as children who are “waiting for adoption.”45
For most of FY1998-FY2012, the number of children waiting for adoption was between 130,000
and 135,000. However, in recent years this number has declined, and it stood at 102,000 as of the
last day of FY2012. Additionally, the share of waiting children who leave foster care for adoption
has increased. Specifically, the number of children adopted from foster care in FY1999 was 37%
of all children waiting for adoption on the last day of FY1998; the comparable percentage for
children adopted in FY2012 was 49%. (See Table C-2 in Appendix C for annual data on the
number of waiting children and the share adopted in the following year.)
Even though the number of waiting children has declined, that number represents a slightly larger
share of the overall foster care caseload in FY2012 (26%) than was the case in FY1998 (22%). This
relatively modest increase in share of children in foster care waiting for adoption—coinciding with
greater success in moving waiting children to adoption—might reflect changes in state practice
regarding who may be assigned a case goal of adoption. Alternatively, or in addition, it might be the
result of state efforts to reduce unnecessary entries to foster care—which in turn could mean a
higher percentage of those entering will need to find a new permanent family via adoption.

Reduced Time to Adoption
Adoption is a multi-step legal and social process that takes time to accomplish. Children who
enter foster care do not typically move directly to adoption. With limited exceptions federal
policy requires that a state must make “reasonable efforts” to reunite a child with his or her
family.46 When reunification is determined not possible, however, the state must take certain steps
to free a child for adoption. Specifically, as amended by ASFA, federal law requires a state to
petition a state court for termination of parental rights (TPR) to the child if a state court finds
44
HHS, ACF, ACYF, Children’s Bureau, The AFCARS Report, No. 20 (November 2013). The most common case plan
goal for children in foster care is to reunite with their parents. Smaller numbers of children in care have a case plan goal
of living with another relative or living with a legal (relative or non-relative) guardian. Aside from these goals (and
adoption), each of which plan for a child’s exit from care to a permanent family, children in foster care have a goal of
“emancipation” (aging out) and others have their case plan goal reported as “long-term foster care.”
45
For a more complete definition of “waiting children” see Glossary of Terms in Appendix B.
46
See “Prevent Entry or Reunite Children with Their Parents” in CRS Report R42794, Child Welfare: State Plan
Requirements under the Title IV-E Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, and Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program,
by (name redacted).

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either that the child is an abandoned infant (as defined in state law) or that reasonable efforts to
reunite the child and his/her parents are not required (because the parent has committed one of
certain heinous crimes against the child or his/her sibling). Additionally, once a child has been in
foster care for 15 out of the last 22 months, the state must petition the court for TPR, unless it can
document for the court that doing so would not be in the child’s best interest, that services
necessary for reunification and agreed to in the child’s case plan have not been provided, or that
the child is living with a relative.47 The state court must then determine—based on state laws
defining when parental rights may be severed—whether to grant TPR.48 At the same time, for any
child who cannot be reunited and whose case plan goal is adoption, the state agency must work to
find an appropriate and willing adoptive family. Once this step is complete, and a child is
successfully placed with the family, a state court must again act, this time to finalize the adoption
and, as part of this process, to formally provide the adoptive parents with all legal parental rights
and responsibilities for the child.
Since FY2000, the amount of time a child spends in foster care before leaving via a finalized
adoption has declined by roughly one year. Most of this reduction in time is a result of the shorter
time frame needed to reach TPR. However, there has also been some decline in the amount of
time it takes to finalize a child’s adoption after TPR is completed. On average, adoptions of
children out of foster care that were finalized in FY2000 took just under four years to complete
(45.9 months). By contrast, children who reached a finalized adoption in FY2012 did so, on
average, in less than three years (33.1 months). (For annual data on average and median time
from removal to finalized adoption, see Table C-3 in Appendix C.)

Adoption Incentive Payments
Promoting the use of adoptions to ensure children who would otherwise remain in foster care
have a permanent family has been a driving purpose of the Adoption Incentive program since its
creation. The program has also sought to provide special incentives to states for adoptions of
children who are considered harder to place in adoptive homes, including children with special
needs and older children.49 Established by ASFA in 1997 (at Section 473A of the Social Security
Act), the Adoption Incentive program has been amended and extended twice: first, by the
Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-145), and, more recently, by the Fostering
Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351).
Each reauthorization of the Adoption Incentive program has made some changes to the incentive
structure used to determine awards, including the categories for which awards may be earned, the
“baselines” used to determine improvement, and/or the amount of the individual incentive
awards. The current incentive structure is described below. (Appendix D includes a table that
shows development of the incentive structure across program reauthorizations.)

47

Ibid. See “Ensure Timely Placement in a New Permanent Family When Appropriate.”
TPR must be determined for each parent individually. For more information see Child Welfare Information Gateway,
State Statutes Series, Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights (2010).
49
The Adoption Incentive program seeks to influence state child welfare agency behavior. Congress has separately
provided a tax credit to individuals who adopt children, including children with special needs. This “incentive” to adopt
is not a part of the discussion in this report. However, for more information see, CRS Report RL33633, Tax Benefits for
Families: Adoption, by (name redacted).
48

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How Do States Earn Incentive Payments?
Under current law, states earn Adoption Incentive funds in four ways.50 Specifically, states may
earn incentive payments for an increase in the
•

number of children adopted out of foster care overall;

•

number of children adopted at age 9 or older;

•

number of children adopted with special needs and who are under the age of 9; or

•

rate at which children were adopted from foster care.

Whether a specific state has increased the number of adoptions is determined by comparing the
number of adoptions that the state finalized during the fiscal year to the number of such adoptions
it finalized in FY2007 (the “baseline” year). A state is determined to have increased its rate of
adoption if the percentage of children adopted from foster care (as a share of the number of all
children in foster care in the prior year) is greater than it was in FY2002, or in any succeeding
fiscal year prior to the year for which the award is being determined.

Amount of Incentive Payments
An eligible state earns $4,000 for each foster child adopted above its baseline number of foster
child adoptions and $8,000 for each older child (age 9 or above) adoption above its older child
adoption baseline.51 If a state earns an award in either of those categories—or if it improved its
adoption rate—it also earned $4,000 for each adoption of a special needs child (under age 9) that
was above its baseline number of such adoptions. Finally, for an improvement in its rate of
adoption, a state is eligible for additional incentive funds of $1,000 multiplied by the increased
number of adoptions achieved by the state that are attributed to its improved adoption rate.52
However, increases due to improved adoption rates may only be paid if sufficient program
funding is available after all awards for increases in the number of adoptions have been made.

Eligibility for Adoption Incentive Payments
Any state (includes the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) operating a Title IV-E
program may be eligible to earn Adoption Incentive payments provided awards are authorized for that
50

This incentive structure applied for adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012; incentive payments for those adoptions
were generally awarded at the end of each of FY2009-FY2013. Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L.
113-76) (and as proposed in H.R. 4980) this incentive structure also applies for adoptions finalized in FY2013.
Payments for FY2013 adoptions are expected to be initially awarded in September 2014 (i.e., end of FY2014).
51
These awards are separately calculated. One child’s adoption (if child is age 9 or older) may be counted for purposes of
determining awards in both categories. However, a state that increases its foster child adoptions does not necessarily increase its
older child adoptions (or vice versa). To earn awards in both categories, the state must show increases in both categories.
52
An award for an improved rate is calculated by multiplying the state’s baseline adoption rate (i.e., highest rate
achieved in FY2002 or any subsequent year preceding year for which award is being determined) by the number of
children in the state’s foster care caseload on the last day of the fiscal year preceding the year for which the award is
being determined. This result is then subtracted from the number of foster child adoptions in the state in the year for
which the award is being determined. The difference represents the number of adoptions that are attributed to the
increased adoption rate and this number (rounded to nearest whole number) is multiplied by $1,000 to determine the
award amount. For an example of this award calculation see HHS, ACF, Information Memorandum, “Adoption
Incentive Payments,” September 1, 2009 (ACYF-CB-IM-09-03), p. 6.

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year.53 The program law (Section 473A of the Social Security Act) provides states may only earn
awards for adoptions finalized in any of FY2008-FY2012 and it authorizes funds for that purpose
through FY2013. However, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76) provides that
states may continue to be eligible to earn Adoption Incentive Payments for adoptions completed in
FY2013 and it provides FY2014 funds ($37.9 million) to make those incentive payments.
Further, to be eligible for Adoption Incentive payments, the state must provide—via the Adoption and
Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS)—the necessary data to calculate the incentive
amounts. The state must also assure that it provides health insurance coverage to any adoptive child
for whom the state determined the child has special needs—including those eligible for ongoing Title
IV-E adoption assistance and those with special needs who are not eligible for this assistance.54 In
addition, no state may receive an award for an increase in the number of special needs adoptions of
children under the age of 9, unless that state, in that same year, also shows an increase in of the
number of foster child or older child adoptions (compared to what the state achieved in FY2007), or
an increase in the state’s rate of foster child adoption (compared to the rate it achieved in FY2002, or
any higher rate achieved in a prior subsequent year).

Awards and Appropriations
The first Adoption Incentive awards were paid in FY1999 for adoptions finalized in FY1998 and
the most recent were initially paid in FY2013 for adoptions finalized in FY2012. During the life
of the program, all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have earned Adoption
Incentive payments in one or more years and more than $423 million has been awarded to all
states through FY2012. Discretionary funding was authorized for the program through FY2013 at
the annual level of $43 million. Actual appropriation levels have varied but in recent years have
been less than $40 million. For FY2013, Congress provided $37.2 million (after sequestration)
and for FY2014 it provided $37.9 million.
Table 1 summarizes the appropriations provided and awards made by fiscal year for which the
funds were initially appropriated and the fiscal year for which the incentive funds were earned.55
For numerous years, not all of the funding shown as the award amount for a given year was
actually paid to states at a single time or in a single fiscal year. In years when funds are not
sufficient to pay all incentive payment amounts earned (based on numbers of adoptions), HHS
prorates the award amounts for the initial payment (as provided for by statute) and subsequently it
awards remaining earned incentives (for improved numbers of adoptions) when additional
appropriations are provided. 56 For example, when HHS made the initial award for adoptions
completed in FY2012, it had just $32.5 million available, or about 74% of the full amount states
earned during the year for increasing the numbers of children adopted. Accordingly, each state
that earned such an award received 74% of that total amount in September 2013. Subsequently,
Congress provided additional program appropriations (as part of P.L. 113-76) and HHS awarded
the remaining amount (26%, or about $11.4 million) to states.
53

Section 473A(b)(1) of the Social Security Act. Tribes may not participate. See HHS, ACF, ACYF-CB-IM-09-03.
Section 473A(b)(3) and (4) of the Social Security Act.
55
Section 473A(h)(2) provides that funds appropriated for the Adoption Incentive program may be used in any fiscal
year through the last fiscal year for which funding for the program is authorized. However, the use of funds across
years has usually been limited to fewer years due to language in the annual appropriations bill.
56
Section 473A(d)(3) of the Social Security Act. See also HHS, ACF, ACYF-CB-IM-09-03, September 1, 2009.
54

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Table 1. Adoption Incentive Payments
Summary of Appropriations and Award History
Appropriation Law

Appropriations

FY Adoptions Finalized

Award Amount

P.L. 105-277 (1999)

$19,994,999

FY1998 (35 states)

$42,510,000

P.L. 106-113 (2000)

$41,784,342

FY1999 (43 states and DC)

$51,488,000

P.L. 106-554 (2001)

$42,994,000

FY2000 (35 states and DC)

$33,238,000

P.L. 107-116 (2002)

$43,000,000

FY2001 (23 states and PR)

$17,578,000

P.L. 108-7 (2003)

$42,721,000a

FY2002 (25 states and PR)

$14,926,845

P.L. 108-199 (2004)

$7,456,000

FY2003 (31 states and PR)

$17,896,000

P.L. 108-447 (2005)

$9,346,000b

FY2004 (24 states, DC, and PR)

$14,488,000

P.L. 109-149 (2006)

$17,808,000a

FY2005 (21 states)

$11,568,000

P.L. 110-5 (2007)

$5,000,000

FY2006 (19 states)

$7,354,000

P.L. 110-161 (2008)

$4,323,000

FY2007 (21 states)

$11,086,000

P.L. 111-8 (2009)

$36,500,000

FY2008 (38 states and DC)

$35,357,280c

P.L. 111-117 (2010)

$39,500,000

FY2009 (38 states and PR)

$45,752,000c

P.L. 112-10 (2011)

$39,421,000

FY2010 (32 states)

$40,144,000c

P.L. 112-74 (2012)

$39,346,000

FY2011 (30 states)

$36,472,000c

P.L. 113-6 (2013)

$37,230,000d

FY2012 (25 states)

$43,896,000c

P.L. 112-76 (2014)

$37,943,000

Awards for FY2013 adoptions expected to be made in late FY2014.

TOTAL appropriated
$464,367,341
(includes some funds transferred or lapsed and
therefore unavailable for award) a, b

TOTAL expected to be awarded
$423,754,125
(includes only amounts earned that were also awarded)c

Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) based on appropriations laws, HHS, ACF
budget justifications, and CRS communication with ACF budget and program analysts.
a. Some of the funds provided in this appropriation cycle lapsed and were returned to the federal treasury.
Funds may lapse when the congressional authority for their use expires before they are needed to award
incentive payments to states.
b. The appropriation in P.L. 108-447 was initially $31.8 million. However, as part of FY2006 appropriations (P.L.
109-149), Congress rescinded $22.5 million of that funding. In addition, HHS/ACF exercised its discretion to
move 1% of the appropriated funds ($318,000) to the Refugee and Entrant Assistance program. This
additionally reduced the total FY2005 funds available for Adoption Incentive payments to $9.0 million,
although the amount shown in the table reflects funding after the rescission and prior to the transfer.
c. The award amounts shown include payments tied to improved adoption rates only if those payments were
actually paid to states. Beginning with adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012, states were eligible for increases
in their incentive payment if they improved their rate of adoptions. However, Section 473A(d)(3) of the
Social Security Act provides that these awards may only be paid if funds remain available after any awards for
increases in the number of adoptions are made. Funding was available to provide 48% ($1.7 million) of total
increases ($3.5 million) calculated for improved FY2008 adoption rates. No funds were available to provide
awards for any part of the increases for which states with improved adoption rates were eligible in FY2009
($3.5 million), FY2010 ($2.3 million), FY2011 ($0.9 million) or FY2012 ($1.3 million).
d.

Funding was subject to sequestration. The amount shown here reflects final operating level for FY2013.

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Awards by Category for Adoptions Finalized in FY2008-FY2012
Under the incentive structure used to make awards for adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012,
states were eligible to receive $212 million and received a total of $202 million in Adoption
Incentive payments.57 Forty-five states were paid Adoption Incentive payments in one or more
award category for adoptions finalized in any of FY2008-FY2012.58 Among the seven states that
were not paid an incentive for adoptions finalized in those years, five (Massachusetts, New
Jersey, Ohio, and Vermont) actually increased their rate of adoption in one or more of those
award years and therefore were eligible for an adoption incentive payment, but did not receive an
award due to the program funding level. Additionally, one state (New York) increased the number
of special needs (under age 9) adoptions in some of those years. However, because it did not earn
an incentive in any of the other categories (foster child, older child, or adoption rate), it was not
eligible for incentive funds for those increases. The remaining two states (District of Columbia
and Iowa) did not increase the number of adoptions achieved or improve their rates of adoption in
any of the five years.
Table 2 shows the total amounts paid to states under the current incentive structure by award year
and incentive category.
Table 2. Adoption Incentive Payments for Adoptions Completed in FY2008–FY2012
Dollars in millions; summed parts may not equal totals due to rounding.
Incentive Category

FY2008

FY2009

FY2010

FY2011

FY2012

Total

Foster Child

$16.1

$23.4

$18.9

$16.0

$20.3

$94.7

Older Child (9 years or older)

$8.7

$12.0

$12.5

$11.8

$11.8

$56.7

Special Needs (under 9 years)

$8.9

$10.3

$8.8

$8.7

$11.8

$48.5

Adoption Rate

$3.5

$3.5

$2.3

$.09

$1.3

$11.5

TOTAL payments for which states were eligiblea

$37.1

$49.3

$42.4

$37.4

$45.2

$211.5

TOTAL incentive payments awardedb

$35.4

$45.8

$40.1

$36.5

$43.9

$201.6

Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) based on data provided by HHS, Children’s Bureau.
a.

Beginning with FY2008, states were eligible for additional incentive sums based on improvements to their
adoption rate if sufficient appropriations are available to pay these awards after awards are made for increases in the
numbers of adoptions. FY2008 was the only year for which some funds were available for increases due to
states’ improved adoption rates. Eligible states were paid $1.7 million or about 48% of the $3.5 million in
incentive amounts tied to improved adoption rates achieved that year. There were no funds available for
incentive payments tied to adoption rate improvements in FY2009 ($3.5 million), FY2010 ($2.3 million),
FY2011 ($898,000) and FY2012 ($1.3 million).

b.

Adoption Incentive awards are typically made at the end of the fiscal year for adoptions finalized in the previous
fiscal year and after any unpaid awards tied to increases in the number of adoptions finalized in an earlier year.

57
The difference in what states were eligible to receive and what they are expected to receive is because incentive
payments for improvements in rate of adoption may only be paid when the program funding exceeds what is needed to
pay awards tied to increases in the number of adoptions. Therefore, although states were eligible for additional
incentive payments of $11.5 million—for improving their adoption rates in award years FY2008-FY2012—they were
paid only a fraction of that total (15% or $1.7 million) and no more of that total is to be paid.
58
For purposes of this discussion “states” are defined to include the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico,
which makes a total of 52 states.

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States did not necessarily receive all of these incentive payments in a single fiscal year. Further,
there were insufficient program funds available to make incentive payments for improved
adoption rates in most years. Therefore, the total amount of incentive payments that states were
eligible to receive for adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012 is about $10 million more than the
total amount they were expected to receive.59

Foster Child Adoptions
States earned incentive payments of $94.7 million (45% of the total incentive funds they were
eligible to receive) for increasing their number of foster child adoptions finalized in FY2008FY2012. That award category is the broadest—applying to children adopted from foster care
generally. States may earn $4,000 for every adoption of a foster child in the given award year that
is above the number of foster child adoptions the state completed in FY2007 (the baseline year).
Fifteen states finalized more foster child adoptions in each of FY2008-FY2012 than they did in
FY2007, and they earned foster child adoption incentive payments in each of these five years. A
little more than half of the states (27) earned incentive payments for increases in foster child
adoptions in at least one or more (but not all five) of those years, and 10 states did not improve on
their FY2007 record in any of these five years.

Older Child Adoptions
Twenty-seven percent ($56.7 million) of the total incentive dollars states were eligible to receive
for adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012 were tied to increases in the number of children who
were adopted at 9 years of age or older. Adoptions of older children are less common than are
adoptions of those who are younger. However, states may earn the largest award amount for
increases in this incentive category. Specifically, states may earn $8,000 for every adoption of an
“older child” in the given award year that is above the number of older child adoptions the state
completed in FY2007 (the baseline year). Twelve states earned incentive payments for increasing
their numbers of older child adoptions in each of FY2008-FY2012 and, a little more than half of
the states (27) did so in at least one (but not all five) of those years. Thirteen states did not
increase their number of older child adoptions (above their FY2007 level in the state) in any of
those five years.

Special Needs (Under Age 9) Adoptions
Twenty-three percent ($49.5 million) of the incentive payments states were eligible to receive for
adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012 were linked to increases in the number of adoptions of
children who were determined to have special needs and who were under the age of nine. States
are only eligible to earn incentive payments in this category if they have earned an award in at
least one other incentive category during the same fiscal year (i.e., they increased older child or
foster child adoptions or they improved their rate of adoption). For eligible states, the award
amount is $4,000 for every adoption of a special needs child under 9 years of age that is above the
state’s baseline number of such adoptions (i.e., above the number of such adoptions it achieved in
FY2007).
59
For incentive awards earned by each state for each of FY2008-FY2012 by category, see HHS, ACF, ACYF,
Children’s Bureau, “Adoption Awards by Category,”FY2008-FY2012,” September 2013. (Available at
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/adoption-incentives-awards-by-category.)

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For adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012, 10 states increased their number of special needs
(under age 9) adoptions above their baseline, but were not eligible in one or more years when this
occurred because they did not earn an incentive payment in any other Adoption Incentive
category in that same year. Overall, 10 states increased the number of special needs (under age 9)
adoptions finalized in each of those five years (compared to FY2007); more than half of the states
(30) did so in at least one (but not all) of the five years (FY2008-FY2012); and 12 states did not
increase the number of these adoptions (above their FY2007 level) in any of those five years.

Adoption Rate
Finally, the total incentive amount a state is eligible to receive in a year is increased if the state
improves its rate of adoption. However, this increased incentive payment is only authorized to be
paid to states if sufficient appropriations remain available after awards are made for increases in
the number of adoptions. For adoptions finalized in FY2008-FY2012, states were collectively
eligible for $11.5 million in incentive payments for improved adoption rates (5% of incentive
payments states were eligible for across all four award categories). However, there were sufficient
appropriations to award just $1.7 million (15%) of the total amount.
A state’s adoption rate is equal to the total number of foster child adoptions it completed in the
fiscal year for every 100 children that were in its foster care caseload on the last day of the
preceding fiscal year. An award for an increased rate of adoption can ensure that an incentive may
be earned by a state that continues to appropriately move children from foster care to adoption
even as the total number of children in foster care declines. In those states, the total number of
children for whom adoption is the desired or appropriate permanency outcome is also likely to
decline.
To be counted as having an improved adoption rate, a state was required to exceed the highest
rate of adoptions it had achieved in any year (beginning with FY2002) that came before the year
for which the awards were being calculated. A state that improved its adoption rate was eligible
for $1,000 award for each adoption calculated to have been achieved due to the higher rate of
adoptions.
The large majority of states (44) improved on their initial adoption rate baseline in one or more
years from FY2008-FY2012. In FY2008, on average, states finalized roughly 11 adoptions for
every 100 children who were in foster care; the comparable number for FY2012 was 13 adoptions
for every 100 children in foster care.

Spending Award Money
States may spend Adoption Incentive funds anytime within a 24-month period, beginning with the
month in which the funds are awarded to a state.60 The statute permits states to spend these
incentive dollars on any service authorized to be provided to children and families under Title IVB or Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. Those parts of the law authorize a broad range of child
60
Section 473A(e) of the Social Security Act. The 2008 reauthorization amended the law to ensure that states have a
full two years from the date they receive the incentive funds to spend them. Prior law permitted states to spend funds
through the end of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which awards were made. However, because the bulk of
award funding is provided in the waning days of the fiscal year, this typically permitted states only a little more than 12
months to spend the award funds.

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welfare-related activities, including activities to prevent child abuse or neglect and/or provide
services to enable a child to remain in his/her own home; investigation of alleged child abuse or
neglect and placement of children in foster care if necessary; provision of services to reunite a
child in foster care with his/her parents and for services to maintain the reunification; finding a
new permanent home for children who may not be reunited with their parents, including through
adoption or guardianship; provision of post-permanency services; and services to assist a youth in
foster care to make a successful transition to adulthood. A state may not count its spending of
Adoption Incentive funds toward meeting any of the “matching” requirements included in the
programs authorized in Title IV-E and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act. (Programs under
those parts of the law generally require states to supply between 20% and 50% of the total
program funding out of their non-federal, state or local, dollars.)61
Many states report spending incentive funds on adoption-related purposes, including postadoption support services (e.g., support for adoptive parent mentors or adoptive family support
groups, respite care, casework and supports for adoptive families of children at risk of re-entering
foster care); recruitment of adoptive homes (e.g., support for online adoption exchange or photolisting, development of promotional materials, child-specific recruitment efforts); and training or
conferences to improve adoption casework. Other adoption-related services or supports funded
with Adoption Incentive awards (in a smaller number of states) included provision of monthly
adoption assistance payments, purchase of new equipment or provision of other resources to
improve processing and archiving of adoption records, support for new or improved adoption
home studies, and attention to inter-jurisdictional adoption placement. Some states used Adoption
Incentive funds for foster care-related activities (e.g., training or recruitment of foster parents—
alone or in combination with adoptive parents and foster and/or adoptive parent supports). Others
referenced support for permanency efforts more generally (i.e., incorporating guardianship or
reunification). At least one state reported using these incentive funds for foster care maintenance
payments. Finally, a few states described use of Adoption Incentive funds for services to families
and children remaining in the home (e.g., alternative response and direct child protection
services).62

61

Section 473A(f) of the Social Security Act.
Based on CRS review of state Annual Progress and Services Reports (APSRs) submitted by states, generally, in midto late-2012, as part of requesting certain federal FY2013 child welfare funding.
62

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Appendix A. Comparison of Current Law and Selected Reauthorization Proposals
Table A-1. Selected Provisions to Reauthorize Adoption Incentive Payments and Make Other Child Welfare Changes
H.R. 3205 passed the House in October 2013; Title I provisions of S. 1870 approved by the Senate Finance Committee in December 2013;
Title II of H.R. 4980 introduced on June 26, 2014
Issue

Current Law

Promoting Adoption and
Strengthening and Finding
Legal Guardianship
Families for Children
(H.R. 3205)
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)
Adoption Incentive Payments (Section 473A of the Social Security Act)

Reauthorization of
funding authority

Annual funding of $43 million
authorized on a discretionary basis
through FY2013.

Would extend this same level of
discretionary funding authority for each
FY2014-FY2016.

Award categories
(payment amounts)

State earns an incentive payment for
each adoption above its “baseline”
number of

State would earn an incentive payment for State would earn an incentive payment for
each adoption or guardianship calculated to each adoption or guardianship calculated
to have occurred because the state’s rate
have occurred because the state’s rate of
of adoptions or guardianships, was above
adoptions or guardianships, was above its
its “baseline” rate of
“baseline” rate of

•

foster child adoptions—all ages
($4,000)
• older child adoptions—age 9 or
older ($8,000)
• special needs, under age 9
adoptions ($4,000) (earned only if
the state earns an incentive in
another category)

CRS-24

•

foster child adoptions—all ages
($2,000)
• foster child guardianships—all ages
($1,000)
• pre-adolescent adoptions—ages 9
through 13 ($4,000)
• older child adoptions—age 14 or
older ($8,000)

Same as H.R. 3205.

•

foster child adoptions—all ages
($4,000)
• foster child guardianship—all ages
($4,500)
• older child adoptions or
guardianships–age 14 or older ($8,000)
• special needs—under age 9 adoptions
($4,500)

Adoption and Child Support
Enhancement Act
(Title II of H.R. 4980)
Same as H.R. 3205.

State would earn an incentive payment for
each adoption or guardianship calculated to
have occurred because the state’s rate of
adoptions or guardianships, was above its
“baseline” rate of
•

foster child adoptions—all ages
($5,000)
• foster child guardianship—all ages
($4,000)
• pre-adolescent adoptions or
guardianships—ages 9 through 13
($7,500)
• older child adoptions or guardianships–
age 14 or older ($10,000)

Issue

Current Law

Promoting Adoption and
Legal Guardianship
(H.R. 3205)
The lower of (1) rate of adoptions or
guardianships the state achieved in a given
category in FY2007 or (2) the rate it achieved
in that category in the fiscal year immediately
preceding the fiscal year for which the award
is being determined,

Strengthening and Finding
Families for Children
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)
Average rate of adoptions and/or
guardianships the state achieved in a given
category for the three fiscal years
immediately preceding the fiscal year for
which the award is being determined.

Adoption and Child Support
Enhancement Act
(Title II of H.R. 4980)
The lower of (1) the rate of adoptions
and/or guardianships the state achieved in a
given category in the fiscal year immediately
preceding the fiscal year for which the
award is being made or (2) the average rate
of adoptions and/or guardianships the state
achieved in a given category for the three
fiscal years immediately preceding the fiscal
year for which the award is being
determined.

Baseline

Number of adoptions the state
completed in a given category during
FY2007.

Additional Incentive
Payment

If appropriated funds are available after Would strike this provision.
all awards for increased numbers of
adoptions have been paid, HHS must
award incentive payments to states (50
states, DC or PR) that improve their
rate of foster child adoptions (above
highest rate state achieved beginning
with FY2002)

Would replace current law provisions with Would replace current law provisions with
following: If appropriated funds remain,
following: If appropriated funds remain,
HHS must provide a timely adoption
HHS must provide a timely adoption award
award to each state (50 states and DC) in to each state (50 states, DC and PR) in
which more than 50% of adoptions
which the average time from removal to
completed in the fiscal year were finalized adoption (among children who left foster
within 12 months of the date the child was care for adoption) is less than 24 months.
legally free for adoption. The award
The award amount would be equal among
amount would be equal among each
each “timely adoption award state”.
“timely adoption award state.”

Definition of foster
child guardianship

No definition of foster child
guardianship.

Same as H.R. 3205, except that in the first Same as H.R. 3205.
scenario, the state would not need to
report to HHS that it had explicitly ruled
out adoption as a permanency option for
the child.

CRS-25

Foster child guardianship would be defined as
a child’s exit from foster care to legal
guardianship if the state reports to HHS that
“Legal guardianship” is defined to mean it has determined all of the following: (1) The
“a judicially created relationship
child was removed from his/her home
between child and caretaker which is
because a judge found it “contrary to the
intended to be permanent and selfwelfare” of the child or via a voluntary
sustaining as evidenced by the transfer agreement;
to the caretaker of the following
(2) Neither returning the child to that
parental rights with respect to the
home nor adoption is the appropriate
child: protection, education, care and
permanency plan for the child:
control of the person, custody of the
(3) The child demonstrates a strong
person, and decisionmaking.”
attachment to the prospective legal
guardian and the prospective legal guardian
A “legal guardian” is the caretaker in
has strong commitment to caring
this relationship.
permanently for the child; and

Issue

Current Law

Promoting Adoption and
Legal Guardianship
(H.R. 3205)
(4) If child is age 14 or older he/she has
been consulted.

Strengthening and Finding
Families for Children
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)

Adoption and Child Support
Enhancement Act
(Title II of H.R. 4980)

OR
Any exit of a child from foster care to legal
guardianship where the state provides to
HHS the alternative procedures it used to
determine that guardianship was the
appropriate permanency option for the
child.
Use of Award
Payments

Effective Dates for
Adoption Incentive
Payment
Amendments,
including the
Transition Rule

CRS-26

States may spend awards on a broad
range of child welfare purposes.

Same as current law.

If a state receives an award of at least
$100,000 it must spend no less than 25%
of it on post-reunification services.

Same as current law.

States have 24 months to spend the
award payments.

States would be permitted up to 36 months Same as current law.
to spend the awards.

Same as H.R. 3205.

Not applicable.

Reauthorization of funding authority and
Same as H.R. 3205
state eligibility to earn incentive payments
along with the ability of state to spend
incentive funds for up to 36 months after
they receive the funds would be effective as
if enacted on October 1, 2013.

Same as H.R. 3205

The renaming of the program and changes
to the incentive structure would be
effective October 1, 2014. However,
incentive payments made in FY2014 would
be based on the incentive structure now in
the law; incentive payments made in
FY2015 would be based one-half on
structure now in law and one-half on
incentive structure in this bill. All incentive
payments made in FY2016 would be based
on the incentive structure in the bill.

Same as H.R. 3205.

Issue

Current Law

Promoting Adoption and
Legal Guardianship
(H.R. 3205)
The requirement that states spend any
incentive payments to supplement not
supplant other child welfare spending
would be effective as if enacted on
October, 1 2013.

Strengthening and Finding
Families for Children
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)

Adoption and Child Support
Enhancement Act
(Title II of H.R. 4980)
The requirement that state spend any
incentive payments to supplement not
supplant other child welfare spending would
be effective on the date of enactment.

Family Connection Grants (Section 427 of the Social Security Act)
Funding for Family
Connection Grants a

The Fostering Connections to Success
and Increasing Adoptions Act
appropriated $15 million for Family
Connection grants for each of FY2009FY2013.

Would appropriate $15 million for these
grants for each of FY2014-FY2016.

Same as H.R. 3205.

Eligible Entities

HHS may award grants to state, local,
or tribal child welfare agencies or to
private nonprofit organizations that
have experience working with foster
children or children in kinship care
arrangements.

Same as current law.

Would additionally permit HHS to award Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.
these grants to colleges or universities
(specifically, “institutions of higher
education” as defined in Section 101 of the
Higher Education Act).

Expanded purpose for Kinship navigator programs are
kinship navigator
intended to assist kin caregivers in
program
finding and accessing services to meet
their own needs and the needs of the
children for whom they care. Among
other requirements, these programs
must promote partnerships between
public and private agencies to increase
knowledge among these groups on
needs of kin caregiver families and to
promote better services for those
families.

Same as current law.

Would provide that the efforts to
promote public-private partnerships to
improve awareness of, and services for,
kinship care families, must also extend to
individuals who are willing to be foster
parents for youth in foster care who are
themselves parents.

Reservation of Funds HHS must annually reserve $5 million Same as current law.
for Kinship Navigator of funding for Family Connection grants
Programs
to support kinship navigator programs.

CRS-27

Would appropriate $15 million to continue
these grants for one year (FY2014).

Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.

Would no longer require this specific
Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.
reservation (meaning this funding would be
available to kinship navigator programs on
same basis as funding for any other service
authorized under the grant.

Issue

Current Law

Effective Date for
Family Connections

Promoting Adoption and
Strengthening and Finding
Legal Guardianship
Families for Children
(H.R. 3205)
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)
Would make these provisions effective as if Same as H.R. 3205.
enacted on October 1, 2013.

Adoption and Child Support
Enhancement Act
(Title II of H.R. 4980)
Same as H.R. 3205.

Title IV-E Foster Care—Notice of Child’s Removal from Home (Section 471(a)(29) of the Social Security Act)
Notice of child’s
removal from home

Within 30 days of removing a child
Same as current law.
from the custody of his or her parents,
a state must make diligent efforts to
identify and provide notice of this
removal to all adult grandparents and
other adult relatives of the child and
must explain options those adults have
of caring for the child.

Would add to the list of adults that must
be identified and given this notice, any
parent(s) of a sibling of the child who is
being removed, provided that parent has
legal custody of the child’s sibling.

Definition of sibling

No definition.

Same as current law.

Would define sibling to mean an individual
Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.
who (1) is considered a child’s sibling under
state law; or (2) would have been considered
a sibling under state law but for termination
of parental rights or other disruption of
those rights (e.g., death of parent).

Rule of Construction

Not applicable

Not applicable.

Would assert that this requirement must not Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.
be understood as subordinating the rights of
foster or adoptive parents of a child to the
rights of the parents of a sibling of that child.

Effective Date for
Title IV-E Plan
Requirement

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Would make this provision effective on the
date of enactment, except that a state may
have limited additional time to meet the
requirement if HHS determines that state
legislation is needed (other than
appropriations) to meet the requirement.

Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.

Same as Title I of S. 1870/ S. 1876.

Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program—Successor Guardians (Section 473(d) of the Social Security Act)
Continued Eligibility

CRS-28

To be eligible for federal (Title IV-E)
kinship guardianship assistance a child
must, among other requirements, have
entered foster care after having been
removed from a home with very low-

Would permit a child who has already been Same as H.R. 3205.
determined to be eligible for Title IV-E
kinship guardianship assistance to remain
eligible (without re-entering foster care or
otherwise re-determining eligibility) in the

Same as H.R. 3205.

Issue

Current Law
income and, while in foster care, must
have lived with the prospective legal
guardian at least six months.

Effective Date

CRS-29

Not applicable.

Promoting Adoption and
Legal Guardianship
(H.R. 3205)
event his/her relative legal guardian died or
became incapacitated. Specifically would
allow the Title IV-E kinship payment to be
made on this child’s behalf to a successor
legal guardian who is named in the child’s
Title IV-E kinship guardianship assistance
agreement.
Would make this provision effective on
date of its enactment.

Strengthening and Finding
Families for Children
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)

Same as H.R. 3205.

Adoption and Child Support
Enhancement Act
(Title II of H.R. 4980)

Same as H.R. 3205.

Issue

Calculation and
Reporting on Any
Savings

Promoting Adoption and
Strengthening and Finding
Adoption and Child Support
Legal Guardianship
Families for Children
Enhancement Act
(H.R. 3205)
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)
(Title II of H.R. 4980)
Title IV-E Adoption Assistance - Reinvestment of Certain Funds (Section 473(a)(8) of the Social Security Act

Current Law

States are required to document
savings in state spending (if any) that
result from expanding federal eligibility
for Title IV-E adoption assistance
(authorized by the Fostering
Connection to Success and Increasing
Adoptions Act of 2008).b

States would be required to calculate the
Generally, same as H.R. 3205.
savings (if any) resulting from expanding
eligibility for Title IV-E adoption assistance
using a methodology specified by HHS, or
one proposed by the state and approved by
HHS.

Same as H.R. 3205.

Each state would be required to report
annually to HHS on (1) the method it used
to calculate the savings (regardless of
whether any savings were found); (2) the
amount of any savings identified, and (3)
how any such savings are spent.
HHS would be required to post the annual
reports made by each state regarding any
such savings and how they are spent on the
agency website in a location that is easily
accessible to the public.

Spending funds

States may spend any of the savings
States would be required to spend not less
from expanded federal Title IV-E
than 20% of any state savings identified to
eligibility on a broad range of child
provide post adoption service.
welfare-related services to children and
their families, including post-adoption
services.

This spending would need to “supplement,
and not supplant” current federal or nonfederal funds being used to provide those
same services.
Effective Date

CRS-30

Not applicable.

States would be required to spend not less
than 40% of any state savings identified to
provide post-adoption or post-guardianship
services, and services to support and sustain
positive permanent outcomes for children
who otherwise might enter foster care.

States would be required to spend not less
than 30% of any state savings identified to
provide (1) post adoption or postguardianship services and (2) services to
support and sustain positive permanent
outcomes for children who otherwise might
enter foster care. Not less than two-thirds
of this spending must be spent for postadoption or post-guardianship services.

Same as H.R. 3205.

Same as H.R. 3205.

Would make this requirement effective as if Same as H.R. 3205.
enacted on October 1, 2013.

Would make this requirement effective on
October 1, 2014.

Promoting Adoption and
Strengthening and Finding
Adoption and Child Support
Legal Guardianship
Families for Children
Enhancement Act
(H.R. 3205)
(Title I of S. 1870/S. 1876)
(Title II of H.R. 4980)
Title IV-E Data Collection & Reporting - Adoption Disruption and Dissolutions (Section 479 of the Social Security Act)

Issue

Current Law

Required data
collection and
reporting; regulations

HHS was required to establish, by
Same as current law.
regulation, a data collection system, to
provide for comprehensive national
information with respect to children in
foster care and those who are adopted.
(This system is known as the
“Adoption and Foster Care Analysis
Reporting System (AFCARS).)

HHS would be required to issue final
regulations requiring states to collect and
report information on the number of
children who enter foster care because
their adoptions or foster child
guardianships disrupt or are dissolved
(whether those children were born in this
country or another country).

Separately states report to HHS on
spending under the Promoting Safe and
Stable Families (PSSF) program.

The regulations would also need to
provide for state reporting of additional
information on the reasons for disruptions
and dissolutions and the state’s use of pre- The regulation must provide for collection
and post-adoptive services to lower rates of data on the number of such children and
may also require collection of additional
of disruption and dissolution. Finally, the
information considered necessary to better
regulations would need to require states
to report how they spend funds received understand factors associated with the
child’s post-adoption or post-guardianship
under the PSSF program to promote
adoption, and separately, to provide pre- entry to foster care.
and post-adoptive support services.

HHS must annually submit to Congress
a report on the performance of each
state with regard to achieving specific
child welfare outcomes. (This report is
known as Child Welfare Outcomes.)

To promote improved knowledge on how
best to ensure strong, permanent families
for children, HHS is directed to issue final
regulations providing for states to collect
and report information regarding children
who enter foster care after prior
finalization of an adoption or legal
guardianship. (These children may include
those who were previously in foster care as
well as others, including those who come to
this country through adoption.)

Would require HHS (beginning with data
for FY2016) to annually include in this
report information collected, as a result of
the

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR43025. Public record. Not legal advice.