REP. BROWN-WAITE INTRODUCES LEGISLATION SUPPORTING ADOPTION OF OLDER CHILDREN
Bill Would Double the Tax Credit for Parents of Older Adopted Children
Washington, D.C.,
Sep 26 -
U.S.
Representative Ginny Brown-Waite (FL-05)
today introduced legislation designed to help American families adopt older,
harder to place, children. The bill, as
yet unnumbered, would double the existing adoption tax credit for foster
children over the age of nine. Rep.
Brown-Waite is the mother of an adopted daughter and serves as the Republican
House Co-Chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
“As the mother of two
biological children, when my husband and I decided to adopt a third, we
specifically sought out an older child who had been in the foster care system
for several years,” said Rep. Brown-Waite.
“Studies have shown that the longer children remain in foster care, the
harder they are to place in a loving and caring home. My hope is that by making the financial costs
associated with adoption less burdensome, more families will look to adopt
these older and/or handicapped children.”
Today, there are more than
500,000 children in foster care in the United States. These children will remain in foster care for
an average of three years and, while in care, will experience at least three
placements. One in five children will
languish in foster care for more than five years. And each year, more than 19,000 children will
age out of foster care without having found a safe, loving, permanent family.
“My bill will double the
existing adoption tax credit to $20,000 for special needs foster youth and for
foster youth over the age of nine,” continued Rep. Brown-Waite. “These children are wonderful, loving people
and deserve a good, permanent home. No
child should have to worry each Christmas that Santa Claus will not be able to
find their house because they have lived in so many different homes just in the
past year.”
However, it is even tougher
being a special needs foster youth.
These children are hard to place because they have a physical
disability, a mental disability, or simply because they are an older child. It is an unfortunate fact that if you are in
a wheelchair, or if you are an older child, then it will take much longer to
find a secure, permanent family.
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