Adoption and Foster Care
Throughout years of public service, Senator Landrieu has been led by the vision that every child deserves a family to call their own. There is no such thing as an unwanted child, just unfound families. In a perfect world, all children would be wanted, loved, and nurtured by the family to which they were born. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world. Sometimes, because of war, famine, addiction, imprisonment, or abandonment, governments around the world should work to connect a child or sibling group with a responsible, caring relative. But when even this is not possible, it is our responsibility to connect these children with a new loving family in their own country, or as a last resort, somewhere in the world.
Everyday politicians talk of how important the family is, and yet, programs that provide for the protection and support of children and their families are often the last and least funded. Through legislation and her work as a founding co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and the new Senate Caucus of Foster Care, Senator Landrieu has strived to promote responsible policies for the long-term care and support of America’s children and families.
The simple fact is this: governments do many things well, but raising children is not one of them. As children cannot raise themselves, it then becomes our responsibility to find homes for the huge numbers of abandoned and orphaned children who are waiting for a permanent, safe and loving home. Today, there are over 580,000 children in our foster care system, and roughly 126,000 of those children are waiting to be adopted.
Gabriela Mistral once wrote, “Many things we need, can wait, the child cannot. To him we cannot say tomorrow. His name is today.” We cannot keep these children waiting in foster care. It is time to take action.
The Families for Orphans Act establishes the Office of Orphan Policy, Development and Diplomacy, which would promote and support the preservation and reunification of families; and the provision of permanent parental care for orphans.
The primary functions of the office include:
Foreign Adopted Children Equality (FACE) Act (S. 1359)
The Foreign Adopted Children Act intends to eliminate the need for an immigrant visa for an internationally adopted child of an American citizen to enter the U.S. This legislation also allows for internationally adopted children who are now over the age of 18 and who were not naturalized by their adoptive parents, to apply for and receive citizenship without going through a naturalization process, if they so desire.
Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009 (S. 986)
For young people living in foster care, mentoring can become a lifeline to academic success and better life skills. The Foster Care Mentoring Act is aimed at connecting these young people to a caring adult through mentoring.
The Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009 would provide $15 million in grants to states to develop or expand statewide academic mentoring program for children in foster care. In addition, the legislation authorizes $4 million to fund a national coordination and media campaign aimed at the need to get involved in the life of a waiting child. Finally, under the legislation, eligible students who have completed at least one year of graduate or post-graduate work, will be recruited to serve as mentors to children living in foster care. Participating college and graduate students would be eligible to have their student loans discharged up to $2,000 for every 200 hours they serve as mentors to children living in foster care.
In addition to introducing the Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009, President Obama signed the bipartisan legislation, Serve America Act into law, which included my amendment to add programs for mentoring foster youth to the list of national service programs eligible for assistance.
Building upon the President's call to national service, we have strived to incentivize responsible young people to connect with at-risk youth and support the creation of robust state mentoring programs. We can work together to help states establish high-quality mentoring programs for the 500,000 plus children in foster care. It is a win for the mentor, mentee and our nation as a whole.
Foster Care Financing Reform
Under current law there are several funding streams targeted at serving the needs of children in foster care and their families including: Title IVE, Title IVB, Promoting Safe and Stable Families, Adoption Assistance and Independent Living. Each of these streams comes with different requirements, serves different populations and has varied purposes. Some of this funding is discretionary, which means that the amount of money available to states is dependent on annual appropriations and some are entitlements, meaning that the states are entitled by law to receive these funds. As a result, federal foster care financing has become inflexible, burdensome and counterproductive to the goals of the child welfare system as defined in the Adoption and Safe Families Act. I recently authored a foster care financing reform amendment that establishes a deficit-neutral reserve fund that would allow for a shift in resources to promote safe, stable and permanent homes for foster children, which was approved by the United States Senate.
Additionally this amendment would allow for legislation to:
Related Links
www.nationalmentoringmonth.org
www.serve.gov
www.mentoring.org
Everyday politicians talk of how important the family is, and yet, programs that provide for the protection and support of children and their families are often the last and least funded. Through legislation and her work as a founding co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and the new Senate Caucus of Foster Care, Senator Landrieu has strived to promote responsible policies for the long-term care and support of America’s children and families.
The simple fact is this: governments do many things well, but raising children is not one of them. As children cannot raise themselves, it then becomes our responsibility to find homes for the huge numbers of abandoned and orphaned children who are waiting for a permanent, safe and loving home. Today, there are over 580,000 children in our foster care system, and roughly 126,000 of those children are waiting to be adopted.
Gabriela Mistral once wrote, “Many things we need, can wait, the child cannot. To him we cannot say tomorrow. His name is today.” We cannot keep these children waiting in foster care. It is time to take action.
Learn More about Sen. Landrieu's Legislative Efforts for Adoption and Foster Care
In an effort to improve the lives of children and families in Louisiana, the United States, and around the world, there are numerous pieces of legislation that Senator Landrieu is currently working on:
Families for Orphans Act (S. 1458)The Families for Orphans Act establishes the Office of Orphan Policy, Development and Diplomacy, which would promote and support the preservation and reunification of families; and the provision of permanent parental care for orphans.
The primary functions of the office include:
- Acting as the Primary Advisor to the Secretary of State and President on family preservation and permanent parental care
- Providing Diplomatic Representation on matters related to permanent parental care
- Developing evidence-based comprehensive global strategies and best practices permanency indicators and metrics to ensure cultural sensitivity in the area of permanency
- Supporting foreign governments through sound policy, technical and financial assistance and in-country family preservation, reunification and permanency as primary solutions
- Coordinating U.S. domestic and International permanency policies
- Conduct a biennial census of children without permanent parental care
- Report Annually to Congress
Foreign Adopted Children Equality (FACE) Act (S. 1359)
The Foreign Adopted Children Act intends to eliminate the need for an immigrant visa for an internationally adopted child of an American citizen to enter the U.S. This legislation also allows for internationally adopted children who are now over the age of 18 and who were not naturalized by their adoptive parents, to apply for and receive citizenship without going through a naturalization process, if they so desire.
Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009 (S. 986)
For young people living in foster care, mentoring can become a lifeline to academic success and better life skills. The Foster Care Mentoring Act is aimed at connecting these young people to a caring adult through mentoring.
The Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009 would provide $15 million in grants to states to develop or expand statewide academic mentoring program for children in foster care. In addition, the legislation authorizes $4 million to fund a national coordination and media campaign aimed at the need to get involved in the life of a waiting child. Finally, under the legislation, eligible students who have completed at least one year of graduate or post-graduate work, will be recruited to serve as mentors to children living in foster care. Participating college and graduate students would be eligible to have their student loans discharged up to $2,000 for every 200 hours they serve as mentors to children living in foster care.
In addition to introducing the Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009, President Obama signed the bipartisan legislation, Serve America Act into law, which included my amendment to add programs for mentoring foster youth to the list of national service programs eligible for assistance.
Building upon the President's call to national service, we have strived to incentivize responsible young people to connect with at-risk youth and support the creation of robust state mentoring programs. We can work together to help states establish high-quality mentoring programs for the 500,000 plus children in foster care. It is a win for the mentor, mentee and our nation as a whole.
Foster Care Financing Reform
Under current law there are several funding streams targeted at serving the needs of children in foster care and their families including: Title IVE, Title IVB, Promoting Safe and Stable Families, Adoption Assistance and Independent Living. Each of these streams comes with different requirements, serves different populations and has varied purposes. Some of this funding is discretionary, which means that the amount of money available to states is dependent on annual appropriations and some are entitlements, meaning that the states are entitled by law to receive these funds. As a result, federal foster care financing has become inflexible, burdensome and counterproductive to the goals of the child welfare system as defined in the Adoption and Safe Families Act. I recently authored a foster care financing reform amendment that establishes a deficit-neutral reserve fund that would allow for a shift in resources to promote safe, stable and permanent homes for foster children, which was approved by the United States Senate.
Additionally this amendment would allow for legislation to:
- Change the Federal foster care payment system from a system that supports programs to one that supports children, whatever their best placement may be, and one that promotes permanency for children;
- When it is determined to be in best interests of the child, promote and improve family support, family preservation, including residential family treatment for families suffering from substance abuse and addiction, and time-limited family reunification services;
- Provide for subsidies and support programs that are available to support the needs of the children prior to removal, during removal, and post placement, whether through reunification, adoption, kinship adoption, or guardianship;
- Promote innovation and best practice at the State level; and
- Guarantee that public funds are used to effectively meet the needs of children who have been abused or neglected.
Related Links
www.nationalmentoringmonth.org
www.serve.gov
www.mentoring.org