District Of Columbia § 4-341 - Legislative findings.

The long term needs of District of Columbia children who are in foster care are not being served. Although the Adoption and Safe Families Amendment Act of 2000 shortens the time in which children may remain in foster care, many of these children require additional assistance in order to be adopted.

The financial costs associated with maintaining the 3,000 foster children are high. In addition to the monthly payments to foster parents, the Child and Family Services Agency must supervise and staff each case, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia must pay attorneys and judges to review each case, and the Office of Corporation Counsel must staff and review each case.

Even more critical are the tragic human costs associated with allowing children to languish in foster care. The most recent study on the fate of foster children who “age out” of the child welfare system without finding a permanent home found that 12 to 18 months after they left foster care, just half were employed, one-third were receiving public assistance, one-fifth of the girls had given birth, and more than one-quarter of the boys had been incarcerated.

Many of the children in foster care have foster parents desirous of adopting them but are unable to do so because of the costs associated with adoption.

Providing these foster parents with a one-time financial assistance package in the form of vouchers would facilitate adoptions. Financial assistance would consist of vouchers to cover the costs of the necessary homestudies, compilation of information on the foster children’s backgrounds and special needs, and attorneys’ fees.

The Congress has appropriated, in the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2000, approved November 29, 1999 (Pub. L. No. 106-113; 113 Stat. 1501), a $5 million payment, to remain available until September 30, 2001, to the District of Columbia to create incentives to promote the adoption of children in the District’s foster care system.