Advocacy & Policy

Voice for Adoption focuses our advocacy on achieving permanency for the nearly half a million children in the U.S. foster care system. We continue to have a particular focus on the children who are waiting to be adopted and the families who adopt children and youth from foster care.

We believe that every child deserves and needs a permanent family. We support all forms of permanence that provide children with genuine, life-long family connections.

2024 Voice for Adoption Advocacy Priorities

Voice for Adoption will prioritize the following issues during the 2024 calendar year.

Leadership Issues

Voice for Adoption will seek to play a leadership role on the following issues. This role will include leading or co-leading related coalitions, organizing meetings with federal policymakers, and developing relevant supporting materials, including proposed legislative language, draft regulatory comments, fact sheets, and issue briefs.

  • Funding for adoption and permanency-related programs

  • Post-adoption services

  • Mental health supports for adoptive families

  • Racial equity in foster care and adoption

  • Child welfare and adoption workforce issues

Support Issues

Voice for Adoption will meaningfully support the work of other coalitions and organizations on the following issues.

  • Diligent Recruitment of foster and adoptive parents (National Foster Parent Association)

  • LGBTQ+ parents and youth (Human Rights Campaign and Family Equality)

  • Kinship care (Generations United)

  • Refundable Adoption Tax Credit (Adoption Tax Credit Working Group)

2024 Voice for Adoption Advocacy Positions

Provide Funding for Discretionary and Mandatory Adoption Programs

To encourage and support adoptions, many states, and jurisdictions use discretionary federal funding streams, including the Adoption Opportunities Program, Promoting Safe and Stable Families, and the Adoption/Guardianship Incentive Program. VFA encourages the federal government to continue to invest in these programs.

  • VFA encourages continuation of full funding of and enhancements to the Adoption/Guardianship Incentive Program and required reporting from states on how they used adoption/guardianship incentive payments.

  • VFA urges continued support for and increased investment in other federal funding streams for adoption promotion and support services, including Promoting Safe and Stable Families, Social Services Block Grant, and TANF.

  • VFA urges Congress to reauthorize the Adoption Opportunities Act, continue to support the national adoption exchange system otherwise known as AdoptUSKids, and strengthen authorization language around the funding of post-adoption support, recruitment of adoptive families for older youth, and programs to address the overrepresentation of children and youth of color in foster care.

  • VFA encourages Congress to include in the Adoption Opportunities Act reauthorization studies on unregulated custody transfers (also known as rehoming) and diligent recruitment. These are two topics of grave concern, and they warrant our attention and understanding.

  • VFA urges Congress to increase the Adoption Opportunities funding stream to identify, create, and assess post-adoption services to build the knowledge base around what works in adoption. Helping states make promising practices, well-supported and evidence-based programs that effectively meet their foster youth's needs.

  • VFA encourages Congress to pilot, study, and develop a better understanding of adoption home studies to find the best practice to create the most informed policy. Such a study should address issues of equity and access for relatives, parents of color, and LGBTQ parents.

Eliminating Barriers to Permanency with Kin

A child's best chance for achieving permanency is often placement with relative or fictive kin. The Fostering Connection to Success Act offers Title IV-E funds to assist relatives or legal guardians financially.

  • VFA calls for a mandate that all states offer Title IV-E subsidized relative guardianship as a permanency option.

  • VFA strongly urges Congress to eliminate the eligibility link to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program for Title IV-E subsidized guardianship for relatives.

  • VFA urges Congress to remove the requirement that relatives be foster parents for six months before guardianship can be final.

Preventing Discrimination Based on Religion, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity

Discrimination against prospective adoptive and foster parents and children or youth who are LGBTQ+ and two spirit harms children and makes it harder for them to have a caring family. Every Child Deserves a Family Act would prohibit discrimination against potential adoptive, foster, and guardianship families.

  • VFA calls on Congress to pass the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act.

  • VFA urges the Administration to repeal the Executive Order on Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America's Children to stop allowing religious exemptions within the foster care system.

  • VFA encourages the expansion of non-discrimination language in all federal contracts, including but not limited to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, disability, national origin.

  • VFA advocates for a termination of all federal funding to public and private organizations that practice discrimination against LGBTQ+ and two-spirit foster and adoptive parents, guardians, as well as children and youth.

  • VFA opposes any legislation or policies that would allow discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or in the name of religious freedom.

  • VFA encourages Congress to pass federal legislation that prohibits discrimination against children and teens in foster care or adoption due to the child's sexual orientation or gender identity or in the name of religious liberty.

Ensuring Racial Equity in Foster Care and Adoption

Black children are disproportionately represented in the foster care system. American Indian/Alaskan Native and Hispanic children are overrepresented in foster care in some states. The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 has made it more difficult for adoption agencies to carry out their missions effectively. State and local agencies are limited in assessing, training, and preparing parents to meet a child's racial or cultural needs. The act has also failed to increase diligent recruiting to build a pool of prospective foster and adoptive parents that reflect the racial and ethnic background of children in foster care.

  • VFA urges Congress to significant amend the Multiethnic Placement Act to allow agencies to consider race, color, and national origin as part of a child's needs and best interests when determining placement and permanency.

  • VFA encourages new guidance on diligent recruitment, including requiring data collection and reporting on the racial and ethnic makeup of prospective foster and adoptive families and emphasizing the need to recruit foster and adoptive parents who reflect the racial and ethnic background of the children in foster care.

  • VFA encourages the appointment of a leader within the Department of Health and Human Services to address the racial disparity, equity, and inclusion within the child welfare system.

  • VFA urges Congress to invest significant resources into recruiting and retaining qualified and skilled child welfare professionals to meet the demands of the foster care and adoption communities, with a particular emphasis on prioritizing the advancement of leaders of color.

Funding and Requiring Data Collection

Congress and the Administration must collect essential data on children in care foster care and those waiting to be adopted.

  • VFA pushes the Administration to reinstitute the AFCARS Final Rule of 2016 specific to LGBTQ+ youth and the Indian Child Welfare Act.

  • VFA encourages HHS to produce and publicly publish an annual report with relevant data on subsidized guardianship, adoption services, adoption disruptions, and adoption dissolutions.

Improving the Adoption and Child Welfare Workforce

Child welfare and adoption workforce shortages and turnover impede progress toward the achievement of federal safety and permanency outcomes. A stronger workforce could allow agencies to devote more resources to prevention, family preservation and reunification services for children and families. When these options are not viable, it would provide strong support for adoption and post-adoption services to ensure permanency in placements. Strengthening the workforce and ensuring that caseworkers have manageable workloads will reduce incidents of child abuse, reduce the number of children going into foster care, and increase permanency.

  • VFA supports creating a more diverse workforce that better reflects the children, youth, and families served.

  • VFA supports increased funding for workforce development and training, including adoption competence.

  • VFA supports policies that support workforce recruitment and retention.

  • VFA supports the dissemination of workforce-related best practices for states, counties, and nonprofit agencies.

  • VFA supports efforts to alleviate the financial burden of student loans for the child welfare and adoption workforce.

  • VFA supports balance and parity in investments in the public and private child welfare and adoption workforces including expanding the Title IV-E loan forgiveness program to include employment in a private agency that is contracted by or is serving a public child welfare agency or its clients.

Making the Adoption Tax Credit Refundable

VFA believes the adoption tax credit would encourage more adoptions from foster care if it were refundable, making it accessible to low- and moderate-income families.

  • VFA urges Congress to maintain the federal adoption tax credit and make it refundable.

  • VFA urges Congress to pass the Adoption Tax Credit Parity Act, which would allow children designated as special needs by tribes to be considered as special needs for purposes of the adoption tax credit.

Ensuring Sufficient Child Supports

VFA supports policies and legislation that provide critical assistance to families as they confront the rising costs of raising children.

  • VFA supports expanding a refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC) for all children.

  • VFA supports “lookback” provisions within the CTC that provide needed flexibilities for families experiencing economic setbacks.

  • VFA supports severing refundable Child Tax Credit from Earned Income requirements.  If Earned Income requirements remain part of the Child Tax Credit, VFA supports adjusting the formula for calculating the maximum amount of Child Tax Credit a family is eligible to claim.

Supporting Permanence through Adoption or Guardianship Services

Federally funded post-adoption services that reflect children’s and families’ needs are crucial to adopted children's well-being. No dedicated federal funding stream exists to provide sufficient resources for post-adoption/post-guardianship services for every family in need. Many agencies and organizations currently use discretionary federal funding streams to support adoptive/guardianship families and the adoption/guardianship incentive program, which rewards states for increasing adoption/guardianship placement rates.

  • VFA urges Congress to establish and adequately fund a dedicated funding stream for post-adoption/guardianship support services.

  • VFA encourages Congress to continue funding the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) and other similar programs that develop the adoption competency of the child welfare workforce.

  • VFA encourages the Administration to ensure the Family First Prevention Services Act expands and supports post-adoption services.

  • VFA urges Congress to provide funding that can expand research on post-adoption services and increase the number of programs and initiatives that meet standards under the Family First Preservation Services Act.

Protecting and Fully Implement the De-Link of Adoption Assistance Program from the 1996 AFDC Program

The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 was partially paid for by a delay in the expanded eligibility of IV-E Adoption Assistance. Since the passage of the Fostering Connections to Success and Promoting Adoptions Act of 2008, IV-E Adoption Assistance eligibility has been extended each year.

  • VFA calls on Congress to reject any effort to delay an expansion of IV-E Adoption Assistance eligibility to all children who meet the state’s or tribe's special needs definition.

  • VFA urges HHS to continue tracking and reporting how states are investing in post-adoption and post-guardianship services at least 20 percent of the savings from the adoption assistance IV-E de-link provide guidance to states on the re-investment requirement.

Ensuring Continued Entitlement Funding to States and Tribes for Core Adoption and Foster Care Services

The Title IV-E program and Medicaid are critical supports to ensure that states and tribes have the necessary funding to provide core services and supports to children in foster care and adoption, including placement support and medical care. Maintaining these programs as entitlements ensures that jurisdictions have the funding to meet the needs of ever-changing numbers of children in foster care and adoption.

  • VFA urges Congress to oppose the block granting of Title IV-E and Medicaid and maintain these programs as open-ended entitlements.

  • VFA opposes any further reductions in the number of children who are IV-E eligible.

Ensuring Youth Who Age Out of Care Have Access to Health Care

As a result of the Affordable Care Act, young people who age out of care can remain on Medicaid until age 26, just as other young people can stay on their parents' plans.

  • VFA urges Congress to maintain access to Medicaid for youth who aged out of foster care until age 26 in every state and speed up the reform that extends coverage to other states.

  • VFA opposes special Medicaid waiver work requirements that some states have put in place, which serve as a barrier to Medicaid and health care coverage for foster youth. Foster youth already face difficulties finding employment and pursuing education, increasing the risk of having no health coverage.

Breaking Down Barriers to Interstate Adoptions

In many cases, the best placement for a child may be in another state. Currently, such arrangements are challenging to complete and can delay permanence. VFA believes the federal government has a critical role to play in easing the process of interstate placements.

  • VFA urges Congress to continue to support the implementation of the National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE) program. VFA recommends moving the deadline for states to implement the program up from 2027, allowing States to increase permanency options for children across the country.

  • VFA urges HHS to examine how to encourage states to collaborate better when making adoptions across states.

Ensuring All Children and Youth Have a Permanency Case Goal

VFA calls for the federal government to ensure that all children and youth in care have a case goal of permanence. The APPLA/OPPLA (Another/Other Permanent Planned Living Arrangement) case goal contributes to young people aging out of care with no permanent family.

  • VFA urges Congress to continue to thoroughly review APPLA/OPPLA by holding hearings and requiring a GAO report on state policies and practices. VFA also asks Congress and the Administration to provide oversight of the Strengthening Families Act's requirements related to APPLA/OPPLA and ensure successful implementation by state child welfare agencies.

  • VFA urges Congress to mandate a legally permanent case goal (reunification, adoption, or guardianship) for every child. We also encourage HHS to provide technical assistance and guidance to states on meeting this goal while also ensuring relational permanence for every child.

  • VFA urges Congress to pass federal legislation that creates opportunities for youth who may not reach legal adoption, guardianship, or reunification, to establish and maintain a relationship with at least one caring, understanding, and unconditionally caring, adult. This form of relationship is considered relational permanence. It can provide a foster youth the opportunity to not age out without a support system.

Ensuring Access to Original Birth Certificates (OBC)

VFA recognizes that adult adoptees have a right to and often a need for complete information about their birth families and supports the state's efforts to allow adoptees unrestricted access to original birth certificates. We also believe that access to original birth certificates is a civil rights issue and that every American should have the right to know who their parents were.

  • VFA calls on Congress to pass federal legislation that provides all adult adoptees with the right to access their original birth certificate.

Ensuring Equity for Prospective and Current Parents with Disability

When prospective parents lack supports through licensing and placement, children lose out on the chance of having a family to care for them.

  • VFA encourages Congress to pass federal legislation that provides resources to states to equip social workers and others better to develop and support prospective and current adoptive/foster parents with disabilities.