VFA Press Release Transition & First 100 Days
Washington D.C. – Voice for Adoption (VFA), a membership agency representing child welfare organizations across the United States, has released a set of recommendations to the Biden-Harris transition team. The recommendations come from 16 child welfare agencies across the nation with expertise in adoption.
While VFA has set additional longer-term goals, this document highlights actions that can and should be taken immediately, or that should be embedded in the new administration’s child welfare agenda in the first 100 days. These recommendations include:
• Ensure racial equity in foster care and adoption
• Prevent discrimination based on religion, marital status, or sexual orientation/gender identity that would affect children in the foster care system or prospective foster or adoptive parents
• Ensure adequate funding is available for services and supports to children and families who achieve permanence through adoption or guardianship
• Eliminate barriers to permanency for children who cannot return home
• Ensure youth aging out of the foster care system are covered by Medicaid to age of 26 even if a young person moves to a different state from where s/he was in care
• Ensure that adoption and guardianship data is collected so that it can inform practice and policy
• Provide additional funding to conduct research in the field of adoption to inform practice
• Recognize the sovereignty of tribal nations and ensure American Indian/Alaska Native children and families receive services that are culturally relevant
Schylar Baber, Executive Director of VFA, stated, “Each new presidential administration is an opportunity for change. The last few years have been specifically hard on the foster and adoptive communities. Our nation is screaming for change, demanding justice, and standing up for the right to equal treatment for all.” VFA's transition document is being released at a time when things are ripe for change. “VFA's transition document recommends changes in the best interest of our nation's waiting children and our adoptive families' well-being, “Baber said.
