Fall 2019

September

• VFA is focusing advocacy efforts on appropriations to maintain the Adoption-Kinship Incentive fund at $75 million to cover the anticipated incentives and Adoption Opportunities increased by $3 million to $42 million.

• August: VFA urges constituents to contact their state legislators about migrant and asylum-seeking children being separated from their families and placed in detention facilities that are unfit to care for their safety and wellbeing

  • VFA releases their official statement regarding this issue

• July 2019: VFA joins meets with other child welfare agencies to discuss implementation of the Family First Prevention Services (FFPS) Act of 2018, federal budget negeotiations, and the progress of the Every Child Deserves a Family (ECDF) Campaign over several meetings. 

• June 2019: VFA submits comments on AFCARS, releases letter of support for Every Child Deserves a Family Act 

October  

• VFA co-authored a letter to the House Appropriations Committee regarding the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget. Per request from Congress, VFA submitted written testimony on best practices in the adoption field and responses to questions regarding the HHS waivers. 

November

• VFA Hosts Annual Adoptive Family Portrait Project

• Currently working on implementation of Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018

• Advocating for CAPTA with Child Welfare League of America. 

• Actively working on the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act, which would make the adoption tax credit refundable to those families that do not have a tax burden and those who are low income. 

• Founding co-chair of the Every Child Deserves a Family Campaign, fighting to end discrimination in child welfare, specifically foster care and adoption, based on sexual orientation, religion, and marital status. 

• VFA holds National Adoption Month Briefing, with families from around the U.S. as speakers, National Adoption Month awards are given to two child welfare leaders for their work in adoption and to four members of Congress for their bipartisan work to support adoption from foster care.