CHILDREN CAN spend months or years in foster care waiting for a permanent home, particularly those who are older or have special needs. The federal Adoption Incentive Program helps by giving states money to promote adoptions of children in foster care. But the program will expire next month unless Congress acts.
The House has already passed a bill to reauthorize the program. A Senate bill sponsored by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley is scheduled to be considered Sept. 10.
In Massachusetts, there are some 2,600 foster-care children who could be adopted. Three-quarters already live with families who are waiting to adopt them. But the rest are looking for homes. Many are children who are older, have special needs, or are part of large sibling groups.
The most recent federal allotment for the state's Department of Children and Families (formerly the Department of Social Services) is $258,000, used in part to help the state find homes for older children.
But do teenagers even want another family? Mary Gambon, the state's assistant commissioner for adoption, foster care, and adolescent services, emphatically says they do. Gambon says the desire to belong can persist even after children legally become adults.
The federal money helps Massachusetts recruit and support families. It funds outreach to clear away misconceptions that people who want to adopt have to be married, young, own a home, or not work.
Teenagers who don't find homes "age out" of foster care, and they are less likely to earn a high school degree and vulnerable to going to jail or becoming homeless. Renewing the federal incentive program could help more children find homes and better lives.
