Reauthorization of the Adoption Incentive Payments Program

Reauthorization of the Adoption Incentive Payments Program

On December 2, 2003, President Bush signed the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003, which reauthorizes the adoption incentive payments program first created by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. The new Act authorizes $43 million per year for FY 2004-2008.

The Act creates enhanced incentives for "older child adoptions," namely adoptions from foster care of children who are nine years of age or older. It maintains the existing incentives for other foster children. The following chart reflects the new incentive structure.

Type of Adoption	Base Incentive	Additional Incentive
Older Child (age ≥ 9)	$4,000	$4,000
Special Needs, age ≤ 8	$4,000	$2,000
Non-Special Needs, age ≤ 8	$4,000	0

As with the old program, only adoptions in excess of a baseline will be eligible for incentive payments. For FY 2003, the baseline is the number of adoptions from foster care in FY 2002. For subsequent fiscal years, the baseline is the year in which the number of adoptions is the highest during the period beginning with FY 2002. This "best year is the base year" approach continues the old formula for determining eligibility for incentive payments.

Additional provisions of the Act are as follows:

Requirement for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to report by October 1, 2004 on state efforts to promote adoption and other permanency options for children in foster care, with special emphasis on older children.
Reinstatement of HHS's authority to impose financial penalties on states that do not submit timely and complete foster care and adoption data.
Reauthorizes through FY 2006 $10 million per year for technical assistance to the states, with no less than 50 percent of any amounts so appropriated to be used to provide technical assistance to the courts.

For more information, contact Sheri Steisel or Lee Posey at 202/624-5400 or fedhumserv-info@ncsl.org.