INDIANAPOLIS — A bill aimed at helping foster families adopt and welcome a child into their home has passed its first hurdle.
On Monday, the Senate Family and Children Services committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 398, filed by Sen. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend.
The bill would add a mandatory adoption subsidy for Indiana foster parents who adopt children from the state’s child welfare system.
An amendment was added that would require the adoption subsidy to be no less than 50 percent of the existing subsidy the foster parents receive.
Michelle Earley, a foster and adoptive parent, told lawmakers that through the Indiana Department of Child Services she gets $30 a month.
“We submitted everything they asked for, and they came back and offered us $1 a day,” Earley said. “Our attorney advised us to accept that because he said it wouldn’t be worth the fight. It wasn’t about the money, but there are needs that we have to provide for.”
Earley emphasized people foster and adopt children because they want to help them find permanent, stable homes.
“We aren’t in it for the money,” Earley said. “We’re in it because we love these children and we want to provide them with permanency.”
Indianapolis adoption attorney Grant Kirsh also testified.
“I’ve seen grandmothers adopting grandchildren who are making $8,000 a year in disability income and they’re offered single digits a day,” Kirsh said. “This is greatly affecting the children who are being adopted through foster care along with those who are taking care of them.”
DCS staff testified 80 percent of adoptive families in Indiana receive $300 per child per month in adoption assistance payments.
Adoptive parents receive $8 million in assistance per month in Indiana, DCS staff members said.
The agency uses a variety of factors when determining how much assistance an adoptive family should receive including the family’s income and the needs and circumstances of the child.
The bill has now been reassigned to the appropriations committee due to its fiscal impact.
Niezgodski’s office said with the deadline to hear bills in committee approaching this Thursday, there will likely not be sufficient time to hear S.B. 398, however, Niezgodski is hopeful there will be another opportunity for this proposal to move forward this session.
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“Adoptive families need financial support for the children they love, but currently, many are not receiving nearly enough to care for them,” Niezgodski said. “Financial limitations should not stand in the way of parents who want to adopt children and bring them into a loving home.”
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Currently, foster parents would lose their helpful state per diem if they were to adopt their foster child, Niezgodski said.
With his bill, DCS would be directed to provide an adoption subsidy for children who are eligible.
Many children in the foster care system have health problems, learning disabilities, and physical and mental impairments which require access to medical care, special equipment, counseling, tutoring programs, and other treatments, Niezgodski said.
“Foster parents of a child with disabilities currently face losing any helpful state funding if they decide to adopt and may not do so for this reason,” Niezgodski said. “I believe it is my duty — and the duty of the Indiana legislature — to protect our most abandoned and vulnerable children. We can do better, and we must do better.”
