One of our adoption forum members brought this to our attention yesterday. Legislation increasing financial transparency during the adoption process to prevent the extortion of adoptive families gained the approval of the Oklahoma House of Representatives this week.

OKLAHOMA CITY (April 16, 2009) – Both the Oklahoma House of Representatives and state Senate voted today to increase financial transparency during the adoption process and prevent crooked lawyers from extorting adoptive families.

One of the measures – House Bill 2174, by state Rep. Jason Nelson – passed the state Senate today and now goes to Gov. Henry to be signed into law.

The other bill – Senate Bill 1029, by state Sen. Steven Russell and Nelson – passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives today and returns to the Senate.

“I am very pleased this legislation has received such broad bipartisan support,” said Nelson, R-Oklahoma City. “For too long, Oklahoma has been known as a state that does not protect adoptive parents, adoptive children or birth mothers. We have allowed unethical lawyers to sell children and it’s a black eye for the state. This legislation will help end those abuses and identify the bad actors.”

House Bill 2174 would require public reporting of adoption expenses to increase transparency. The bill also requires that only one prospective adoptive family at a time may be billed for a birth mother’s expenses and that all adoptions must be conducted in one of four locations: the home county of the birth mother, the home county of the adoptive parents, or in Oklahoma or Tulsa Counties.

Senate Bill 1029 would require the courts to conduct a home study for all non-kinship adoptions to ensure adoptive parents are able to support an adoptive child.

The measure also requires that a written full-disclosure statement be provided to both the birth parent and adoptive parents by all attorneys or individuals involved in a direct-placement adoption in Oklahoma. The full-disclosure statement would include information such as the name and address of the attorney involved; the scope of services provided by the attorney; a procedure for grievances; a list of the fees charged for an adoption and refund policy; provisions informing those involved that coercion of birth parents is prohibited; provisions for avoiding conflicts of interest among birth parents, adoptive parents, and the attorney; and the specified time frame for completing an adoption.

Although the Department of Human Services has a code that adoption agencies must follow, there is currently no oversight of the attorneys involved in adoptions.

A May 2006 multicounty grand jury report found that some adoptive parents have been forced to pay for automobiles, car parts, traffic tickets, court costs in unrelated criminal cases, driver’s license reinstatement fees, television sets and utility bills – all masked as adoption costs.

According to the grand jury report, the haphazard regulation of “adoption expenses” has created an atmosphere where some women and their attorneys effectively sold children.

House Bill 2174 passed the state Senate on a 44-2 vote today and will become law with the governor’s signature.

Senate Bill 1029 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives today on an 88-10 vote. It now returns to the Senate for consideration of House amendments.

The passage of both bills comes a day before a meeting of the Oklahoma Adoption Review Task Force, which Nelson now co-chairs with Russell. The group will meet at the state Capitol at 1 p.m. on Friday

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(rainbowmom thank you for passing this along from our adoption forums)

ACTION ALERT: Ask Senators on the Finance Committee to act NOW to reauthorize the Adoption Incentive Program and help support adoption and relative guardianship

Today, more than 127,000 children and young people in foster care are waiting to leave the system – for good – to join permanent families. Every day without a permanent family feels like a lifetime to a child.

The bipartisan Adoption Incentives Program has helped more than 443,000 children leave the uncertainty of foster care to join adoptive families – but unless Congress acts now, it will expire on September 30, 2008. The House acted unanimously to reauthorize the Adoption Incentives Program in late June and included provisions to provide relative guardianship as an additional way for children to exit foster care for permanent families. Please join us in urging the Senate to act before August recess begins.

Senators on the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the nation’s foster care system, will play a key role in promoting safe, permanent families for our most vulnerable children. Please call your Senator if you are from the following states (which has members on the Senate Finance Committee):

Arizona • Arkansas • Colorado • Idaho • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Maine • Massachusetts • Michigan • Montana • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Mexico • New York • North Dakota • Oregon • Utah • Washington

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD BY forwarding this information to your friends, family, colleagues, and networks in these states and encouraging them to take action too.

If you have any questions, please contact Mary Boo at maryboo@nacac.
North American Council on Adoptable Children
970 Raymond Avenue, Suite 106
St. Paul, MN 55114-1149
651-644-3036
http://www.nacac.org • policy@nacac.org

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The Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act (FAFSA) became law as an amendment to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (Public Law 110-84). The FAFSA provision will make it possible for teens in foster care to be adopted without losing access to college financial aid. Under this new law, youth who are adopted from foster care at any point after their 13th birthday will not have to include their parents’ income in the calculations for determining their need for financial aid; such a youth will be considered an “independent student” for the purpose of determining their financial need.

The FAFSA provision will take effect in July 2009, to apply for the 2009-2010 school year. The provision will apply to youth even if they were adopted before the new law was passed. Voice for Adoption worked closely with Senator Norm Coleman’s (R-MN) and Senator Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) offices on this important legislation.

COLEMAN, LANDRIEU COMMEND SENATE FOR PASSING CRITICAL HIGHER EDUCATION AMENDMENT:
Bipartisan Measure Encourages Adoption by Not Forcing Teens to Choose Between Family and Financial Aid

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) commended the Senate for passing the Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act as part of the Higher Education Access Act of 2007. This amendment is aimed at encouraging teenage adoptions by not forcing a teenager to choose between a loving family and financial aid for college. The provision corrects current law, which allows youth who “age out” of the foster care system to qualify for virtually all loans and grants, while essentially penalizing those who are adopted. Specifically, the Coleman-Landrieu measure would amend the definition of “independent student” as defined in current law to include foster care youth who are adopted after their tenth birthday. This will allow for a student’s financial aid eligibility to be determined solely by the student’s ability to pay, regardless of his or her adoptive family’s income level. This recognizes that families who adopt teenagers and pre-teens may have not been able to plan a college savings account for them.

“Education and a loving family are two key components of a child’s mental and emotional development. No child should have to choose between the two,” Sen. Coleman said. “Under current law, adopted teenagers lose out on some or all college financial aid for which they would otherwise have been eligible, depending on his or her adopted parents’ financial situation. I applaud the Senate for passing our amendment to alleviate this discrepancy and encourage teen and pre-teen adoption.”

“It is unacceptable for students to receive less financial aid merely because they were adopted,” Sen. Landrieu said. “Restricting the financial aid opportunities of adopted teens unfairly penalizes them simply for seeking the love and stability that only a family can offer. This amendment corrects such unwise law by allowing adopted children to receive the financial help they need to attend college and realize their full potential.”

“Older youth in foster care currently face the painful choice between being adopted and being able to afford to go to college,” said Alicia Groh, Executive Director of Voice for Adoption. “Thanks to the leadership of Senator Coleman and Senator Landrieu, this bill will eliminate this barrier to adoption, making it possible for children who are waiting to be adopted to achieve their dream of having a permanent family without sacrificing their dream of attending college.”

Currently, there are 523,000 children in foster care, with about half of them over the age of 10. Of students who have “aged out” of foster care – as opposed to being adopted – studies have shown that within three years:

Only 54% had earned their high school diploma
Only 14% had graduated from a four-year college
Between 25-44% had experienced homelessness.

Conversely, statistics consistently show that students who are adopted out of the foster system are more likely to attend college, have stable lives and have a permanent family.

“Asking a child to sacrifice a good home for an education is unacceptable,” Coleman concluded. “I am pleased this bill makes great strides in rectifying the current situation.”

The Higher Education Access Act of 2007, which passed the Senate with Coleman’s support by a vote of 78-18 on July 20, will increase college access and affordability by boosting student aid by $17.4 billion and increasing the maximum annual Pell Grant, the nation’s main aid program for low-income students, from $4,300 to $5,400 a year by 2012.

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Senator Dan Patrick (Texas) wants to pay pregnant women 500 dollars for choosing adoption over abortion. The bill has not been scheduled yet for a hearing in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

I think it’s an interesting idea, but one that would have a lot of kinks to work out.

Sen. Patricks proposal calls for giving any woman going to an abortion clinic the $500 option, to be paid no more than 30 days after the baby is born and freed for adoption.

Adam Pertman, head of the adoption-policy group Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, said women facing adoption need to be able to weigh all options equally. “You let women respectfully make the best decision they can at an excruciatingly difficult time. Introducing money into the mix can be coercive,” Pertman said.

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2006-2007 HOUSE BILL LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

HB-803 Qualifying Adoptive Parents/Benefits: (Identical SB-362) (Representative Cusack) Defines term “qualifying adoptive parent”; expands categories of persons who are eligible to be qualifying adoptive parents; provides that qualifying adoptive parent who adopts special-needs child is eligible to receive specified monetary benefit that is paid to adoptive parent in equal monthly installments over 1-year period; authorizes Department of Management Services (DMS) to adopt rules to administer adoption benefits program. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2007 .
Status: 02/13/07 Filed
2/14/07 Referred to Healthcare Council; Policy & Budget Council

HB-1239 Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Act: (Similar SB-2272) (Representative Homan) Creates said act; directs Department of Health (DOH) to develop public education program; including telephone information hotline, to provide information re Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Directs DOH in conjunction with Department of Children & Families Services (DCFS) to develop & maintain Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Network consisting of service providers & Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Diagnostic & Intervention Centers, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2007 except as otherwise provided.
Status: 03/01/07 Filed

HB-1309 Adoption &Child Protection: (Representative Galvano) Re-designates Office of Child Abuse Prevention as Office of Adoption & Child Protection; revises purpose of office; provides for Chief Child Advocate & provides duties therefore; provides for promotion of adoption & support of adoptive families in state plan of office; establishes Child Abuse Prevention & Permanency Advisory Council & provides for composition thereof; establishes subsidized adoption program, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2007 .
Status: 03/02/07 Filed

SB-358 Optional Foster Care Pilot Program: (Senator Wilson): Requires Department of Children & Family Services to create pilot program in Miami-Dade County to provide continued foster care until participants reach age of 21 years. Requires that circuit court select participants; requires periodic administration to participants of independent living assessment tool; requires Department of Children & Families to submit report to court; requires selection of cohort group for purpose of comparing results; requires reports to Legislature; provides for expiration of program, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2007 .
Status: 12/15/06 Filed
01/24/07 Referred to Children & Families, & Elder Affairs;
Judiciary; Health & Human Services Appropriations

SB-362 Qualifying Adoptive Parents/Benefits: (Identical HB-803): (Senator Wilson) Defines term for “qualifying adoptive parent”. Expands categories of persons who are eligible to be qualifying adoptive parents; provides that qualifying adoptive parent who adopts special-needs child is eligible to receive specified monetary benefit that is paid to adoptive parent in equal monthly installments over 1-year period; authorizes Department of Management Services to adopt rules to administer adoption benefits program. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2007 .
Status: 12/15/06 Filed
01/24/07 Referred to Governmental Ops; children Families, & Elder Affairs; General Government Appropriations

SB-2876 Adoption/Special Needs Children: (Compare SB 2030) (Children, Families & Elder Affairs Committee) (Formally SPB 7088) Re-defines term “special needs child”; revises provisions re adoption of children with special needs; revises & adds definitions; distinguishes between subsidies & adoption assistance; provides for adoption-assistance agreement.
Status: 03/05/07 Filed

Related Tags: adopt, adopting, adoption

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