Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments

What this funds

Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments The Adoption Incentives program was created by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (P. L. 105-89). The original program authorized the payment of adoption incentive funds to states that were successful in increasing the number of children adopted from the public foster care system. Once a state exceeded its baseline for the total number of adoptions, the amount of the payments to states was based on increases in the number of children adopted from the foster care system in a year, relative to a baseline number, and the number of children adopted with special needs, relative to a baseline number. The program has been reauthorized and revised several times since then, to continue to provide incentives for states that improve their performance in finding permanent homes for children and youth in foster care who are unable to be reunified with their parents. The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) revised and renamed the program as the "Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments" program. The law replaced the previous incentive structure with a new one that provides incentives for legal guardianships, in addition to adoptions. The law also rewards increases in the number of adoptions and guardianships compared to the number derived by multiplying a base rate in each category by the number of children in foster care on the last day of the preceding fiscal year. The base rate is defined as the lesser of the average rate for the immediately preceding three fiscal years or the rate for the prior fiscal year. The incentives are, therefore, adjusted to account for changes in the number of children in foster care. The current reward structure using this rate-based approach is as follows: ' $5,000 per child for improving the number of foster child adoptions; ' $10,000 per child for improving the number of older child adoptions and older foster child ' $7,500 per child for improving the number of pre-adolescent adoptions and pre-adolescent foster ' $4,000 per child for improving the number of foster child guardianships. The reauthorization increased the length of time, from two years to three years, that states have to spend incentive payments. It also added a provision specifying that incentive funds may not supplant federal or non-federal funds for services under titles IV-B or IV-E of the Social Security Act (Child Welfare Services or Federal Payments for Foster Care, Prevention, Adoption Assistance, and Guardianship Assistance). Funding for the program was reauthorized through FY 2021 by the Family First Prevention Services Act (P.L. 115-123). Funds are available for federal obligation for two years. Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 89 Funding for the program - net of any authorized changes such as transfers or reprogramming - for five In FY 2025, states earned $39.8 million in adoption and legal guardianship incentive payments, and ACFC estimates that states will earn $65 million to be paid in FY 2026. The FY 2027 request for the Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments program is The Budget includes a General Provision expanding the authority to transfer unused Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments to the "Fostering the Future Fund" demonstration project. The project will support youth transitioning from the foster care system and provide funding to Chafee Foster Care ACFC estimates that states will earn a minimum of $65 million in adoption and legal guardianship Result / Target for Recent Target Target FY 2026 Target 7J Percentage of Result / (Summary of Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 90

Extracted from Administration for Children, Families, and Communities, p. 10. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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