Extending and Expanding Adoption and Guardianship Subsidies for Children and Youth in the District of Columbia Foster Care System: Fiscal Impact Analysis

<p dir="ltr">This cost/benefit analysis demonstrates that when it comes to finding permanent families for foster children who cannot return to their birth families, policy and fiscal goals align. The analysis shows that extending adoption and guardianship subsidies to age 21 and expanding guardianship subsidies to include non-kin will lead to hundreds more children leaving foster care to permanent families and will save the District of Columbia millions of dollars. As a result of these projections the desired changes were enacted by the District of Columbia Council and took effect in April 2010.</p><p dir="ltr">This report was originally prepared as a report for the Council of the District of Columbia, and it was the for the basis for public testimony before the Council on December 12, 2008 (attached here) and March 4, 2010. It was published as a conference proceeding: <i>Achieving Equity for Children and Families,</i> <i>Proceedings of the 33</i>^<em>rd</em><i> National Child Welfare, Juvenile, and Family Law Conference</i>, 35-55. National Association of Counsel for Children Law Manual, 2010.</p>