Put on your advocacy hats and start contacting your congressmen to show your support for the bipartisan Adoption Equality Act, (S. 1462/HR 4901), which will ensure that foster children with special needs will not be denied SSI Title IV-E support based on their birth family’s income.

NACAC (the North American Council of Adoptable Children) is spearheading an advocacy effort to get other adoption and foster care organizations to partner with them in showing support for this legislation. If you are a member of an adoption or foster group, visit this site to learn how your group can participate.

Meanwhile, contact your individual senators and representatives to tell them about the bill and ask for their support. The act is currently two bills, being reviewed on both sides of the house. If they pass, they will be melded into one act. The Senate Bill 1462 was introduced last May by Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia, and was assigned to the Finance committee, where it still is. So if your senator sits on the Finance Committee, you especially should make your voice heard.

On the other side of the house, H.R. 4091 was introduced in November by Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee. This bill has 16 co-sponsors, and is currently in the House Committee on Ways and Means.

The talking points for supporting a bill such as this are that there are 114,000 foster children waiting for adoption in this country, many of whom have severe special needs. And that the vast majority of pre-adoptive and adoptive parents consider adoption assistance important in their decision to adopt, especially a child with special needs.

Statistics show that the country saves between $1 billion and $6 billion annually for the 50,000 children adopted from foster care each year. So, the belief is that significantly more children would be adopted if subsidies were available to offset the incredible expense of raising a child with special needs.

Meanwhile, the only special needs foster children who qualify for Title IV-E support are those whose birth families had low enough incomes…these are the same birth families they have been removed from. At this point, what difference does it make what that family’s income level is?

What can you do? You can spread the word among the adoption and foster community and get as many organizations as possible to join forces with NACAC. And if your congressman is on the Senate Finance Committee or the House Ways and Means Committee, please call and/or email them a letter of encouragement to move this bill out of committee and help these kids. If you have a personal story about adopting a special needs child from foster care, share it. The legislators’ attention is drawn to personal stories that give practical examples of how the new law may help someone “real”, especially their constituents.

How do I find out who my legislators are and how to contact them? Here’s the listing of senators and here’s the search page to find your representative.

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