Congress passes adoption incentive fix.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved S. 735, a bill that will correct a problem in the Adoption Incentive Program that was passed by the Senate earlier this year. The president is expected to sign the bill into law. Due to a technical glitch in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations package, the program was mistakenly reverted to its prior reauthorization amount. This would have made it challenging for states that have already exceeded their adoption baselines to have access to the flexible funds even though they still had high numbers of adoptions from state custody. The state baseline is back to FY 2007 adoption levels.

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For each child adopted above that baseline, a state will continue to receive $4,000. Recognizing that older children and children with special needs may be more difficult to place in adoptive homes, Congress improved the bonus awards. The incentive amount for adopted children age 9 or older is $8,000, and the amount for adopted special needs children is $4,000. For the first time, Congress also added an increased rate of adoptions bonus for states. To earn this bonus, states must achieve a "foster care adoption rate" that exceeds its previous "highest-ever foster child adoption rate" back to 2002 adoption numbers. Moreover, states now have 24 months to spend incentive funds on any Title IV-E and IV-B programs.