NY: When Adoptions ‘Break’: New York Legislation Aims to Ensure Adoption Subsidies Follow the Child

Imprint – July 17, 2024

A bill awaiting New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature would end an often undetected practice of adoptive parents pocketing funds for children they are no longer caring for, and allow child welfare agencies to transfer monthly payments to young people who face the abrupt loss of a home and guardian that had been promised to them. “The money must follow the child,” said state Sen. Roxanne Persaud, the bill’s author. Monthly adoption subsidies in New York typically range between about $900 and $1,200 a month, and far greater amounts depending on a child’s disabilities. The money is supposed to go for the children’s care and medical needs, and is meant to encourage adoption by supportive families, especially for children the state deems “hard-to-place.”

When Adoptions ‘Break’: New York Legislation Aims to Ensure Adoption Subsidies Follow the Child