Klobuchar bill aims to help families with adoptees from abroad UPDATED

“U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is proposing legislation aimed at helping families who have adopted children from abroad.

Klobuchar said events including an incident in Hastings last year where a 14-year-old boy brought a loaded gun to school prompted her to write the legislation. The boy had been adopted from Russia as a child.

She said families who have adopted from abroad need the same services as other adoptive families.

“There are some existing post-adoptive support services — counseling with families, figuring out if the kid needs some extra help — and that funding right now is limited to domestic adopted kids,” she said.

Klobuchar said the bill wouldn’t have an impact on the federal budget since it would only provide wider access to an existing stream of funding.

Klobuchar’s bill would also mandate that statistics be collected on international adoptions. ”

Klobuchar bill aims to help families with adoptees from abroad
[Minnesota Public Radio 6/26/11 by Rupa Shenoy]

This bill sounds like the Supporting Adoptive Families Act S.3726 that she introduced in August of 2010. The bill did not go further than the introduction phase.

That bill stated ” Amends part B (Child and Family Services) of title IV of the Social Security Act to make it a purpose of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program to promote efforts to prevent children from entering the foster care system through the provision of pre- and post-adoptive support services.Extends adoption promotion and support services to those designed to support adoptions from other countries as well as domestic adoptions. Specifies related pre- and post-adoptive support services. Amends SSA title IV part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) to revise requirements for state expenditures for adoption support services. Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), acting through the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to award grants or cooperative agreements to eligible entities to develop and implement state-sponsored statewide or tribal post-adoption mental health service programs for all adopted children. Amends SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) to direct the Secretary, as part of the child support and paternity data collection system, to promulgate final regulations requiring the states to collect and report information regarding children adopted within the United States or from other countries who enter into state custody as a result of the disruption of a placement for adoption or the dissolution of an adoption. ”

Tracking all children including international adoptees that were disrupted to state custody would be a great thing.

Starting to train local people will also be very helpful.

Opening services to more people will always be at some taxpayer’s expense, so it seems disingeuous to imply that this is some zero-cost effort. If this legislation is the same as she proposed last Fall, several federal bureaucratic entities will need to makes changes and track new things which will cost money. States will have a lot of expenses as well. The quantity of people served will rise substantially as many international adoptive parents are in need of these services. We hope this effort will actually trickle down to help those that need the services instead of just creating more bureaucracy.

We will post the actual legislation when it is filed.

Update: Open Congress does not yet have the actual bill up, but more details have emerged.

“The Supporting Adoptive Families Act involves three main changes to existing law:

1. It would redefine the current federal definition of “adoption support services” to include American families adopting a child from abroad.
2. It would make those services eligible for federal funding that would be delivered to states for child welfare-related services, and a specific portion of existing funds would go directly to caring for adopted children with mental health problems.
3. It would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to improve its data collection regarding adoptions — especially those that fail — to better develop the support services.

“This legislation doesn’t require any additional spending,” said Klobuchar. “Instead, it will make better use of existing funds and ensure that all adoptive families have access to support services.”

Of course offering more people more services will cost more money somewhere down the line. It does not sound like there will be any funds set aside for this so either the adoptees will be taking funding from others in their state or they won’t be getting anything! At this point, this sounds like another feel good legislation.

“The bill debuted by Klobuchar has bipartisan support and was co-authored by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Tim Johnson (D-SD). She introduced the legislation with adoptive families and adoption agency representatives standing by her, and emphasized that the proposed plan is endorsed by the North American Council on Adoptable Children and Children’s Home Society & Family Services.”

Klobuchar Unveils Bill to Improve International Adoption Support
[Fox Twin Cities 6/27/11 by Shelby Capacio]

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