Federal Policy

Voice for Adoption, of which the National Adoption Center is a founding member, is a membership advocacy organization that speaks out for our nation’s 104,000 waiting children in foster care, and the families that adopt children with special needs. VFA is committed to ensuring federal policies and funding match the ongoing needs of these children and their adoptive families. On February 27, VFA provided testimony to the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Human Resources and focused on four key areas:

1. The rate of adoption from foster care is increasing, but the adoption of older youth continues to be a struggle for States.

2. Youth who “age-out” are a vulnerable population and more must be done to secure permanency for these youth before exiting foster care.

3. Adoption experts—both professionals and families alike—identify post-adoption services as a critical need to support families, but a lack of resources to support these efforts is still a challenge.

4. State accountability for the use of federal adoption funding should be reviewed to ensure that reinvestment into supporting adopted children and their families’ is happening as required by law.

We will continue to be a vocal proponent to insure that our federal government addresses each of these concerns.