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:mad: Legislation passed by the Missouri House and Senate will limit State adoption subsidies for adoptions to parents and legal guardians whose families earn no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $25,660 for a husband and wife. Gov. Blunt will sign this legislation shortly since his administration proposed the cut. (Source [url]http://www.news-leader.com/today/20050408-AlookatMissouri.htm[/url]) Federally funded adoption subsidies are not affected, but I do not know if some federal funds are provided as matching funds. My wife and I are seriously considering adopting two older children, sisters, currently in State custody. While the funding cut does not alter our view of the girls, it could seriously impact our decision to adopt. Our local school district is abysmal, to be generous. We are looking at paying tuition so the girls could attend a significantly better local school district in our area. Without the subsidy, we probably couldn't afford the $11,000+/year to send the girls to an acceptable school. Now we will have to factor in our ability to provide an adequate education to the girls in our decision making process.
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A lot of families can't afford private school. However, there are many families that will not get subsides that need them to help feed their kids, get medical care their kids need-leg braces, wheel chairs, mental health care. Many of these kids need a stay home parent do to their issues. These cuts will not save the state any money. Less parents will be able to adopt leaving kids in foster care longer and many live in RTC's or group homes at a much higher cost then the adoption subsidy. These kids were taken into the states care for protection and now the state wants to balance their budget by again taking away from these kids. Anyone who thinks cutting these subsidies will save the state money has no understanding of foster care or adoption at all. Grandparents or relatives that wanted to raise their grandchildren can't afford to if their subsidies are removed. Guardianship placements won't happen if the guardian can't get funding to help with the cost. Many of the relatives taking these kids are the best parents for these kids but don't always have the funds for their care. So many will land in RTC's, group homes, and foster care instead of with their birthfamily that already knows and loves them.
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All the makings of a penny-wise and pound foolish decision. I agree that the net result will be kids being in the foster care system longer as the pool of interested families is diminished. I will be writing my state representative and senator though I doubt it will make much difference. For us, the local public high school is so bad we won't put any child into that school. It ranks in the bottom 15 of the state's 519 school districts. So, we not only have to provide food, care, clothing, etc, but find a way to provide a respectable education. That state's subsidy doesn't come even close to covering those bills, but it would help. We'd come up with the rest.
Please check out the website at [url]www.mfcaa.org[/url] and click on hot topic. There has been a bill introduced that will restore medicaid and daycare, and up the income guidelines to 300% of poverty. You need to call/email/write the spekaer of the house to get the bill fast-tracked or the subsidies won't be saved. We ARE one of those families it will greatly affect. I now know how a divorced spouse feels when their ex evades paying child support......it stinks!!