Number: RL34704
Title: Child Welfare: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Authors: Emilie Stoltzfus, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (H.R. 6893) is an omnibus child welfare bill designed to ensure greater permanence and improve the well-being of children served by public child welfare agencies - especially children in foster care, those who leave foster care in their later teens, and those who are Indian children. The legislation received strong support in Congress, and beyond revising and extending the Adoption Incentives program, it responds to a range of issues and concerns that have been variously raised (some for more than a decade) by public child welfare administrators; youth, adoption, tribal, and child welfare advocates; and by children and youth who have been (or still are) in foster care. The bill passed the House of Representatives, by voice vote (under suspension of the rules), on September 17 and the Senate, by unanimous consent, on September 22, 2008. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 7, 2008. P.L. 110-351 represents a compromise between provisions that were included in the Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act of 2008 (S. 3038, introduced by Senator Charles Grassley), as approved by the Senate Finance Committee on September 10, 2008 (S.Rept. 110-467), and the Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307, introduced by Representative Jim McDermott with Representative Jerry Weller), as passed by the House on June 24, 2008.
Pages: 33
Date: October 9, 2008