Using Subsidies to Promote the Adoption of Children from Foster Care

January 1, 2007 This report was written by Mary Eschelbach Hansen in 2007. Since 1978 the federal government has implemented a variety of programs to promote the adoption of children from foster care. A key part of these programs has been the use of subsidies to lower the cost of adopting and parenting children who have been in foster care. Although subsidies are a key part of federal policy, there has been little empirical research on the effect of subsidies on adoption rates. This paper uses data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System to estimate the . . .