Do Foster Parents Get Paid In CT?

Fostering In Connecticut

Fostering is one of the most popular ways to adopt in the United States, but the state does not pay foster parents a stipend like it does adoptive parents. That’s something that has been hotly debated in the adoption community, as the costs associated with taking care of a child can be substantial. Foster parents are often required to provide child care, transportation, food, and lodging while their kids wait to be adopted.

According to Adoptive Families, a national organization that supports foster and adoptive families, Connecticut is one of only two states that does not offer financial support to foster parents, even though CT is one of the most popular destination for adopting children in the US.

The Connecticut Department of Human Services (DHS) said that there is no funding available to help pay foster parents, and the state does not have any plans to fund such a program. “While the Department of Human Services works to make foster care affordable, the department is not currently in a position to fund foster parent stipends,” DHS spokesperson Shawn Cornett wrote in an email. “There are no plans to fund this program in the future.”

Cornett said that the department provides a number of resources to help foster parents, including free legal aid and counseling.

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), a nonprofit organization that advocates for foster and adoptive parents, said that CT should start paying foster parents. “[Foster parents] deserve to be compensated,” said NCJFCJ Executive Director Rebecca Sturdivant. “They are working in the most difficult circumstances imaginable and deserve to be taken care of.”

Sturdivant explained that foster parents usually work in excess of 40 hours per week, and there are instances where they are forced to work more than 100 hours per week. She said that it is possible to work a full-time job and still take care of a child. “You can’t ask anybody to do that,” she said. “You can’t force somebody to do that.”

In addition to the lack of financial assistance, many foster parents are also unaware of the benefits that they receive, including subsidized child care, health insurance, and housing. Some foster parents also don’t know that they have access to tax credits that help them offset the costs of adopting a child, which can add up to thousands of dollars.

Sturdivant said that many foster parents struggle to find resources to make ends meet, which can include working multiple jobs and taking out loans. “This is a very difficult situation,” she said. “It’s not just the foster parents. It’s the children, the biological parents, and the families that are adopting these children.”

Sturdivant added that the government should also address the high cost of adoption. She said that it’s expensive to travel to the country where a child is adopted.

There are about 3,000 children waiting to be adopted in Connecticut, according to the state. On average, children spend about eight months waiting to be placed, although it can take up to five years to adopt a child. “If we could pay them a stipend, they wouldn’t have to worry about putting food on the table,” Sturdivant said. “That would give them peace of mind, and it would make the process much smoother.”

The federal government pays foster parents a stipend, but it is far less than what they receive as adoptive parents. The average stipend for a foster parent is $1,000, while adoptive parents receive $5,000. However, that difference is based on the cost of living, and foster parents in rural areas typically receive less.

According to the Adoptive Families website, foster parents are entitled to $2,000 per year in child care expenses, which is $500 per month. The site also states that foster parents are eligible for $10,000 in transportation costs and $2,000 for housing.

According to the NCJFCJ, the federal government has not changed the stipend in nearly 20 years, and the average foster parent is now getting about $14,000. This is barely enough to cover child care and transportation, let alone food, which adds up to about $4,000 per year.

Many people in the adoption community are calling for the federal government to increase the stipend, but it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon. According to The Hill, the Trump administration has proposed cutting the Child Care and Development Block Grant by $1.3 billion. The White House Office of Management and Budget did not respond to a request for comment.