How to pay for adoption
Military Adoption Benefits
If you are on active duty in the military, you are eligible for reimbursement of expenses up to $2,000 for the adoption of a single child and up to $5,000 per family per year. There is one caveat: The adoption must have been arranged through a non-profit agency. Paid after the adoption is finalized, this benefit is not doubled if both parents are in the military. Fees that can be reimbursed include agency fees, legal fees, placement fees, and medical expenses. Travel expenses were not originally covered when this program was introduced, but they may be covered now.
Military parents can exercise an option to have children that are placed with them covered by their military medical program even before the adoption is finalized. You should apply to the Secretary of your branch of the service for the child to be a "Secretary Designee." If you have questions about this process, contact your commanding officer or call 303-333-0845.
Under the military’s Program for Persons with Disabilities, military parents may be eligible to receive up to $1,000 a month for disabled or special needs adopted children. The military also has a program called the Exceptional Family Member Program that will ensure that adoptive parents of special needs children are assigned to bases or duty stations that can meet the needs of the child.
Employer-Provided Adoption Benefits
| Author(s): Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Year Published: 2004 |
Introduction
A growing number of employers offer benefits to adoptive parents. In 1990, a survey by Hewitt Associates found that only 12 percent of employers surveyed offered some kind of adoption benefits; by 1995, the proportion had climbed to 23 percent. In the 2004 Hewitt survey of 936 major U.S. employers, the percentage grew to 39 percent, with an average maximum reimbursement of $3,879 for adoption expenses.¹ Employers that offer adoption benefits cite various advantages for their companies, including maintenance of productivity, retention of good employees, a positive public image, and equity in benefits for all employees.
Employer-sponsored adoption benefits take many forms. This factsheet examines:
• What types of benefits do employers offer to help with adoption?
• What are the eligibility criteria and conditions for receiving adoption benefits?
• Which employers offer adoption benefits?
Child Welfare Information Gateway provides additional factsheets and other information about making adoption affordable. The factsheets Costs of Adopting and Adoption Assistance for Children Adopted from Foster Care: a Factsheet for Families can be found on the Information Gateway website.
What Types of Benefits Do Employers Offer?
Typically, adoption benefits mirror benefits available to new biological parents. Adoption benefits fall into three general categories:
- Information resources
- Financial assistance
- Parental leave policies
Employers may offer one or more of these types of benefits during a single adoption.
Information Resources
Resources made available to employees may include referrals to licensed adoption agencies, support groups, and organizations; access to an adoption specialist to answer questions about the process; and help with special situations, such as a special needs adoption. Many employers that offer this type of benefit contract with a human resources consulting firm to provide these services to employees.
© Excerpted from Adoption.com Guide to Foster Adoption, published by Adoption Media, LLC
Credits: Kelly L. Killian
