Broken Adoptions 

Louise is fighting for children who lack access to justice and necessary supports. Each year a number of New York’s children experience “broken adoptions,” when they are displaced from their adoptive homes. That displacement can result from the illness or death of an adoptive parent, or abuse or neglect. Either way there is no comprehensive data kept. Some children return to foster care, others return to court the subject of a neglect, abuse, or custody case, and other children end up homeless or in contact with the criminal justice system.  Needless to say, a broken adoption can wreak emotional and mental havoc on a young person. 

To make matters worse, many times the adoptive parent that is no longer caring for the child continues to collect an adoption subsidy. This is a payment that most adoptive parents receive when they adopt a child from the New York State foster care system. Under the current law, the subsidy can be stopped only if the adoptive parent dies.  In other instances, such as when a child returns to foster care, moves to live with a new guardian, or lives independently, the state does not transfer the adoption subsidy to a new caretaker or the young person  herself.  As a result, the adoptive parent can continue to collect payments until the child turns 21, without continuing to care for or support the child.