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S2688Senate2015-2016 Session

Report on the impact of a tax deduction for expenses attributed to the adoption of a child in foster care

Sponsor Simcha FelderSD-17Affects Health
Status
In Senate Committee
Children And Families
Impact
Pending
Passage
Pending

Bill progress

Step 2 of 7

In committee · Children And Families

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Sponsors

Primary sponsor
Simcha Felder

Senator · Senate District 17

Chair, Children And FamiliesChair, New York City Education Subcommittee

No co-sponsors yet.

History

  1. Print number 2688a
  2. Amend (t) and recommit to children and families
  3. Referred to children and families
  4. Returned to senate
  5. Died in assembly
  6. Referred to children and families
  7. Delivered to assembly
  8. Passed senateVote 61–0
  9. Advanced to third reading
  10. 2nd report cal.
  11. 1st report cal.903
  12. Reported and committed to finance
Show 1 earlier action
  1. Referred to children and families

Full text

The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.

Sponsor's memo

Title of bill

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to directing the office of children and family services to complete a report on the impact of a tax deduction for expenses, including adoption fees, medical and legal fees, court costs and any other related expenses paid or incurred by a taxpayer attributed to the adoption of a child in foster care; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof

Purpose or general idea of bill

This legislation requires a report to ascertain the impact of tax incentive on helping increase adoption rates for the thousands of New York State children now waiting to be adopted and currently under the custody of the State.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1 of the bill provides that the office of children and family services, in consultation with the department of taxation and finance and other entities, shall complete a study on the federal, state and local cost of a child in foster care, the average number of children in the foster care system for the preceding five years, the average number of adoptions in the preceding five years, and the average cost of adoption; including but not limited to adoption fees and legal fees. The report should include statistically significant difference in the expenses between the adoption of a child in foster care and a private adoption.

Read the full memo (690 words)

Finally, this section provides that the report required pursuant to this act shall be provided to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate and the minority leader of the assembly, on or before February 15, 2017.

Section 2 provides that this act shall take effect immediately.

Justification

Currently, New York State has over 23,000 children in custody in its foster care system. For a large number of these children returning to their natural parents is impossible. In 2011, there were over 6,400 foster care children waiting to be adopted and the median years each has to wait to be adopted is close to 4.5.

Many of these children age out of foster care services when they turn 18 years of age. Annually 700 children age out of the system and are left without health care, housing or support services for their mental health needs. The Affordable Care Act will change the health factor for children who age-out but for most of these children waiting for adoptions, the picture is bleak.

In October of 2015 the State of New York settled a lawsuit charging that harm was being caused to children because of extremely low rates of adoptions leaving children in foster care without a permanent home.

At an annual cost to New York State of over $33,000 per child in state custody, it is obvious that New York State government must do more to create incentives for families interesting in adopting a child in the foster care system. This legislation examines what incentive and changes need to be made to increase adoption rates for children in the foster care system. There are over 150,000 children in our State living without their parents and being supported by family friends, older siblings, relatives and grandparents. Of that amount 23,000 are in the custody of New York State.

In addition, it is a well understood dynamic that the longer a child is in the foster care system, the slimmer the chances for adoption. As children age in state custody it becomes a negative for them because families tend to adopt younger children. Therefore, New York must do more to place these children in healthy, loving, and nurturing home environments. At a total annual cost of over $759 million dollars to maintain the 23,000 in state custody, it is clearly in the best interest of these children and to New York taxpayers to create incentives to reduce the number of children in government custody.

Legislative history

Assembly bill 8167-B of 2013, died in committee, Passed Senate in 2014 and 2015.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.