There are thousands of youth in state foster care — and many more around the globe — who remain in need of permanent homes. And estimates suggest that 37% of American adults have considered adopting a child.
Yet in 2023, only 50,193 foster care and 1,275 intercountry adoptions occurred. Although many factors hold families back from adopting, more than 50% of adoptive families report that cost is both a perceived and actual barrier.
The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed by President Trump in July, marked a step forward in making adoption more affordable by offering a partial refund of the adoption tax credit (up to $5,000) for families with little or no tax liability. While this is exciting momentum, I am, as an adoptee with lived experience, calling on additional reforms to make adoption truly accessible for all.
We need the federal government to continue to push toward accessibility in private domestic and intercountry adoption, while also raising awareness about the affordability of foster care adoptions among prospective parents. With private domestic and intercountry costs ranging from $20,000 to $60,000+, these types of adoption are often out of reach for the average U.S. family, or require significant fundraising and sacrifice.
To meaningfully reduce these financial barriers, the government should make the entire adoption tax credit (up to $17,280 per child in 2025) fully refundable. Reducing or eliminating court fees would help lower the overall cost of adoption and protect families from unethical practices, as would taking stronger action against unlicensed baby brokers and predatory for-profit agencies, which raise the cost of adoptions by adding more middlemen and passing along high administrative and marketing fees to adoptive parents.
For many adoptive families, government processing delays remain a major hurdle. Intercountry adoptions face growing backlogs in immigration approvals, while private domestic and foster care adoptions face lengthy court timelines, Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) approvals, and delayed subsidy determinations. Expediting these processes would ensure timely permanency for children and also prevent families from incurring additional legal, agency and processing fees.
Families also need greater awareness of and access to adoption assistance programs, grants and subsidies. While some large employers offer generous adoption benefits such as paid leave or expense reimbursement, these are less commonly available to low- and middle-income families outside of corporate America — those who may be willing and able to provide loving homes if not for financial obstacles.
Conversations around adoption affordability could also encourage more families to consider foster care adoption, yet public perception here remains a prohibiting factor. A 2022 Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s survey on attitudes about foster care and adoption found that 55% of Americans view foster care adoption as difficult and expensive — up from 39% in 2017.
In reality, foster care adoption through a public or state agency is often low-cost, with most families paying little out of pocket. Many states offer up to $2,000 per child in expense reimbursement and provide monthly adoption subsidies, particularly for older youth and children with special needs, as well as free college tuition, Medicaid and post-adoption mental health resources. Still, until public perception changes, many families may rule out this option unnecessarily.
The partial tax credit refundability stipulation in the Big Beautiful Bill is a promising step of progress that practitioners and families in the space have long been lobbying for. But in order to serve the children most in need, we must continue working toward a future where adoption is not only a possibility for the privileged few, but a clear and accessible path for all Americans able to provide a loving home.
