Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act Overview

President Bush Signs Bill to Help Hundreds of Thousands of Children and Youth in Foster Care!

On October 7, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (H.R. 6893). This act will help hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster care by promoting permanent families for them through relative guardianship and adoption and improving education and health care. Additionally, the bill will extend federal support for youth to age 21 and increase their opportunities for success when they finally leave care. H.R. 6893 also will offer many American Indian children important federal protections and support for the first time. 

H.R. 6893 has bipartisan support and is fully paid for. This bill resolves differences between the House-passed Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307) and the Senate Finance Committee-approved Chairman's Mark of the Improved Adoptions Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act (S. 3038). H.R. 6893 passed unanimously in the House on September 17, 2008 and by unanimous consent in the Senate on September 22. 

By providing children in foster care with what they need to thrive, we help to ensure that society will not pay the greater cost later on when these youth are forced to leave foster care at age 18 without an education, connections to their families and communities, or the support they need to succeed as adults. This bill is an important step forward to improving the lives of our nation's children and offering these most vulnerable children meaningful family connections.

Learn more about the act:

• Written Statement on the Hearing on the Implementation of Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
• New Help for Children Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives: Questions and Answers About the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
• Frequently Asked Questions on the Provisions Designed to Impact Youth and Young Adults
• Questions and Answers about Family Connection Grants
• Help Children Being Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives and Their Relative Caregivers by Expanding and Establishing Kinship Navigator Programs
• Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act summary
• Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act detailed summary
• Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act helps kinship families
• Side-by-side comparison of H.R. 6893 and the two original proposals
• Broad support for the bill from across the country
• Press release