Kentucky

LOS ANGELES ? Today, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law released a cost estimate of Kentucky Senate Bill 68, ?The Child Welfare Adoption Act,? which seeks to prohibit unmarried couples from fostering or adoption children. 

The report estimates that SB 68 would cost the State over $5.3 million in the first year.  ?The bulk of the costs are associated with placing children in congregate care facilities, which are more costly than in-home foster care,? noted study co-author Naomi Goldberg, the Peter J. Cooper Public Policy Fellow at The Williams Institute.  Additional costs cited in the report include the recruitment of new foster and adoptive parents.

Prohibiting unmarried couples from fostering or adopting would reduce the number of foster and adoptive families available to care for the 7,027 children currently in foster care. The report suggests that 630 foster children will be removed from their current homes and placements during the first year that the ban is in effect. In addition, 85 children in foster care will either not be adopted or remain in foster care longer because the ban will prohibit their adoption by unmarried couples.

?Given the current shortage of qualified foster and adoptive parents, prohibiting unmarried couples from acting as foster or adoptive parents would be costly to the state and harmful to the children in foster care,? Goldberg noted.

The full report may be found at:

http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/pdf/Kentucky_SB68CostEstimate.pdf