Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson was honored as Legislator of the Year by Voice for Adoption, a national special needs adoption advocacy organization.
“This award is personal for me. I am proud to be an adoptive parent, and my two grown children are proud of the fact that they are adopted,” Senator Nelson said. “The joy of creating a family is so special that I believe we should do everything we can to encourage adoptive families. I am both honored and humbled by my role in passing legislation that helps parents choose to create adoptive families.”
The inscription on the award presented to Nelson reads: “In recognition of your efforts to promote adoption from foster care and your leadership on behalf of waiting children and adoptive families, specifically your leadership to extend and expand the federal Adoption Tax Credit through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.”
The Federal Adoption Tax Credit has existed in different forms since 1997, but was set to expire last year. Nelson successfully increased the value of the adoption tax credit and made it refundable for the first time, so it will be able to help more middle- and working-class families who choose to adopt. By making the credit refundable, families may claim it even if the amount exceeds their federal tax liability.
“With grandparents on fixed incomes choosing to adopt, and loving families of limited means choosing to adopt children out of foster care, we know that the refundable tax credit makes a difference,” Nelson said. “We all know there are potentially wonderful parents out there who struggle to meet ends meet. So, if a little bit of extra assistance makes it easier for any of them to choose to adopt, then it was certainly the right thing to do. Every child deserves a loving family.”
Roughly 100,000 families have been able to benefit from the federal adoption tax credit this year. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 75 percent of all Nebraska families who adopted in 2010 received the credit.
The credit may be claimed for each adopted child and offers incentives to adopt children who have special needs or come from foster care.
Nationally, there are more than 400,000 children in foster care, but only 53,000 were adopted into permanent homes last year. More than 5,000 children are in foster care in Nebraska.
Nelson added that the tax credit creates significant cost savings for federal, state and local governments, as children who are adopted are much more likely to graduate from high school and have productive lives than children who “age out” of the foster care system without families.
According to the Pew Charitable Trust, of children who age out of foster care without being adopted:
•Only one quarter earn a high school diploma or GED
•Fewer than 2 percent graduate from college
•More than half experience homelessness or unstable housing
•Nearly 30 percent are incarcerated at some point in their lives
“Virtue can be its own benefit, but there are also real cost benefits to finding stable homes for children who need them,” Nelson said. “For instance, keeping a 14-year old from dropping out of high school will end up saving taxpayers about $500,000 over that child’s lifetime; keeping him from becoming a career criminal will save as much as $5 million.”
The awards presentation was made in conjunction with the launch of Voice for Adoption’s Adoptive Family Portrait Project, which displays the photos and stories of adoptive families.
“It is my hope that through this year’s project we raise visibility to some of the ongoing challenges adoptive parents face when raising children who have experienced abuse or neglect or instability in foster care, and also reflect on the growth of these children and the difference that having a consistent and loving family can make in the life of a child,” Voice for Adoption Executive Director Nicole Dobbins said.
As part of the Adoptive Family Portrait Project, Nelson is honoring the Schindler family, of Norfolk, Nebraska.
Lincoln and Heather Schindler have nine children, including four they have adopted. They first adopted Scotty, a friend of their teenage son, and then adopted three of Scotty’s biological siblings when they were placed in foster care. All of the Schindlers’ adopted children have special medical needs.
“We would have to do whatever it took to give them a home with their brother,” Heather Schindler said. “Lincoln and I have become better parents and better people for having these kids in our lives.”
The Schindlers are grateful they were able to utilize the Federal Adoption Tax Credit to help cover some of the expenses of raising such large family; the Schindlers spent $13,000 on groceries last year alone.
Asked what adoption has meant to him, 16-year-old Dwight replied, “Before I came into fostering, I never imagined that I would ever get adopted, let alone want to be adopted. After coming into the Schindler home, I can recall waking up – I think on the 2nd week – and deciding I wanted to stay. To me, adoption didn’t only happen because of my mother’s bad choices, but also for the love Heather and Lincoln gave to me and the love that grew from me to them.”
Mardell, 14, said, “Adoption is when your foster parents want to adopt you, to keep you in their family as their own child. I can remember the day we went to the courthouse and got adopted. That day was probably the best day of my young life!”
She also had a heartfelt message to share with the children waiting to be adopted: “Hang in there. I know it is taking longer than you expected, but when that day comes, you are going to be the happiest EVER!”
In addition to Voice for Adoption’s Legislator of the Year Award, the North American Council on Adoptable Children honored Nelson with its Child Advocate of the Year Award this past August.
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