Understanding Adoption Subsidies: An Analysis of AFCARS Data

Using data from the federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), this report explores patterns of adoption subsidy receipt, how subsidies are related to adoption outcomes such as the rate of adoptions among eligible children and how quickly eligible children are adopted. Questions of interest include how extensively subsidies are used and how they are funded; the relationships between children's characteristics, foster care experiences, and subsidy receipt and amount; and variations among states in subsidy practice. Three types of analyses are presented: (1) descriptive analyses of both national trends and variation among states; (2) correlations among state-level measures, examining relationships among state subsidy practices and adoption outcomes; and (3) multivariate analyses addressing the relationship of the child, family, and state characteristics to subsidy receipt and subsidy amount.