URBAN ECONOMIC POLICY

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

JOBS, EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act
Full Parity for Substance Abuse Treatment Services
Unsafe Children's Products
Reauthorization of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Older Americans Act Reauthorization
Support of Employment
of Adults with Disabilities
Support for Bipartisan Legislation to Provide Federal Graduate Medical Education Funding to Independent Children's Teaching
Hospitals, and Protecting Our Teaching Hospitals From Medicare Cuts
Helping Our Seniors
Meet The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs
Enabling Children Adopted Through a State Protection Agency to Receive Financial Aid to Attend Higher Education, and Allowing Foster Children to
Be Declared as a Tax
Deduction

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

CRIMINAL AND
SOCIAL  JUSTICE

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING

ARTS, CULTURE AND RECREATION

MISCELLANEOUS

USCM HOME

RESOLUTIONS INDEX

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

ENABLING CHILDREN ADOPTED THROUGH A STATE PROTECTION AGENCY TO RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID TO ATTEND HIGHER EDUCATION, AND ALLOWING FOSTER CHILDREN TO BE DECLARED AS A TAX DEDUCTION

WHEREAS, there are 110,000 children nationwide waiting for adoption; and

WHEREAS, one-third of those children are age 11 to 18, many of whom we hope will attend higher education; and

WHEREAS, children adopted through a State Child Protective Agency have been abused or neglected; and

WHEREAS, federal programs grant financial aid to foster children but not to adopted children; and

WHEREAS, we do not want to discourage families which take in older youth from permanently adopting those children,

WHEREAS, 520,000 children are in foster care throughout the nation; and

WHEREAS, foster parents take in children who have been seriously abused or neglected; and

WHEREAS, state foster care reimbursements cover only a fraction of the costs of raising each child for housing, child care, education, clothing and other essentials; and

WHEREAS, 66 percent of children in foster care remain in foster care for 12 months or longer,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors suggests that foster parents be allowed to claim as a dependent--and thus be entitled to a deduction--on their federal taxes any foster child placed with them for 6 months or longer during that year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the expansion of federal financial aid grants to include not only foster children but children adopted through a State Child Protective agency.

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