Incentives needed for older teen adoption

As a graduating senior in the social work program at UNCG, I have seen too many loving children in foster care who need a permanent home. In North Carolina, 60 percent of the children currently in foster care are older than 5 years old. If you are over five years old, chances are you may be waiting a bit longer for a permanent family. Incentives for adopting older adolescents need to be implemented in the foster care system.

People tend to adopt younger, cuter children versus older adolescents. This brings to mind how people adopt animals. Most dog pounds are full of older animals because people seem to only want to adopt younger cute ones just as those adolescents who get older tend to stay within the foster care system longer. It seems in order to increase the adoption rates of adolescents, the state needs to offer incentives to prospective adoptive families. Perhaps if parents who adopt receive additional tax breaks or funds to put towards a college fund for the child, people may be more willing to adopt older adolescents thus ensuring permanent homes for older foster care children and decreasing the burden of the foster care system. This is just one concern that should be addressed by the next presidential administration.