Published: November 30, 2008 08:51 pm            

Children’s Home Society drops fees for in-state adoptions

PRINCETON — In hopes of removing another barrier to the quest of finding new homes for children awaiting adoption, the West Virginia Children’s Home Society recently announced that it has eliminated adoption fees for in-state adoptions.

“There are well over 1,000 kids in West Virginia who need an adoptive home,” Joanne Boileau, regional director of the Children’s Home Society said. “The mission of the Children’s Home Society is to help these kids find lifetime families. We feel that dropping these fees will remove a barrier that might have been holding some families back from becoming adoptive parents.”

Boileau said that the adoption fees of 8 percent were based on income. “If a person had a good income, it could be expensive,” she said. “Adopted children receive a daily care stipend that stays with them until they turn 18 years old. “It’s not a great deal of money, but it does cost to raise a child and the stipend helps.”

According to Boileau, CHS has traditionally struggled with finding a good way to access the adoption fees. “We believe that this decision to no longer charge fees associated with the adoption of a West Virginia child is in keeping with our mission and will enable us to identify a greater number of adoptive families for waiting West Virginia children.”

Boileau said there are currently 66 children profiled on the Adoption Resource Network (http://www.wvdhhr.org/oss/adoption/arn/kidmenu.cfm), but “in reality, more than 1,000 children in West Virginia need an adoptive or permanent, lifetime family,” she said. “Clearly, most of these children waiting for a home of their own and a family to belong to are not infants, but are older children, part of a large sibling group or children with special health, education or medical needs,” Boileau said.

“Often, when people think about adopting a child, they think they can adopt an infant straight out of the hospital, but that’s rarely what happens,” Boileau said. “Last year, agency-wide, we had three or four infant adoptions out of the 38 adoptions we had through the year. Adoptions have been way down.

“Statistically speaking, there are more than enough families out there who could become an adoptive family to a child without a home of their own,” Boileau said. “The challenge is how do we reach those families who have space, the open mind and open heart to expand their family to include a child in need of a family.”

Boileau said that anyone who would like to learn more about the adoption process can call Ruth Bailey at the Princeton office of CHS at 431-2424, or toll-free at (800) 203-6231. CHS dropped the adoption fees effective Nov. 1.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

        

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