Most people don't know about Public Law 110-84: The Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act. This act became law as an amendment to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.
With all the talk about affordability of higher education - or lack of affordability to be more precise, I want people to know about this opportunity to help families with adopted children. It might be your family, or the family of a friend. The more people who know about this, the better.
Providing adoptive homes for children is tough enough, providing homes for teens is nearly impossible. One of several reasons cited for difficulty placing teens is that parents realize that the cost of providing a necessary college education for their children will be a challenge to the family budget. It's hard enough for families to save, even when they have 18 years lead time. Consider that families adopting a 13 year old teen only have 5 years to plan.
In order to eliminate this hurdle or impediment facing families who wanted to welcome teens needing families into their homes, the Fostering Adoption Act was introduced, debated and passed. It may not affect millions of families, but if it helps even tens or hundreds of students, it will be well worth the effort.
The nugget of gold in this bill provides opportunities for college aged students, who were adopted as teens, to apply for financial aid as independent students. This means that their families won't be expected to contribute to their college education which makes the student eligible for significant amounts of need based financial aid.
With this legislation, everyone wins:
- students find homes and educational opportunities
- families share their homes and hearts
- colleges provide opportunities for achievement oriented students
- society benefits from a better educated populace
Recently I had a chance to share this information with a colleague. Read the full article for a first hand example of the impact of this law.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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