New York looks to close loophole that lets adults collect checks after broken adoptions

New York is close to fixing a quirk in state law that has allowed adoptive parents to collect millions of dollars for children no longer in their care — a scenario that Essence Flowers feels shut her out of an opportunity to start life on her own.

Flowers, who was adopted out of foster care, remembered getting into blow-out fights with her adoptive family. She begged to go back into the system and eventually went out on her own, an account confirmed by an advocate who works with her.

But as she struggled to find housing, Flowers said her adoptive mom was still being subsidized for her care — which is allowed under current law. Monthly checks start at about $1,000 per month in New York City, and can exceed $3,000 for those with disabilities or who are otherwise found “hard to place,” according to the latest rates.

“The whole check is getting in her hand,” Flowers, then 19, told the Daily News last year shortly after she left. “I want the money to take care of myself.”

After years of pressure from advocates, state lawmakers passed a bill in the final days of the legislative session that authorizes child welfare agencies to transfer payments after a “broken” adoption because parents are no longer willing or able to provide for children. The monthly checks are supposed to go toward kids adopted out of foster care until age 21.

Many children find stable homes through adoption and the subsidies that make it possible are an important part of the system. But in some cases while adults cash in, young people wind up living with other families blocked from the subsidies, back in foster care or homeless, according to former adopted youth and their advocates.

Flowers had been living in a shelter, and after discovering she was pregnant, moved to a new site for families. Her latest stay was expected to be brief: Flowers signed a lease on a Bronx apartment, which she said would’ve happened sooner if she had more support.

“I would have went to college, I would have gotten an apartment, I would’ve found me a job. I essentially would have been done already — I would have been financially stable,” said Flowers. “It’s like they care more about the adult than they care about the child.”

When allocated incorrectly, the cost of the adoption subsidy program can rack up. According to a 2021 comptroller audit, the city sent at least $3.5 million to individuals not entitled to the payments.

“It is a huge problem for families and children when an adoption falls apart, and somebody else steps in and the subsidy can’t follow them,” said Betsy Kramer, director of policy and special litigation at Lawyers for Children. “So they’re not getting the support the state has already found the child is entitled to.”

Forty-five children returned to the city’s foster care system last fiscal year, according to the Administration for Children’s Services. Others may have moved in with new families or, like Flowers, been forced to go out on their own, relying on public assistance the shelter system while their former caregivers collect the checks.

“We are double-paying for the services for these kids,” said Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), the bill’s sponsor and chair of the children and families committee. “So it’s just really not smart use of taxpayer money.”

Under current law, no legal mechanism exists to terminate or transfer the subsidy after broken adoptions, unless the adoptive parent dies, according to the New York City Bar Association. In rare occasions, ACS said it stopped government checks to 23 adoptive parents last fiscal year due to lack of parental support, including a death in the family.

The agency is currently subsidizing the adoptive parents of about 10,000 children, data show.

The bill, first introduced in 2017, creates parameters to end the payments and send them instead to a new guardian or, in limited cases, the young person 18 or older. It defines what support looks like — from food and clothing to education, medical and shelter needs — and require adoptive parents to certify they are fulfilling their obligations.

It also safeguards against those who could abuse the changes, Hevesi said, including government oversight of young people over 18 who may have to go through a representative “payee” certified by the city. And parents who surrender the rights to their children cannot return to collect the subsidies, he said.

In the years since it was first introduced, the legislation has repeatedly stalled and been tweaked, as child welfare officials worried changes would jeopardize the federal share of the subsidies’ cost. This session, ACS declined to take a position on the bill, citing the benefits and risks associated with it, including the risk of family dissolution or exploitation by another adult. The state Office for Children and Family Services said it does not comment on pending legislation.

Kramer of Lawyers for Children said the legislation was narrowly drafted to follow federal law and includes a backstop that it will not become effective unless approved by the federal government. It passed the Assembly unanimously and the Senate, 53-4, and requires the governor’s signature to become law.

“Governor Hochul will review the legislation,” her press secretary Avi Small said in a statement.