The Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act, introduced by Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) as an amendment to the Higher Education Access Act, has now passed both houses of Congress and awaits President Bush's signature. The act, intended to encourage the adoption of older children by not forcing a teenager to choose between a loving family and financial aid for college, corrects current law, which allows youth who "age out" of the foster care system to qualify for virtually all college loans and grants while essentially penalizing those who are adopted before they age out.
The Coleman-Landrieu amendment to the Higher Education Access Act expands the definition of "independent student" as defined in current law to include youth in foster care who are adopted after their thirteenth birthday. This allows a student's financial aid eligibility to be determined solely by that student's ability to pay, regardless of his or her adoptive family's income level, as many families who adopt teenagers and pre-teens may have done so without being able to shoulder the entire burden of college tuition.
"All children deserve a loving, permanent family of their own, and teenagers adopted out of foster care should not lose out on financial aid opportunities for college simply because they were adopted. No child should have to choose between their education and having a loving family," says Pamela Davidson, NCFA's Vice President of Government Relations and director of the Adoption Leader Engagement Project.
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