Help us get funding restored so New York City foster kids can get adopted!

The Issue

Every Kid Deserves a Home, So Mayor de Blasio Should Make it Easier, Not Tougher, for Foster Kids to Have One 

There are over 1,300 kids in New York City foster care who are available to be adopted right now. However, Mayor De Blasio’s administration has just made it a lot harder for them to find their permanent home. 

When a child hits 8-10 years old, they are deemed “special needs.” Not because of medical issues, but because most adoptive parents only want babies or toddlers, so the chances for these children to get adopted drastically drops the older they get. Many of these kids will reach age 21 and never be adopted. These kids will spend their young lives in and out of foster homes and then become adults without the family safety net most of us take for granted--no family to call and share in the joy when something good happens to them, no one to call to help them out if they’re in trouble, no family to overeat with at Thanksgiving. 

The majority of kids that are ready to be adopted right now are older and, sadly, there are over 700 kids in New York City alone on the verge of aging out. What is being done about them?

 Well, New York City was working on the solution when it partnered with two organizations that specialize in bringing foster kids together with families ready to adopt them.   

The organizations - the Council on Adoptable Children (COAC), and You Gotta Believe – worked with kids, some of which had been moved in and out of over 25 foster homes in their young lives, to match them up with parents.

But that solution has now gone away, and it will be enormously more difficult to find these kids permanent families.

On March 31st, Mayor de Blasio’s leadership at the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) decided to end those partnerships and make it much more difficult for both foster kids and their potential adoptive parents to come together. ACS claims that adoption from foster care can just as effectively be handled through foster care agencies, but foster care agencies are not adoption agencies. Foster care agencies place kids in foster homes on a temporary basis and the majority of these kids are moved from place to place until one day they age out.

James and I were among the last parents to be trained by COAC before we suddenly found out they lost their contract with the city on March 31. We called ACS. They told us that there are many other agencies that could help us. Really? We began calling some of those foster care agencies. Each organization they referred us to told us that they were in the business of fostering, not adoption. Yes, they could help, but in a very limited way. They also expressed their dismay at this loss of COAC and You Gotta Believe.

We realized quickly that ACS abruptly ended a solution with NO PLAN to take its place.

Then we watched a harsh video from the March 17th committee hearing at the New York City Council when the ACS commissioner, Gladys Carrion, announced she was canceling the contract with COAC and You Gotta Believe. When asked about her decision to terminate the city’s partnerships to adopt older foster kids, she coldly remarked, “In my estimation, it wasn’t a great loss” and it is “not a wise stewardship of the city’s money.”  Really?  These two contracts, designed to help facilitate adoptions, totaled $1.2 million out of the  $2.9 BILLION spent each year in New York City for foster care! Once a child is adopted, not only does he/she get a loving home, the financial benefit is that the city doesn’t have to spend any more money on fostering the child. How much does the city pay each year to foster each child? Sometimes up to $140,000 a year!

Once these kids age out, they will be completely on their own.  Sadly, many of them become homeless or live their lives on public assistance.  I was never good at math (I literally got a 50 in geometry!) but it seems that expending a small amount of tax dollars now to get these kids adopted and, therefore, prevent long term social welfare costs seems like a very wise stewardship of the city’s money.

Mayor de Blasio needs to reverse ACS leadership’s harsh and wrongful estimation and give these kids and their families an opportunity to come together.

Please sign this petition, no matter where you live, asking Mayor de Blasio to tell ACS to put back the resources into finding forever homes for kids in foster care, because it’s a great loss whenever any child seeking adoption is prevented from gaining a forever family. 

avatar of the starter
Seth RudetskyPetition Starter
Media inquiries
This petition had 6,033 supporters

The Issue

Every Kid Deserves a Home, So Mayor de Blasio Should Make it Easier, Not Tougher, for Foster Kids to Have One 

There are over 1,300 kids in New York City foster care who are available to be adopted right now. However, Mayor De Blasio’s administration has just made it a lot harder for them to find their permanent home. 

When a child hits 8-10 years old, they are deemed “special needs.” Not because of medical issues, but because most adoptive parents only want babies or toddlers, so the chances for these children to get adopted drastically drops the older they get. Many of these kids will reach age 21 and never be adopted. These kids will spend their young lives in and out of foster homes and then become adults without the family safety net most of us take for granted--no family to call and share in the joy when something good happens to them, no one to call to help them out if they’re in trouble, no family to overeat with at Thanksgiving. 

The majority of kids that are ready to be adopted right now are older and, sadly, there are over 700 kids in New York City alone on the verge of aging out. What is being done about them?

 Well, New York City was working on the solution when it partnered with two organizations that specialize in bringing foster kids together with families ready to adopt them.   

The organizations - the Council on Adoptable Children (COAC), and You Gotta Believe – worked with kids, some of which had been moved in and out of over 25 foster homes in their young lives, to match them up with parents.

But that solution has now gone away, and it will be enormously more difficult to find these kids permanent families.

On March 31st, Mayor de Blasio’s leadership at the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) decided to end those partnerships and make it much more difficult for both foster kids and their potential adoptive parents to come together. ACS claims that adoption from foster care can just as effectively be handled through foster care agencies, but foster care agencies are not adoption agencies. Foster care agencies place kids in foster homes on a temporary basis and the majority of these kids are moved from place to place until one day they age out.

James and I were among the last parents to be trained by COAC before we suddenly found out they lost their contract with the city on March 31. We called ACS. They told us that there are many other agencies that could help us. Really? We began calling some of those foster care agencies. Each organization they referred us to told us that they were in the business of fostering, not adoption. Yes, they could help, but in a very limited way. They also expressed their dismay at this loss of COAC and You Gotta Believe.

We realized quickly that ACS abruptly ended a solution with NO PLAN to take its place.

Then we watched a harsh video from the March 17th committee hearing at the New York City Council when the ACS commissioner, Gladys Carrion, announced she was canceling the contract with COAC and You Gotta Believe. When asked about her decision to terminate the city’s partnerships to adopt older foster kids, she coldly remarked, “In my estimation, it wasn’t a great loss” and it is “not a wise stewardship of the city’s money.”  Really?  These two contracts, designed to help facilitate adoptions, totaled $1.2 million out of the  $2.9 BILLION spent each year in New York City for foster care! Once a child is adopted, not only does he/she get a loving home, the financial benefit is that the city doesn’t have to spend any more money on fostering the child. How much does the city pay each year to foster each child? Sometimes up to $140,000 a year!

Once these kids age out, they will be completely on their own.  Sadly, many of them become homeless or live their lives on public assistance.  I was never good at math (I literally got a 50 in geometry!) but it seems that expending a small amount of tax dollars now to get these kids adopted and, therefore, prevent long term social welfare costs seems like a very wise stewardship of the city’s money.

Mayor de Blasio needs to reverse ACS leadership’s harsh and wrongful estimation and give these kids and their families an opportunity to come together.

Please sign this petition, no matter where you live, asking Mayor de Blasio to tell ACS to put back the resources into finding forever homes for kids in foster care, because it’s a great loss whenever any child seeking adoption is prevented from gaining a forever family. 

avatar of the starter
Seth RudetskyPetition Starter
Media inquiries

The Decision Makers

Mayor Bill de Blasio
Mayor Bill de Blasio
Mayor of New York City
Responded
“From Gladys Carrión, Commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children's Services: There is nothing more important to this administration than New York City's children, especially those as vulnerable as children in the foster care system waiting for permanent homes. Increasing permanent placements is a priority for New York City, and we are invested in improving the current system to make it more efficient. In 2014, the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) extended contracts with Council on Adoptable Children (COAC) and You Gotta Believe (YGB) hoping they would be able to provide a solution to finding homes for children who are hard to place, such as older children and children with special needs. Unfortunately, the two agencies were unable to fulfill their contractual requirements, and did not significantly impact our efforts in finding homes for these children. Though they were contracted to locate a total of 130 homes in the past year, their combined recruitment efforts resulted in the placement of only 18 children into foster care and/or pre-adoptive homes. Every child matters to us, and we appreciate the work these two agencies have done for these 18 children. But this result does not justify the $1.2 million in funding that could help many more children find the families they deserve. We care too much about our children to continue working with agencies that can't help us help these kids. We want to be clear: the fact that these contracts ended will not disrupt or reduce ACS's capacity to serve these children. On the contrary, it allows us to reinvest resources in better models, and achieve better results. We have a network of 26 foster care agencies that placed 1,300 children in adoptive homes last year. We are evaluating the entire adoption process, and have assembled a recruitment advisory committee consisting of adoption provider agencies, community advocates, and young people who are in foster care to make recommendations about how we as a system can do this work better. The solution will not likely be found in contracts with agencies recruiting small numbers of families. This is a large, system-level challenge, and we are working aggressively to make substantive changes that will achieve more meaningful results than either COAC or YGB were able to deliver. We invite all New Yorkers interested in providing permanent homes for children in the foster care system to contact ACS's Parent Support and Recruitment information by calling 311 or by emailing, which directs prospective foster and adoptive parents to an agency in their community to learn more about adopting through the public child welfare system. We are looking forward to hearing from everyone.”

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Petition created on April 2, 2015