Celebrating National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, a time to raise awareness and honor the families who open their homes and hearts to children in need of love and security.

In recent years, Senate Republicans have championed many new laws to support adoptive families and children in foster care, which include:

• Doubling Indiana's adoption tax credit and creating a new $3,000 income tax exemption for adopted children;
• Updating our laws to expand the number of special-needs children whose adoptive parents can receive adoption subsidies to help offset the cost of caring for them;
• Uncontested adoptions can now be filed in any county in Indiana, so that counties with court backlogs don't slow down these adoption petitions; and
• Shortening the window for someone to contest or revoke their consent to an adoption, removing a hurdle that can unnecessarily slow the process and making Indiana law more in line with other states; and
• Allowing the Department of Child Services' adoption website to include the first name and picture of hard-to-place Children in Need of Services.

In 2024, more than 1,500 children were adopted in Indiana, and over 1,200 have been adopted this year. Currently, more than 190 Hoosier children in Department of Child Services care are waiting for placement in an adoptive home, and the average age of a child waiting for placement is 12 years old.

Hoosiers who are interested in raising awareness and helping those in need during National Adoption Month can do so through the following:

• Attend an adoption event around your community.
• Reach out to a local adoption or foster care organization for volunteer opportunities.
• Donate to an adoption or foster care agency.

Many children, through no fault of their own, enter the foster care system because the adults in their lives failed to protect or properly care for them. That is why Senate Republicans are committed to finding more ways to improve Indiana's adoption system and encourage more Hoosiers to get involved so even more children can find their forever homes.

For more information about adopting and to view all of Indiana’s waiting children, click here.