Testimony Regarding Eligibility of Non-Kin for Subsidized Guardianship and Extension of Guardianship Subsidy to Age 21 Council of the District of Columbia Human Services Committee December 12, 2008

I would like to thank you, Councilman Wells, and Committee Members, for allowing me to address the Committee. I have spent much of the last decade studying the effectiveness of policies that encourage permanency for children in foster care. I study policy from my perspective as an economist. However, I bring first-hand experience to the work: my family has adopted children who could not be reunified with their birth parents.