Workplace Adoption Benefits

My school district doesn't have any benefits for adoptive parents. No financial adoption assistance and no paid leave. I am in the midst of constructing a letter to them to see if I can be instrumental in facilitating change.

Currently, biological parents are provided significant benefits including full coverage of medical expenses associated with the birth. In my research, hospital fees from a normal birth average about $10,000. Multiples or complications add to the expense, of course. Adoptions are rarely $10,000. I'd guess that $20,000 was more the average, yet parents who choose to form their families through adoption get no financial assistance at all.

In addition, after the delivery, biological mothers get six weeks paid leave for a vaginal birth and eight for a cesarean. Adoptive parents get no paid leave. None. Biological mothers get paid leave because it's deemed a "medical condition" and a necessary time needed to heal. There is no consideration about what healing adoptive parents or children might need.

Adoptive parents can suffer from post adoptive depression--much like postpartum depression-- causing emotional suffering and distress. And both the parent and the child need time to attach. Not sufficiently attaching can cause future problems for the child in socializing and how the child reacts to a situation. I haven't done a whole lot of research on the topic, but I am pretty confident that not attaching properly would fall under the umbrella of a psychological condition--one that could potentially be lessened or avoided altogether if adoptive parents were given time to work on the bonding process. I have no idea how long that would take. I suppose it's different for every child and varies greatly based on age and where they spent their first months or years of life. Clearly, adoptive parents should be granted paid leave for this critical process. And if you throw in the fact that they will have already paid $20,000+ out of pocket for an international adoption, taking this necessary leave, and not being paid for any of it, is an additional financial hit--one we willingly take for the health of our child and family--but one that can present a challenge for many.

I am doing research on the topic and hope to mail a letter off to the human resources department this week. I am going to start with a simple one page letter highlighting just the key points of why it is needed and how it benefits my employer. If I don't hear anything back I plan to write a more detailed letter and send it out to HR and others above the HR department. I hope they will consider making changes to our benefits plan to include adoptive parents and it'd be great if I could benefit from the changes. But even if I can't this year or they choose to not make any changes, I can at least say I put in the effort for myself and all the other PAPs out there.