Many families would love to adopt a child, but they are unable to because they cannot afford it.
A bill to offset the high costs of the private and public adoption process is being introduced in the legislature.
Republican Assemblyman Ken Gray is introducing AB205 to help those who are looking to add another member to their family.
“AB205 will grant up to $25,000 dollars per child up to a maximum of $50,000 to offset the cost of adoptions. The background investigations, the home visits, and of those costs that arise,” said Assemblyman Ken Gray.
Gray tells us that social workers and attorney’s fees are the main drivers behind the average cost of an adoption being more than $40,000 in Nevada.
Gray say the issue is close to his heart because his brother and sister-in-law could not have children, and they faced some major financial hurdles during their adoption process.
“So, they decided to adopt this baby obviously with the mother's consent, and did not find out until they were well down the road in the process that it was going to cost as much as it did. So, thank God they had equity in their home and they were able to borrow against that equity, so they could fund this adoption. But, it was at the time between $25 and $30-thousand dollars with everything rolled up into it, and I just couldn't imagine what my life and my family’s lives would be like if we did not have this little one in our life,” said Gray.
The assemblyman says he is tagging the bill as 'Olivia's law' in honor of his 6-year-old niece.
