Back in September 2008 I posted about a judge's decision to strike down Florida's adoption ban in the case of Wayne LaRue Smith, a Key West man who was allowed to adopt the foster son he had been caring for.
Good news in that case. Child welfare administrators have finally agreed to provide subsidy benefits to the child:
"On Tuesday, DCF lawyers did an about-face, agreeing in writing to provide the boy with subsidized college tuition, health insurance under the state's Medicaid program, and other benefits typically provided to other children who are adopted from state care.
'It means, finally, after 10 years, he gets what every other child in the same circumstance gets just by asking,' Smith said of his now-teenage son, who has not been identified by The Miami Herald to protect his privacy.
'In a symbolic sense, for whatever reason, the department has decided to take the better path, one they should have taken in the first instance,' Smith added. 'I will probably wonder forever why it is that we had to go through years and years of litigation, and hundreds of thousands in expenses, just to get what other children get automatically.'"
The Florida ban on adoption still exists, though a judge recently dealt another blow to it by allowing a lesbian couple to adopt an infant relative.
