My client has a 15 yr old child (formerly a foster child who my client adopted in 2018).

In 2021, apparently the kid had severe mental problems and was first sent to a special boarding school (for troubled kids) and then later to a mental facility where he lived the rest of the year. His expenses were paid for by my client's health insurance policy and whatever wasn't paid through his health insurance was covered by Medicaid. My client paid for some other misc expenses here and there.

In July, my client legal turned the kid back over to the state and he was no longer legally his son.

Can he claim him as a dependent for 2021? The question is important to my client because if he can't then he also relinquishes the carry over adoption tax credit ($7,000) that he was otherwise eligible to claim.