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Adoption
foster/adoption and grant question:)
my DH and I are currently foster parents to a sweet little girl. We do respit care for some other foster parents time to time and one of the foster parent I have done respit for is not wanting to adopt just fosters and the little boy she has had since 4months ,20 months now is possible going to be heading towards adoption she mentioned it to us a while back and we were very interested in adopting him if that became an option we have talked to our agency as well. I want to plan ahead and have a couple questions. When adopting through the system. Do you know the cost involved? do they continue paying daycare or insurance?(probably not may be a crazy question) and do you know of any grants or website about grants. I appreciate any info. I know there are no guarantees with foster/adopt and things change all the time. If its possible I want to be ready.
TIA
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Re: foster/adoption and grant question:)
My guess is that it varies by state. Where I live, there really is only financial assistance to adopt special needs children. "Special needs" is an african american child over the age of 1, a sibling group of 3 or more children, a child with special medical or mental health needs, and I think a child over the age of 8. I could be a little off on these specifics. Anyway, a person who adopts a special needs child(ren) receives a set amount to go toward legal fees (I think $2,000) and the child(ren) continue to receive health insurance through Medicaid. I think there is also a monthly payment of a few hundred dollars. In my state, a 20 month old would not be considered special needs unless he had some pretty serious medical issues.
definitely by state - TX child must be over the age of 2 is a single child or have special needs, which doesn't equal to medical. Also, they will have medicaid until the age of 18 and he will be able to attend a state college courtesy of the State of Texas.
in our case, its similar to yours. we did respite for a 16 month old little boy for 3 months, had our home study submitted when they started taking them. we had 3 options when we were chosen - 1. foster-to-adopt placement (6 months and 1 day in our home) 2. immediate adoption right on the spot 3. adoptive placement (i think that was the last one). we took the foster-to-adopt and have him in our home for the 6 months before adoption. his worker wanted him to get the monthly subsidy because at the time he had many special needs labels, but not really that "special" because he was under the age of 2. he is now 2 and we're signing adoption paperwork on Friday and hopefully have a court date next week.
NOW - 3 months after Jaxon moved into our home, his BM had another child who is now in our home as well. even though when we adopt him he will be under 1 year of age, he qualifies for the subsidy because he is apart of a sibling group.
ditto pps that its by state (in our state "special needs" automatically gets continued assistance including medicaid and is defined very broadly - includes non-white children and any sibling groups). But, its also an area that you can negotiate. We were advised during our training that SWs can grant assistance exceptions in some cases, so no matter what, you should ask for everything and negotiate down from there (we were advised that health insurance is the easiest and if you ask, its almost always granted).
In our state attorney and adoption fees are also subsidized (can you tell they are desperate for foster/adoptive parents in my state??), but keep in mind that you would also be eligible for the adoption tax credit and any adoption assistance your employer may offer.
Generally speaking, adoptions from foster care are pretty low-cost.
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