First Stop on the Negotiation Crazy Train
Where is this Train Going? Adventures in Communication
The County Agency’s “Defined Benefit” Approval Model
Ohio county agencies and adoptive parents approach Title IV-E Adoption Assistance from two different perspectives, which doesn’t do much for effective negotiation. Agencies are well-intentioned but tend to administer adoption assistance as a “defined benefit” program. From this viewpoint, adoption assistance is essentially limited to help fund services directly related to the child’s special needs.
Practical implications:
Adoption assistance may help pay for services not already covered by Medicaid.
Major adjustments by the parents to incorporate the child into a permanent family, along with providing the child’s daily needs are de-emphasized or rejected outright. Meeting the child’s ordinary needs are the normal responsibility of all families.
The Concerns of Adoptive Parents
In contrast, when parents contact me about negotiating Title IV-E Adoption Assistance, their concerns invariably coincide with the purpose of the federal program. Parents on the other end of the phone or e-mail, like the federal program itself, are preoccupied with the larger challenge of integrating their child into a permanent family. Without prompting from me, parents bring up their children’s most pressing needs, along with their family circumstances, which happen to be the essential criteria for negotiating adoption assistance, set forth in federal and state law.
I have long been impressed by the remarkable intuition adoptive parents bring to the negotiation of adoption assistance. I also realized that unless that intuition is confirmed, confusion easily crowds out confidence. Without assurances that they are not crazy, parents’ instincts easily dissolve into confusion. Confusion is the inevitable outcome, when county agencies respond to their proposals for adoption assistance with a “defined benefit” mindset.
Adventures in Communication: Tell Your Story
County agencies frequently begin the negotiation process by sending the adoptive parents a kind of worksheet/questionnaire. For the most part, the worksheet asks the parents about the child’s need for services related to their child’s developmental, psychological, medical or learning problems.
What is Missing from Your Story?
Does the worksheet encourage you to discuss adjustments in your circumstances to incorporate your child into a permanent family, such as leaving a job or obtaining specialized child care? If not, attach an addendum to the worksheet, identifying those major adjustments. Explain how adoption assistance, added to your resources, will enable you to take on the two essential challenges of a healthy adoptive family
Providing for their child’s ordinary daily needs, and also
Having the wherewithal to find effective ways of treating the developmental, medical, mental health or learning problems that interfere with their child’s healthy growth and development.
Remember: The theme of your story is the goal of maintaining an enduring family.
You might want to cite sections of the federal Child Welfare Policy Manual that support this position.
Section 8.2D.4, Question 1 of the federal Child Welfare Policy Manual, stipulates, “the amount of the adoption assistance payment is
determined through the discussion and negotiation process between the adoptive parents and a representative of the title IV-E agency based upon the needs of the child and the circumstances of the family. The payment that is agreed upon should combine with the parents' resources to cover the ordinary and special needs of the child projected over an extended period of time and should cover anticipated needs, e.g., child care. Anticipation and discussion of these needs are part of the negotiation of the amount of the adoption assistance payment.
Question 3 in the same section of the federal manual emphasizes the inclusion of the adoptive parent’s (family’s) circumstances as part of the negotiation of an agreement for a monthly adoption assistance payment. Question 3 states, “during the negotiation of an adoption assistance agreement,
it is important to keep in mind that the circumstances of the adopting parents and the needs of the child must be considered together. The overall ability of a singular family to incorporate an individual child into the household is the objective. Families with the same incomes or in similar circumstances will not necessarily agree on identical types or amounts of assistance. The uniqueness of each child/family situation may result in different amounts of payment.
You can add that state OAC rule 5101:2-49-05 says essentially the same thing, just not as clearly.
Next Stop on the Negotiation Crazy Train: The Agency’s Initial Response