Minimum Payments in Ohio's IV-E Kinship Guardian Program (KGAP) May Serve as a Model for Negotiating Adoption Assistance

It is Time to Address the Huge Disparity Between Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Payments

Ohio’s Title IV-E Kinship Guardian Assistance Program (KGAP), which began on January 1, 2023, requires that negotiated Kinship Guardian monthly payments must be at least 80% of the child’s foster care payment rate. Setting the minimum Adoption Assistance payment at 75 or 80% of the child’s monthly foster care payment would support more productive negotiations and significantly reduce the huge reduction in support that so often follows when a foster child is adopted. A minimum Adoption Assistance payment set at 80% of a child’s $2,000 monthly foster care payment, would start negotiations at $1,600.

The negotiation of Adoption Assistance Agreements is inherently difficult and has been a state by state struggle since the program’s creation in 1980. In Ohio, as we have seen, adoption assistance payments historically have averaged around 50% of foster care payments or less. (See “Why Do Adoption Assistance Payments in Ohio Average Less Than 50% of Foster Care Payments?”) This chronic disparity has existed in a state where it has been common for 70% of the children adopted from the foster care system to adopted by their foster parents.

Reforms such as increasing state financial participation in initial Adoption Assistance Agreements starting in 2023 and access to a quality Mediation process, should improve the negotiation process and lead to adoption assistance payments that better reflect the child’s needs and family circumstances. But, there is still no established remedy available to parents, when a county agency refuses to negotiate in good faith, ignores federal and state requirements or insists on an Adoption Assistance Payment of $600 a month for a child receiving $1,700 in a therapeutic foster home.

The largest chasms between an agency’s “final offer” of adoption assistance and the child’s foster care payment rate, involve children with the highest levels of care. Setting a minimum Adoption Assistance payment at a reasonable percentage of the child’s foster care payment would ensure that negotiation of Adoption Assistance Agreements would begin at a more appropriate level of support. Negotiation and mediation also are more likely to fail when parents and agencies confront one another across gaps of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Money, as always, is the issue. The non-federal portion of the KGAP program, unlike Adoption Assistance, is provided entirely by the state. In order to qualify for KGAP,

• The child had to be eligible for IV-E Foster Care Maintenance for at least 6 consecutive months while living in the home of the kinship caregiver.

• Accordingly, the kinship caregiver and future guardian must be a certified foster parent.

Requirements such as those are likely to produce rather modest participation rates in KGAP, compared with Adoption Assistance.

Ohio’s county agencies would not be happy with a state regulation requiring Adoption Assistance negotiations to begin at 70 or 80% of the child’s foster care payment rate. They are financially responsible for the non-federal share of each dollar of Adoption Assistance over $350 a month, in the case of adoptions finalized after January 1, 2023.

Still, the concept is worth exploring, given that there is no established statewide remedy for the enormous gap between foster care payments and adoption assistance. This longstanding disparity continues because county agencies are not held accountable for neglecting to negotiate Adoption Assistance in good faith, in conformity with federal and state regulations.

Establishing minimum Adoption Assistance payments as a percentage of the child’s foster care payment rate, should encourage more effective dialogue about the needs of the child and circumstances of the family. The agency negotiator would feel less pressure from administrators to resist the parents’ arguments for more realistic adoption assistance payments. Parents would be less inclined to lose trust in the agency if negotiations considered proposals for Adoption Assistance ranging from $500 to $800 a month, instead of $500 to $1,400 a month.

Reform of Adoption Assistance in Ohio might necessitate an examination of the way the non-federal share of IV-E foster care and Adoption Assistance are funded in Ohio. But consideration of a minimum Adoption Assistance payment similar to that incorporated in the KGAP program would, at the very least, mark a step forward in addressing a problem that has plagued Adoption Assistance for decades.