ODJFS Estimates 28 Mediated Adoption Assistance Agreement in 2022
Mediation in worth exploring when negotiations are hopelessly deadlocked
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) estimates that 26 Title IV-E Adoption Assistance Agreements were reached through mediation in 2022. An ODJFS mediator helped the agency and parents to reach an adoption assistance agreement without formal mediation in 2 additional cases. See “Mediation is a Better Option Than a Hearing,” Sept 7, 2022.
In each of the 28 cases, it is reasonable to assume the parties reached a compromise calling for a monthly adoption assistance payment that was higher that amount proposed by the agency and lower than the child’s foster care maintenance payment. The details of the final mediation agreement are confidential, so we don’t know how far above the agency’s offering, or how far below the child’s foster care payment rate, the adoption assistance payment turned out to be. Based on my limited participation in adoption assistance mediations, my guess is that mediated agreements usually land somewhere in the middle.
State administrative hearings are not an effective remedy for setting disputes involving the negotiation of adoption assistance. Mediation presents a more promising alternative to parents than hearings, particularly when they regard the agency’s proposal for adoption assistance to be insufficient, but feel they can provide a healthy family for their child with an adoption assistance payment that is less than their child’s foster care support.
Practical Suggestion: Since mediation is designed to encourage compromise, decide on the minimum adoption assistance payment you believe is sufficient, when combined with your resources, to sustain your child in a permanent family. Keep that amount to yourself. Start the mediation with a proposal that is at or near your child’s foster care payment rate or one that is far enough above your bottom line to enable you to negotiate.
See “Review: What Are Some Things We Have Learned Traveling the Adoption Assistance Negotiationaland Crazy Train,” December 15, 2022.