Review: What Are Some Things We Have Learned Traveling the Adoption Assistance Negotiationaland Crazy Train
Some Practical Suggestions
Let us review some things we have learned while traveling on the Adoption Assistance Negotiationland Crazy Train. Please click on underlined links for more detailed information.
Remember that adoption assistance is designed as a monthly supplement that, when combined with your own resources, will enable you to make the necessary adjustments to effectively maintain a permanent family for your special needs adopted child. As you know, providing a permanent family means addressing both your child’s ordinary and special needs. During the negotiation of adoption assistance, keep framing your concerns on behalf of the challenge of providing a healthy, permanent family. The county agency may have a more limited, albeit, incorrect view.
Here are some additional
There are no expenses, services or family adjustments that are automatically ineligible for consideration during an initial negotiation or re-negotiation of the child’s adoption assistance agreement. Anything that affects the parents’ capacity to address the specific child’s needs is germane.
Negotiation presupposes an extensive dialogue between the agency and the parents. Agencies often ask parents to complete checklists which may focuses exclusively on the child’s special needs and ignore adjustments to family circumstances. If a checklist does not address concerns about adjustments or expenses pertaining to the incorporation of the child into a permanent family, add an “Addendum,” describing those concerns and how they affect the corresponding need for adoption assistance.
Submitting information to an agency and waiting for a decision is not the negotiation anticipated in federal and state law. Providing information to a county agency is, at best, a first step toward negotiation of adoption assistance. I suggest that parents keep pushing for an extended dialogue about the reasons for adoption and document their efforts.
Parents may choose when to propose a monthly adoption assistance payment during negotiations. Don’t be surprised if an agency offers an adoption assistance payment that is half the child’s foster care payment.
Parents should carefully consider the adoption assistance payment they need and, if the agency’s offer is insufficient, inform the agency why it is insufficient and express a willingness to continue negotiations. If pressed to submit an amount, I suggest that parents propose an adoption assistance payment that is equal, or close to, the child’s foster care rate, a payment significantly higher than they would be willing to accept.
Ohio County Agencies often claim that foster care payments should be higher than adoption assistance because of changes in the parents’ legal responsibility after the adoption is finalized. This claim is not supported in federal or state law.
If the agency offers an adoption assistance payment significantly below the child’s foster care payment rate, the parents might ask the agency to explain its position in light of specific federal and state policy statements pertaining to the negotiation of adoption assistance (The federal Child Welfare Policy Manual and the OAC).
Agencies commonly claim that negotiations must start at $0. There is no such requirement. This claim is a negotiation tactic, giving the appearance of flexibility when the agency raises the proposed adoption assistance payments in small increments. The agency goal in such cases is to reach an agreement for an adoption assistance payment as close to $250 as possible. County agencies have no funding obligations for monthly adoption assistance payments of $250 or less.
If the agency mentions the possibility of finding another adoptive family if an agreement for adoption assistance cannot be reached, contact the Ohio Youth and Family Ombudsmen Office with a complaint.
When negotiations are deadlocked in spite of your good faith efforts to negotiate, request mediation.