Some News About Ohio Adoption Grants
Funding Increased
A Delay in the Availability of Funding
The Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY) informed me that there were delays in the availability of funding appropriated for the Ohio Adoption Grants for the current State Fiscal Year (SFY 2025, July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025). I know from emails that adoptive parents who applied before last July were concerned that they had not gotten a definitive answer about their grant application. I assume that by now, parents are receiving responses from DCY.
Considering the Backlog, Is the Grant Money Likely to Run Out?
House Bill (HB) 27 passed by the Ohio General Assembly appropriated 34 million dollars for both SFY 2025 and 2026. That is more than the double the initial funding of 15 million dollars. While one can never be sure that money will be available at the end of a budgetary year, there is reason for optimism. A DCY official recently told me that parents finalizing adoptions this year should apply for a grant. The Ohio Adoption Grant program seems to be quite popular with the General Assembly. Funding for the program was apparently increased because the initial appropriation was exhausted before the end of the fiscal year and the legislature wanted to extend support to the adoptive families that were too late.
See, “Ohio Senate Extends Adoption Grant Funding, March 2, 2024” and “Ohio’s Adoption Grant Program Became Effective on April 7,” April, 13, 2023.
You can request an increase in adoption assistance at anytime. But you can't get the increase retroactively to 2022. I Assume you have adoption assistance now, but you feel it is insufficient. Is that right? If you didn't get any assistance, there is a way to go back to 2022, but it is a different path.
Funding should be available now