Some PASSS Data Plus an Adoption Assistance Question
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I just received some summary PASSS data from OhioKAN. I haven’t been closely involved with PASSS in recent years, but the figures suggest high rates of participation and approval. Please remember that PASSS, as a post adoptive support program, supplements IV-E Adoption Assistance. It is not designed to replace it. In fact, adoptive parents may chose to request an increase in adoption assistance and apply for PASSS funds should the need arise.
PASSS Figures From July 2022 Through April 2023
Over this 10 month period,
OhioKAN has received 887 applications.
The Office of Families and Children have approved 688 applications.
29 applications have been denied.
The Office of Families and Children has approved $4,886,459.78 in PASSS funds.
The Office of Families and Children paid 1,750,417.83 of the approved PASSS funds. Assistance Rules Should be amended to require Mediation before a hearing.
Adoption Assistance Question
Question: Parents with 3 children at home have been approved to adopt a sibling group of three special needs children who are eligible for Title IV-E Adoption Assistance. The parents tell the agency, they will need to purchase a larger vehicle in order to transport all of the children. The agency responds that adoption assistance may not be used to pay for cars. Is the agency correct?
Response: No. The parents are not requesting adoption assistance to buy a car. Rather, they are saying that they will need a larger vehicle. Adoption assistance as a supplemental source of support for the adoptive family. When combined with the family’s resources, adoption assistance can enable the parents to purchase a larger vehicle without neglecting their children’s special and ordinary needs.
The same logic applies to situations in which parents must enlarge or redesign their home in order to adopt a sibling group. They are not proposing that adoption assistance pay for remodeling their home. Rather, they are saying, in order to provide a healthy home for additional adoptive children, they must change the living spaces in their house. Supplemental funding through adoption assistance, when combined with the family’s resources can enable the parents to make the necessary changes and still address the children’s special needs, while providing for their ordinary needs as members of a stable, nurturing family.
Discussing and considering the purchase of a larger vehicle or home remodeling during the negotiation of adoption assistance agreements does not commit the agency to making larger and larger adoption assistance payments to fund big ticket purchases. The child’s monthly foster care maintenance payment provides an effective ceiling on the monthly amount of adoption assistance payments.