Unscheduled Stop on the Negotiationland Crazy Train

Passengers will please refrain....

Note: For more detailed information and documentation, click on the links underlined in the text.

This is an unscheduled stop as you wait for the agency’s response to the information you sent.  See the previous post.   You may have time for a tour to take in the sights of Negotiationland while you wait. 

Here some typical agency responses that adoptive parents receive, along with with some characteristic problems that should be raised as the Crazy Train rolls on.

Common Agency Responses

“This is the rate of adoption assistance we approve.  We don’t pay more than that.”  

Problem: There is no proposal for negotiation based on the child’s needs and family circumstances.

“Send us a dollar amount and I will take it to our committee and see what they decide.”

Problem: Federal and state law require an actual dialogue.  Submitting your information to an agency committee for review might constitute a helpful first step in negotiations.  But unless you get to discuss your child’s needs and family circumstances with the committee, there is no negotiation.

 “We can’t consider a higher level of adoption assistance just because you quit your job to meet your child’s care needs.”  

Problem: The agency is refusing to recognize the adjustments by adoptive parents as an essential component of incorporating a child into a permanent adoptive family and a requirement for negotiating adoption assistance. The agency’s response constitutes a refusal to discuss “family circumstances.”

“When you finalize the adoption, her daily care is your responsibility. When your child was in foster care, the agency was responsible for covering her care needs. When you finalize the adoption, her daily care is your responsibility. Adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payments are different because they are not intended to cover the same things.

Problem: There is nothing in federal or state law that makes this distinction between foster care and adoption. Federal law anticipates that the child’s needs or family circumstances will not dramatically change the day a child is adopted. Federal funding has always been available for Title IV-E Adoption assistance up to the child’s foster care rate.

“We have to begin negotiations of adoption assistance at $0”

Problem: There is no such requirement. This claim obscures the fact that the first $250 in adoption assistance is entirely covered by federal and state funds. The county pays no portion of the first $250 in adoption assistance. Starting at $0 and increasing adoption assistance in $50 increments provides the appearance of negotiation, but not the reality.