Who You Gonna Call? The State’s Youth and Family Ombudsmen Office

On May 31, 2022, the state launched its Ombudsman program for youth children and families.  I contacted them in late July and was told, this new state office is independent from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).  When I asked about handling problems involving the negotiation of adoption assistance problems, I got the got the following response.   

Dear Mr. O’Hanlon,

 Thank you for reaching out to the Youth and Family Ombudsmen Office and for sharing this valuable information about adoption assistance in Ohio. We can certainly receive and review complaints from adoptive families who feel they are being treated unfairly during negotiations.  As I’m sure you can appreciate, an individual’s standing to file a complaint is carefully reviewed by our team.

 Adoptive families wishing to file a complaint with our office can connect via phone at 1-877-649-6884 or online at youthandfamilyombudsmen.ohio.gov.

 Please don’t hesitate to contact us with general questions or if you’d like to schedule a meeting to discuss further. Thank you for your advocacy and work on this important issue and for contacting our office.

So, why not try it out when an agency greets you with some scary message? For example, when prospective adoptive parents persist in trying to negotiate a reasonable adoption assistance payment, some Ohio county agencies respond by threatening to place the child in their care for over two years with a family of strangers.  The state has never enacted a law or regulation, formally ending this reprehensible practice.  Whether the threat is real or an intimidation tactic, it strikes fear into the hearts of would-be adoptive parents.

 Filing a complaint with the Youth and Family Ombudsmen Office might be an effective way of heading these threats off at the pass.  When a state official inquires about a threat to remove a child over an adoption subsidy negotiation, the contact alone exposes the threat and often induces the agency to issue a written denial.  If the Ombudsmen’s Office starts receiving regular complaints on this matter, it may finally lead to action eliminating the practice.

Negotiation of adoption assistance is more complicated, but in cases where the county agency is unresponsive or non-compliant with federal and state policy or both, the parents might file a compliant on such matters as the agency’s refusal to:

• Engage in an actual dialogue about why the parents want adoption assistance for their children and how much they need.

• Consider the adjustments in family circumstances to meet the child’s care needs, such as quitting a career or arranging for specialized child care.

• Give the parents adequate reasons why the proposed amount of adoption assistance is significantly less than the child’s foster care payment rate.

Mediation gives parents another bite at the apple, when negotiations are hopelessly deadlocked, but the more attention that is given to the frustrations of the negotiation process, the better.  We will talk about mediation soon. The ultimate goal is for Ohio to establish an effective means of settling negotiation disputes which doesn’t take forever and which closes the enormous gap between foster care payments and adoption assistance.

Please tell us about your experiences with Ohio’s Youth and Family Ombudsmen, so we can see how it works.  We can use your stories to report back to the Ombudsmen Office and improve the program.

Update: The first complaint on Negotiation of Adoption Assistance has just been filed. Another parent is planning to file a complaint because the agency has not followed through on the Adoption Assistance Agreement negotiated through mediation weeks ago.