Ohio's revised Title IV-E adoption assistance rules take effect on April 1, 2010. Interested adoptive parents, advocates, agency professionals may be interested in one of the three revised e-books. Each reflects the recent develops and changes in policy.
Employing a question and answer format, the guidebooks walk the reader through eligibility rules and issues that are likely to arise in dealing with county agencies, offer strategies in negotiating adoption assistance agreements and practical steps in preparing for a state adminstrative hearing.
The guidebooks may be accessed at the Adoption Policy Resource Center web site at http://www.fpsol.com/adoption/advocates.html.
User’s Guide to Federal Adoption Assistance in Ohio, 2010
The Adoption Advocates e-book, User's Guide to Federal Adoption Assistance in Ohio, has been revised to reflect the amendments to Ohio's Title IV-E adoption assistance rules which went into effect in March, 2010. Key changes include:
• Ohio rules pertaining to adoption assistance eligibility for special needs children placed by private agencies have been revised to better reflect federal law. As a consequence, two of the formidable barriers that impeded eligibility have been removed.
• SSI is a pathway to Title IV-E eligibility, in-so-much as SSI is means tested after the final decree of adoption and Title IV-E adoption assistance is not. Parents seeking to access adoption assistance by qualifying for SSI must do so prior to finalization. Prior Ohio rules required that SSI eligibility be determined prior to the petition for adoption.
Two New Ohio Related Guidebooks
Without a doubt, negotiating Title IV-E adoption assistance agreements remains the most contentious issue in the special needs adoption program. As such, disagreement over negotiation criteria and procedures as well as the amount of assistance is the most frequent topic of state administrative hearings involving adoption. Because of the complexities involved in negotiating adoption assistance and the appeals resulting from denials of Ohio county public children services agencies (PCSAs), we offer two new related books on these subjects: Funding and Negotiation of Adoption Assistance in Ohio, 2010 and Appealing Agency Decisions on The Amount of Title IV-E Adoption Assistance, 2010.
Funding and Negotiation of Adoption Assistance in Ohio, 2010
Chapter 1 of this new e-book, explains the how the financial responsibility for funding Title IV-E adoption assistance in Ohio is divided among the federal state and county governments. By understanding federal financial participation, the reader should acquire a better understanding of the legal and practical limitations in obtaining adoption assistance. Chapter 2, walks the reader through the legal requirements for the negotiation of adoption assistance agreements. The chapter contains practical recommendations on how to approach the process of negotiation.
Appealing Agency Decisions on The Amount of Title IV-E Adoption Assistance, 2010.
Chapter 1 of this new e-book takes the reader through the appeals process itself including a detailed consideration of state administrative hearings. The second chapter provides practical information on how to prepare for a state administrative hearing involving disagreement over the amount of adoption assistance. There is considerable overlap between the information presented in Chapter 2 of this guidebook and Chapter 2 of Funding and Negotiation of Adoption Assistance in Ohio, 2010, but the information in this e-book is organized around preparation for a hearing. Appendix A of Appealing Agency Decisions on The Amount of Title IV-E Adoption Assistance, offers a sample hearing statement for adoptive parents and their advocates to use as a model.
