NEXT: Wednesday
September 3, Beginning of Series on Negotiating the Amount of Adoption
Assistance
If relatives or other prospective
adoptive parents assume custody or guardianship of a child, will they
experience obstacles in obtaining adoption assistance?
Yes,
unless the child is determined eligible for SSI prior to finalization. (See Part 2 of this series on SSI and
eligibility for Title IV-E adoption assistance and Part 5,question 2). Relatives and other caregivers who may adopt
should not assume custody or guardianship if they might need support from
adoption assistance.
Although
federal adoption assistance law does not actually address custody as an
eligibility issue. Most states regulations require that the child be in the
custody of a public or private agency prior to the petition for adoption in
order to qualify for adoption assistance.
Agencies
should inform caregivers about barriers to adoption assistance posed by
assumption of custody or guardianship, but sometimes fail to do so. OAC adoption assistance rule 5101:2-49-02
requires agency custody as an eligibility requirement for non-SSI eligible children. If caregivers with custody apply for adoption
assistance. the public agency will deny eligibility by asserting that the
caregivers are engaged in a non-agency or independent adoption, even if all of
the other requirements are met.
Is there anything
that can be done to qualify for adoption assistance once relatives or
prospective adoptive parents have obtained temporary custody or guardianship of
a child who they may wish to adopt?
Yes,
if the child has special needs, you should explore the possibility of SSI
eligibility as path to adoption assistance.
For SSI eligible children, agency custody is not an issue. Another possibility is contacting the
children’s Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) to discuss the importance of obtaining
adoption assistance and the obstacle that stands in the way.
The GAL may be able to contact the local judge
and agency to stress that support through adoption assistance is in the child’s
best interest. In order to meet
eligibility standards, the GAL should propose that the public agency should
petition the court for permanent custody and “place” the child with the current
caregivers. Alternatively, the public
agency could take a permanent surrender from the birth parents. In either case, the agency should also petition the court for a judicial
determination to the effect that remaining in the home is contrary to the
child’s welfare or that placement of the child with the prospective adoptive
parents is in his or her best interest. (See Part 2 of this series on Basic
Eligibility Requirements for a discussion of the judicial determination
requirement).
