Assuming custody (guardianship)can jeopardize your child’s eligibility for Title IV-E Adoption Assistance. Often caregivers are not informed about the risks of being denied adoption assistance, when they step forward in good faith and agree to take temporary custody of a child in need of their care from an agency.
Current federal law specifies that children must be in the care of a public or private agency at the time of initiation of adoption procedures in order to qualify for Title IV-E Adoption Assistance. Although federal adoption assistance law does not employ the term “custody,” Ohio regulations at OAC 5101:2-49-02 and OAC 5101:2-49-02.1 do. They specify that a child must be in the custody of a public or private agency at the time adoption procedures are initiated. This means when the parental rights of the birth parents are terminated or surrendered and the child is placed for adoption.
It is possible to argue that if there was an agency involvement in case plan, reviews, etc., the child was in the care of an agency at the time adoption proceedings were initiated. But given the state’s current interpretation of federal policy, mounting such a challenge would be very difficult and time consuming.
For those parents who find it their child's best interest to assume custody from an agency, there is still a possible alternative route to adoption assistance. SSI presents a possible, if narrower pathway to adoption assistance eligibility. Turn to our next exciting chapter for a discussion of this alternative.
NOTE: Some parents are reluctant to consider SSI because they fear their child will be stigmatized. The SSI pathway to adoption assistance is just that, a path to adoption, not to the SSI program itself. It is worth a look.
