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Does anyone know how NCI works? Does the child have to go full time or part time? Does the daycare get paid directly from the state? How long does it take to process? I am not getting much information from my CPS worker, thought maybe someone here would know. Thanks! :cheer:
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Does the child have a CASA worker? He or she would be a good contact person. Also, what about your agency worker? Just keep squeeking. They will eventually have to answer your questions. I would also ask for the CPS worker's supervisor. They are so busy that they often will give you a curt response until you get their supervisor involved. Good Luck. I wish I could be of more help.
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I am in Texas, and where we live it is called CCMS. A foster child is only eligible for daycare if a foster parent works full time and the child is not school age. So, if you work full time, you just request that the child's worker get CCMS approved and provide them with a daycare name. You already have to have talked to the daycare to see if they have any openings for CCMS. After everything is approved, the daycare bills CCMS directly and a FP is not involved at all. If you do not work full-time, you must pay for daycare yourself.
Yes, but NCI is also involved in Texas. My kids' daycare said they accept it, but since we are straight adopt we will not qualify. I think if you are foster-adopt, you qualify until TPR and you move to adoption. But the daycare said that NCI was a program run through CASA. I don't know if that is true or not.
Go ahead and bother. Daycare is expensive! Your cw should be able to get it approved immediately if there are funds available. Then your fc will have an established daycare provider. TPR may be scheduled for next month, but it's never a sure thing until the judge hands down the ruling. One word of caution: we just tried to move Sissy to a center that takes the CCMS money. Everything was fine until one of the supervisors at DFPS kicked it all back. There was an old citation against the center that was never cleared. The director was furious, but DFPS said I could not put the baby in there. So, we had a mad dash to find another center we liked. In the end, we'll lose the money and pay out of pocket to avoid the only other center in our small town that accepts CCS.
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WOW! Some of the things we go thru! What a hassle, but I am glad it worked out. I am still waiting for an answer from my CPS worker. Emailed her this morning. She is not up on communication. I would think I could at least use the monthly monies we get after TPR for daycare, to replace NCI, until adoption is finalized, which could take awhile. How low does monthly monies decrease after TPR?
Embuck, We get $400 per month, per kiddo, but only because they qualify under "special needs". In TX: Over 2 and a member of a minority group A sibling group (atleast two kids) Over 7 and any race Documented medical, psychological issues, etc. I think I got all of them. We got our adoption assistance beginning the month after placement. We placed June 30 and received July's assistance around the 15th of July. This check for August came yesterday. Hope that helps. A drop in the bucket compared to the $1600/mo. that we are paying for daycare, but any $ helps out.
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I think you will be okay with the "special needs" classification. Check it out with your caseworker. The agreement must be signed prior to finalization, but it may be worth waiting until April if you can. Because our kids are "special needs" we also get free college tuition (for life) and a medicaid card until they are 18. There is another clause in there about them trying to place the child without adoption assistance first. I don't know if they actually follow that to the letter or not. Our kiddos bounced around alot, so they definitely qualified.