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So, this is the part I hate, talking about money. It just feels so wrong, like I'm more interested in the money than the child, but the fact remains, that our kids have special needs and those needs cost money. I want to advocate so that my child can receive everything she's entitled to so that we can do what's necessary to provide her with a healthy and healing life. So we were told that her stipend was X amount. It was a very generous stipend, but we assumed that part of the reason was that she has some signifigant emotional issues, and that the other part was because the state receives her SS survivor benefits for her father who passed away. So we were like, "Great!" We got her everything she needed to start life in our home and some things she didn't "need" so much as we felt it was appropriate. New Mattress and Box Spring, New bedding, a bicycle, that sort of thing. We could have gotten used, but I figured that if she had the money we should use it for decent things. We're not talking about a thousand dollar bed set, just nice and new. Considering she was made to sleep on concrete floors in the garage, I just couldn't bring myself to go with used. Anyway, she's been here 5 weeks and we got the notice of Foster Care Payment and it's HALF of what she was getting. I can get that there would be some adjustment, but half??? So I called her SW and left a message saying, is there anything we can do to contest that? I said that I wasn't mad, just confused. She had told us that the amount that gets set will be the amount of the adoption subsidy, so I am wondering if the state is just trying to save a buck, or what. I had been reporting great behavior, but the honeymoon has recently ended, and I sent an extensive list of behaviors to the SW. These are the same things that the FM was dealing with prior to placement with us. We do have a formal DX of RAD, and PTSD, and then there are all of the wonderful behaviors that go along with that. For example, I got called a "butt-hole" on Saturday, and while that may be true on occassion, I didn't particularily care to hear it from my 10 year olds mouth. So, anything I can do, or am I pretty much stuck with what they give us. Obviously we would never send her back because the payment wasn't enough, but that's not something I want them to know, and I just don't want to agree to something and then regret that decission later.
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I am in Virginia. We actually got MORE in our adoption subsidy than we did as foster parents. We also get Medicaid, and daycare assistance. VA is a pretty generous state though for special needs adoptions. I would push the issue for sure. RAD is serious stuff. Years of toting her back and forth to therapy, having your belongings ruined, her ruining family outings half way through, etc. (those things may not happen, but you never know!) Not to mention parenting a child with RAD often lasts WELL after that 18th birthday, when the check stops. What if she needs residential living in the future? Can you go back and ask for her stipend to be re-evaluated to cover anything medicaid won't cover? Those are all realistic considerations... because 10 with RAD isn't going to be a very pleasant parenting experience. It's going to be a LOT of work... and that stipend covers that WORK that you and your family will be doing to help your daughter heal.
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Once the adoption is finalized CPS can not continue to collect the SS Survivor benefit, you should be able to collect that until she is 18 or out of high school. If there is a disability beyond 18 she might be eligible to continue as a disabled child indefinitely. Make sure you go to SS with your adoption papers and ask to be payee. Actually you could probably be made payee now. The only reason the state can reimburse themselves is because they are payee. If anyone is payee they can not bill. But you might not want to rock the boat while the subsidy is in question.
Check into the SS benefits. Our daughter was eligible for SSI as well, and the payments come from different places. We get one pymt. from placing state Adoption Assistance, and two separate pymts. for the SSI. We had to contact the Social Security office oursevles to get the pymts. switched to us, but I think that was more because our lazy worker didn't want to do it, and laid it on us. I'd ask for the full amount of Adoption Assistance given the circumstances. This is the time to figure all of that out, before you finalize. Best of luck! Glad to hear that you're girl is home! I haven't been on the forums for awhile, but have been thinking about you. :)
phxmama
Once the adoption is finalized CPS can not continue to collect the SS Survivor benefit, you should be able to collect that until she is 18 or out of high school. If there is a disability beyond 18 she might be eligible to continue as a disabled child indefinitely. Make sure you go to SS with your adoption papers and ask to be payee. Actually you could probably be made payee now. The only reason the state can reimburse themselves is because they are payee. If anyone is payee they can not bill. But you might not want to rock the boat while the subsidy is in question.
TemporaryMom
You can collect social security benefits for an adopted child whose birth parent passed away? Wow. I am shocked by that one. Happy to hear it, but shocked nonetheless.
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I'm open to in-state or out-of-state, though sw said out-of-state kids online are often pretty tough/high need. We're looking 4-8 years old or so. Originally one girl, but I did go ahead and tell our sw we would CONSIDER sibling group, though I'm still on the fence a bit. Just waiting to find the child(ren) that we are the right family for!
That's awesome news. Thanks! That will be helpful - always the biggest expense, it seems. I'm assuming the childcare has to be with a certified person/business?? What about evening childcare for a couple of hours of "mommy time?" (I wouldn't guess the state pays for that, but for as few times as I need it, that's ok). Does that person have to be certified, too, or can I use my regular sitters? Thanks for the info!
spanlahti, I'm in NE WI also! Nice to have you here. :) Sorry, I don't know of any support groups per say. Wisconsinmamma, how are things going for you?? I think of you often. I haven't been on the forums for so long, so haven't been keeping up on your story. We've been a bit busy here. ha-ha!
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Spanlahti, Yes, they have to be licensed. As far as I know, they do not cover "mommy" time (sigh). I just had to show pay stubs that showed average hours worked and they approved us for that time plus travel to and from day-care. If we choose a place that costs more than what we are approved for, we pay the difference, but we didn't run into that, so for us it's covered 100%. Sorry, I don't know of any support groups in our area. I have heard of a couple, but they were not foster care related, and I think we can agree, that's a WHOLE different world, so for me, I wasn't interested.
Momto3, things are going well. RAD is . . . ummmm. . . interesting. LOL. Most people just don't get it, and tell us what a wonderful little girl we have. It's easier to smile and nod than to try and educate the world. I'm surprised how fast everything is going, and I have my fingers crossed that it keeps gong that way. 90% of the people we have worked with have been truly amazing! Then there's the other 10% <shudder>. We lost our social worker to budget cuts and then managed to tick off our next one. There were 5 other people there who can't figure out what her problem was, but I guess it doesn't really matter, I just hope she doesn't turn nasty now that TPR is over, and try to hold up the adoption.