Adopting Foster Child

Yes you need an Attorney, GAL can give you a list of Attorneys familiar with DCS. State will pay directly to the Attorney $1500 of the cost of SPECIAL NEEDS only adoption, determined by the Central Eligibility Unit - ask if you are unfamilar I would guess he will likely qualify with Club Feet, have you been seeing Drs/Specialist about it? I always took the finding letter from Riley and gave a copy to CW for the file, she sent all those in when requesting AA from CEU. 15 day waiting period, depending on your county that would be unlikely to be scheduled so quickly after tpr, your CEU determination will likely take that long. In fact, ours was unusually long but took from January to Septermber to finalize.

I was told I didnt HAVE to have an atty. by CW. But I got one anyway. Only after waiting for 6 months on DCS to do what they were telling me they were working on.. but obvioulsy they werent. Not in any timely manner anyway. My atty also was paid directly. I believe if you pay you can also be reimbursed. but only up to that 1500.00. I have had dealings with only 2 counties. Only one directly related to me. and It was a long wait for court date to finalize. The court schedule fills up very quickly. but at this moment I know someone working with a county right next door, and they have tpr hearing scheduled tomorrow when Permanency hearing was only a week and a half ago. If she has all her paperwork done asap she will probably get a quicker court date for finalization. My atty. aimed for " within 3 months" to finalize. It took longer because of appeal to CEU determination. I would give yourself at least that much time. 3-6 months if all goes smoothly. Also you do know that Indiana has a waitlist for subsidy correct? Unless he qualifies for federal. I would think he will qualify for one though. If just state then you will get to keep medicaid insurance and have NRAE paid.

Our FS is almost 10 months and will be TPR Aug 5th. We have to wait 21 days for all paperwork to finalize before filing for adoption. Unless there are zero medical issues then most FK qualify to keep medicaid and some adoption assistance ($1500). Our FS has some moderate medical issues and is wearing a helmet currently. CW says 99.9% we will qualify. What I heard is the state is out of money so there wasn't a state subsidy right now .... someone else said waiting list ... so not sure which is correct. During our adoption classes last summer we were just told NO State money only federal subsidy. Part of the adoption process is that DCS att and your att will go over whether the child qualifies for federal subsidy and will be classed as SN. This is the wait part of adoption and what usually holds it up. If denied you may want your att to at least request subsidy be approved at $0 which means if major medical/mental issues from birth (not accident related) presents later the amount can be ammended. Your GAL can give you a list of att. We are using an adoption att in our area who handled his sibs adoptions. He is known to push things through quicker and will schedule court in a neighboring county to get a court date quicker. We do have to pay a refundable $250 deposit. Once he recieves payment from state/federal (not sure which pays this) then he will refund the deposit. He does adoption for the $1500 which from what I know is common practice with most att who handle FC adoptions. We don't expect adoption to be completed until Jan or Feb 2012 since there is question as to whether they should classify as SN. Babies usually aren't if adopted before age 2 and not part of sibling group. We have just had more than normal medical stuff but not near as much as some. Good luck!

Hi Stephanie,

K did get an adoption subsidy. He was 2 1/2 and had some issues. N is 16 mos. and even though he has some issues that we would love to get Medicaid for, we were told it probably wouldn't happen because of his age. We still submitted everything. We do have a lawyer. DCS paid for her expenses with K. We will probably have to pay for N, but that's all right. She knows her stuff.

Make sure you have all the babies issues well documented.

Just wanted to chime in, it is so funny how all CW seem to say different things. My CW told me that she actually has only had one child younger than two yrs NOT qualify for medicaid. She said that it was standard to prepare families just incase but in only one instance has she has seen one denied. The child was like 3 months old when bmom signed and had NO health issues. I too think club feet if documented should qualify since you will most likely need orthotics to correct .... and that is costly and ongoing. Our little guy has moderate issues and I am not sure I even think he should qualify. We do have this one situation that keeps coming up and Drs keep running test. It like something isn't quite right but they are not sure if it is going to cause issues and want him monitored and tested regularly. This is why CW says we should qualify. He also has some high risk factors like preemie, drug exposed, minor delays. Just think it's funny how one CW says one thing and one says another.