The Children’s Bureau published additional questions and answers as part of the Child Welfare Policy Manual (CWPM) recently. The questions and answers provided in the CWPM covered Title IV-E Adoption Assistance, and Foster Care programs. The questions related to adoption assistance and Title IV-E eligibility and addressed additional regulations related to Fostering Connections legislation that became effective on October 1, 2010. The answers provides some significant clarifications for adoption assistance related to special needs determination and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Adoption Assistance Program
8.2B Title IV-E, Adoption Assistance Program, Eligibility addresses the changes in the federal law allowing a child that has been in foster care for 60 consecutive months to have an Title IV-E Adoption Assistance determination made, delinking the child’s eligibility requirements to AFDC requirements dating back to 1996.  This is one of the major changes made as part of Fostering Connections Legislation for Title IV-E Adoption Assistance.  The question sought clarification on calculating the consecutive period of “60 consecutive months.”  Prior to this Q&A in the CWPM, ACF had responded that it would be up to the state to calculate the consecutive period of foster care prior to finalization.  This guidance in the Q&A provides the following parameters that must be taken into consideration:

• The definition of foster care at 45 CFR 1355.20(a) applies in determining the 60 consecutive month provision and does not include detention facilities or psychiatric hospitals.  Foster care is defined at 45 CFR 1355.20(a) as “24-hour substitute care for children placed away from their parents or guardians and for whom the state agency has placement and care responsibility.” This includes, but is not limited to, placements in foster family homes, foster homes of relatives, group homes, emergency shelters, residential facilities, child care institutions, and pre-adoptive homes. A child is in foster care in accordance with this definition regardless of whether the foster care facility is licensed and payments are made by the State or local agency for the care of the child, whether adoption subsidy payments are being made prior to the finalization of an adoption, or whether there is Federal matching of any payments that are made.
  
  
• A child must be in foster care, as defined in 45 CFR 1355.20(a), for at least one day of a month.
  
  
• A runaway episode may count towards calculating the 60 consecutive month period if the title IV-E agency retains responsibility for the placement and care of the child during the runaway episode because a child in this situation is considered to be in foster care.
  
  
• If a Title IV-E agency considers a child who is on a trial home visit to be in foster care, then the trial home visit period may count towards calculating the 60 consecutive month period.

Questions and answers to 8.2B.11 Title IV-E, Adoption Assistance Program, Eligibility, Special Needs, and 8.2B.12 Title IV-E, Adoption Assistance Program, Eligibility, SSI were provided regarding Title IV-E Adoption Assistance eligibility, inquiring whether a child that meets the state’s definition of a Special Needs Child is eligible for Title IV-E adoption assistance if he or she meets the medical and disability requirements for SSI benefits.  May the Title IV-E agency make the determination?  The response from ACF was yes, for the purposes of determining whether an applicable child who is a special needs child is eligible through the SSI pathway, the Title IV-E agency may make the determination that a child meets the requirements for medical or disability reasons. ACF’s guidance is that while the Title IV-E agency is responsible for Title IV-E adoption assistance eligibility determinations, and the agency permitted to make the determination that the child meets the medical or disability requirements for SSI benefits, it is not making an SSI eligibility determination on behalf of the child, which consists of a financial component. 
Foster Care Program

8.3A.11 Title IV-E Foster Care Maintenance Payments Program, Eligibility, Removal from the home/living with, Questions 6.  The question addresses the issue of a child who is placed in a residential treatment facility by his/her parents and remains in the facility longer than six months, but is then removed from the parent’s care and placed in Title IV-E agency placement and care.  Would the child meet the ‘living with a specified relative’ requirement for purposes of Title IV-E eligibility?  ACF responds yes – that as long as the child is under the care and control of the parents while in residential care, the child could be eligible even when living outside the home for more than six months.

Question 7.  The question is asked if a youth over age of 18 may be his or her own specified relative for purposes of satisfying the living with or removed from requirement for Title IV-E eligibility, to which ACF responds positively.

8.4B Title IV-E, General Title IV-E Requirements, Aliens//Immigrants. The question is asked as to whether a state may claim Title IV-E payments for someone who is not a citizen or qualified alien at removal, but later secures legal status.  ACF cites Section 472(a)(3) of the Social Security Act which require that the child would have been eligible under the former Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in the month of the voluntary placement agreement or court proceedings leading to the removal from the home.  If the child is not a citizen at removal, the child cannot ever be eligible for Title IV-E benefits.

 

About Kay Casey

Kay Casey has over 20 years of experience in federal and state child welfare policy and programs, having worked for the federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Florida Department of Children and Families prior to joining PCG. She is responsible for the review and assessment of fiscal processing systems that impact a state’s ability to identify, document, and report expenditures for federal reporting purposes accompanied with the programmatic impact on the state’s system of care.

Read more