[HappyMomAnna]

If you are looking into the ADOPTION subsidies for 'special needs' I can give you a little bit of an idea about how the state deals with them.

First of all the subsidies are not intended to be used for any issue that would be handled by the 'public school' system --including the Early intervention testing and services. So the subsidies will not cover any service offered or required by the federal public school system. And once you do investigate you may find these services are great and extensive--our two-year old is receiving speech and ocupational therapy with transportation included at no charge to us.

Secondly--any medical/mental health/denatl issues covered under the Oregon Health plan will not be considered for subsidies. The only issues covered under a subsidy would be those that fall outside this area--in our case allergies are covered becaus the state health insurance does not cover them--however since the children are on our private insurance not--only our co-pays are covered under the subsidies.

Beyond these services there could be additional issues such as social/emotional issues that would not be covered by the schools or medical insurance. Our daughter is socailly 'at risk' and therefore our subsidies are being used to create consistant access to a peer group and involvement with activities where she is exposed to new groups of children on a regualar basis.
Emotionally she is also 'at risk' and we use some of the subsidy funds to create situations where she can play or be her 'younger self' or to help her start to come up to an older level....

There are no exact numbers of the subsidy funds a family will receive. Contracts are done annually with or without any changes. Genreally families asking for near the same rate as the foster families are paid will recieve the subsidies they request without question or verification...any amount exceeding this would generate a reason to 'prove' the costs. Right now Foster families receive less then $400.00 a months depending on the part of Oregon the child is in.

It is advised that even if one of the children in a sibling group has no identified special needs that the family open a subsidy agreement anyway and request $50.00 a month. This way should a need arise the case is already open and the family would only need to make changes. It is difficult to open a subsidy after a child has been adopted--so open it before the final adoption to avoid any delays in the future if a problem comes up.

Good luck and I hope this info is helpful.