[Archive]

Originally Posted By Kristi

Hello...
I have been trying to read the archives to get some of my questions but it has only been raising MORE, lol.

We just moved to Ohio from Michigan where were did fostercare for 3 years.

Now in Ohio, we are having to go through the entire liscencing process over again. NO , they will NOT take our current homestudy from Michigan. ANYWAY... We are now also thinking that we want to adopt and or foster. So I have been looking on the websights for kids all over the USA. (we just found out we can adopt from a different state)

We are also in the middle of buying a new house....5 acres, and 5 bedrooms!! I also homeschool.

bare with me, trying to give a little backgroud info..

? with subsidies...do you get subsidy from the state in which you reside, OR the state the child is from? AND..In one of the archives one lady said that Kentuckys subsidy was not much, BUT..when I was looking that it up it was $600/mo...and that was one of the HIGHEST in the entire USA!! Ohio's is only $250/mo. What's up with that?

AND...if we get subsidy from the state the child is from..we would do MUCH better out of state because Ohio is one of the lowest! The reason I am thinking soo much about this is because we are looking at sibling groups. And almost always one of them is older and might be entering college in 5-6 years. And we could never afford THAT. So, being able to save a subsidy could help a TON. Is there any help with college, grants, etc...

which brings me to my next question....Our current bio children are ages 7, 5, 2. We are thinking of taking a sib group as large as 4. Is this dumb? We are really being lead towards a sib group so they do not have to be split up (this just breaks my husbands heart) and we are MORE than willing to have a larger family. But what will the shock be? Anyone do this?

ok,I am sure that is enough questions for now...thank you sooo much for your comments and wisdom kristi

[Dad Mike]

As the parent of a 2 child Sibling Group I understand why you feel that it is such a tragedy that 4 and 5 Sibling groups are split up. Before we adopted, my wife and I were looking at groups of between 3-5. God brought us a 2 child group and I am very thankful to have these wonderful children.

I would caution you that more children means that the normal problems that you will deal with concerning loss, attachment, sadness, ADHD, IEP's etc. are only multiplied by adopting a Sibling group.

Our son remembers little of the trama of his birth home but our 7 year old daughter has really put us through the wringer.

At times dealing with this child has been more than my wife and I could bear. We went through a period where she threw tantrums several times a day to the point that we had to physically restrain this child to stop her from hurting herself, her brother or us.

Several times, in the last few months, we have thought, this wasn't what I signed up for. After almost two months of struggling with these issues we have finally started to see improvement.

We currently have her and her brother in counseling and we are doing some family counseling and twice a month we all go to group therapy. This will be a huge commitment of your family's time. How will your birth children feel if all your time is spent dealing with the problems of a Sibling group that you have brought into the home?

Some of these Special Needs children come from backgrounds that most of us could not believe exist. Please speak with others who have adopted large Sibling Groups before adding a large Sibling group to your family.

In our support group we have a couple who have adopted a 6 child sibling group. They are constantly dealing with intense problems. Only their saintly ways have managed to get them this far. It is difficult and don't let anyone down play the struggles that you might face.

We love our children very much and are willing to work through these times. Please make sure that you and your family are prepared.

[lucyjoy]

Our subsidies came from the states the children were from except the medical which the states contracted so it goes through our state. Our state offers different subsidy abount according to the kids special needs. As for taking four at once, I took three and it was hard but I'd do it again. One concern you need to consider is the young age of your birth kids. Some kids who have been abused will abuse younger children(before anyone jumps all over me I said some). You need to consider this when making a decision to add kids.

[SMR]

As far as adopting large sibling groups, we are in the process of doing that as well. We have a 32 month old that we brought home from the hospital. We adopted her. It's a beautiful story, that I will share at some other time. Presently, we reside in Kansas. However, we lived in Ohio for the past 11 years. Our daughter was adopted in Ohio and we did not receive any subsidy due to the nature of the adoption. We had wanted to adopt one more so since moving to Kansas we looked into adopting, and have just finished our courses to become foster parents. We will be receiving our first to foster children in 2 weeks. They are siblings age 9 and 10. They are in state custody because both parents passed away. If things work out, we will adopt. However, we recently learned that are 2 of a 9 sibling group. Yes, 9! We didn't want to split them, so we are looking at adopting 7 of the 9. The two oldest have entered independent living. We have no clue what the subsidy will be. As a matter of fact, we were in the process of buying a larger home, but now, we will have to buy an even larger home. What about transportation? Oh, I forgot to mention that I have 3 step children that will be living with us as of June. My husband is a college dean, and I was a school teacher for 12 years. However, I think that I am going to take some time off due to the drastic changes that will take place in our family. I will let you know how this turns out. We are started out fostering. We can't bring all seven in until we have a larger home. Presently we only have a 3 bedroom home. I am going to trust God and take 2 vacations a year. I think that its great when large sibling groups can be adopting.

[vbnow1]

We have a 4 sib group who can't be trusted out of our sight due to sex abuse/adhd issues--and now finding out 1 of them is bipolar! Ages 6,7,9,11 all boys.

We have to have them in separate bedrooms, not allow them
in bedrooms or out of line of sight for a minute. Cannot bathe together, eat together without supervision. Have to be able to hear them at play to know how they are doing. Cannot leave them to their own devices unless I want fires set or animals mutilated, or beating each other with sticks.

Our salvation through this all was/is teen age bio daughters who carry on for us as respite and nannies. Also daycare paid for by the state. Of course I am better than any daycare-but there is only one of me. So we pick times to do homework/tutor. They also like the daycare which is a plus because they have such a hard time making/keeping friends. Supervised play.

It is rewarding and chock full of challenges.These same kids were ousted from a "normal" adoptive home who could not deal with the issues.

I totally recommend any adoptive parents to be foster parents first (unless it is a newborn) before they take on sib groups!!

[SMR]

The sibling group of 6 that we are thinking about adopting, we are going to foster first. We will get them two at a time with the first two arriving in about 2 weeks. They are in fostercare because both parents are deseased. None of them are in counseling, none of them are on medication, and none of them have been labled with any type of adhd, learning disabled, etc... They haven't had any bad reports with the foster families that they are now with. We are getting the two because the one foster family has decided to retire from fostering, and the other foster family that the child was in the mother committed suicide.

I know that they will come with some issues such as dealing with the loss of their parents, and being separated from one another. However, we are willing to give it a try with fostering for about 6 months to a year. We already have 4 children of our own. One is adopted and the other 3 are my step children. We will definitely need God to lead and guide us through this unusually but difficult situation. I will keep you posted as to how things progress.

[LynetteLyn]

In some states, subsidy varies by county, Ohio is one of those. The Ohio county we adopted from does pay more then $250-, but it has been an ordeal getting what my son needs. They are also not generous about things like respite services, which many states include.

[vbnow1]

There ARE answers to all your subsidy questions.
Our adoption caseworker says that we can even have 6 months of daycare after the adoption which will help us transition.

Then there is the type of medical care and the subsidy itself.
There is usually someone at the state level, maybe even county, who will have all the definitive answers. It may take awhile, but I'm sure you can track that office or person down. I ran into such a person at a training for foster care givers given by the state. Good luck!!

[Svnup2003]

I was wondering how any of you were doing that adopted big sib groups?

Faith

[mina2u]

We haven't adopted a sib group, but we are in the matching process. We are waiting to see if we are matched with a sib group of 4. We are very much looking forward to it. We are waiting to see if we are matched to see what we will need to do to be ready.

Any info on sib groups would be a great help!

[vbnow1]

Hi!
We just adopted a sib group of 4 ages 7,8,10,12.
They run the gamut from ADHD,Bipolar,FASD,LD, to gifted, natural athlete. Needless to say, it is a lot of hard work!!

But it is worth it to see these guys improving over the 2 years that they have been with us. And who knows what their lot would have been without us?

We could not have done it without our 2 older, college age daughters who are our backup.
We took the money they give us for the adoption subsidy and we pay a mortgage on a house right behind us in the subdivision where these daughters live. That is the only way we could have possibly taken on such a burden.
Now each of the kids in effect have their own bedrooms(mostly due to their sexually acting out which got them dumped from their previous angel adoptive mother who could not deal with the dysfunction).
It is a struggle! And we are still not bonding very well with the older 2, but it is getting better every month.
Good luck! Make sure you have backups to help you or please don't even try taking more than 2 at a time. That would be a recipe for failure, IMHO.
Theresa

[Lisaadopt]

First of all you would get subsidy from the state that the child is from since that is the responable state. THe college should not be an issue since the new law.....I think it is a federal law....but I know it is in Texas.....any foster child ever listed is entitled to a free public college education....which includes free fee, tuition, and books at any state school.
We adopted 4 week old, 19 month old, 2.5 uear old, 4.5 year old and in August mom had another baby and she is now 8 months old. So, our family of 5 children is very active and young.

[HappyMomAnna]

Adoption subsidies are part of the Federal Laws under the ASFA(Adoption and Safe Familes Act) of 1997. The Federal Government provides each state with funding in order to make the Adoption of special needs and older children sucessful.

Each State has the ability to determine how to best use these funds. Some states offer direct subsidies to adoptive families which may be higher then other states. Some states use thier funds in order to recruit adoptive families or to provide more extensive services after adoptin is final.

Some states also offer College subsidies for children who have recieved an adoption subsidy during any time of their lives. However the college subsidies are NOT required by federal law. (YET) And at this point in time I personally am only aware of a handful of states that do. Texas was the first state to offer this. My understanding is however that this only applies to Texas Universities and communitiy colleges and not private universities. i know that Mass also offers this. I am not sure of any other states at this point. Any one else who is aware their state does please let me know so I can use this info in the future and so that I can work on petitions for the states that are not currently offering this program.

[vbnow1]

Almost sounds like Star Trek!
So maybe you know what you are doing with the passel of kids since you are a school teacher and your husband is a Dean.
Good luck!
Teaching kids is always a good thing when you have new ones who join your family. Teaching directly, teaching indirectly, modeling proper behavior, good choices, etc.
Please let us know how you are doing with the large sib group.
We are doing very well with all of them dxed and IEPed and and so far able to expect what they are capable of, in terms of behavior and school achievement. Until they reach adolescence!

[mkferrel]

Hi,

My name is Melinda and I work in the adoptions subsidy department of Franklin County Children Services.

Federal Subsidy (Title IV-E): This entitles the child to a medicaid card; monthly stipends are based upon the special needs of the child and can range any where from $0 to the foster care rate depending on the special needs of the child, the amount is determined by negotiation between the adoptive family and the Agency.

State Adoption Maintenance Subsidy(SAMS): This subsidy is looked at if the child is determined not to be IV-E eligible. This subsidy is based on the adoptive parents income. The amount of subsidy can be anywhere from $0 to the foster care rate depending on the special needs of the child, this amount is negotiated by the adoptive family and the Agency.

Please note that a child must be in the custody of a Public Children Services Agency(PCSA) or a Private Adoption Placing Agency to be eligible for Federal or State subsidies.

Non-recurring Adoption Expense Reimbursement: This subsidy is available to families that are adopting. If your child is IV-E eligible the county(PCSA) that does the negotiations will process the application, if the child is State eligible then the county(PCSA) in which the adoptive resides is required to process the application. This application must be made and approved before any finalization including any foreign adoption. The current amount reimbursable is up to $2,000.00 for necessary adoption fees.

Special Needs Services: This assistance is available if the child and family qualify; can assist with respite, daycare, tutoring,counseling,therapy, dental, etc.... These services can be part of the negotiation process depending on the need, and no other available resources.

Post Adoption Special Services Program(PASSS): This subsidy is a state program that offfers assistance to all adoptive families that qualify base on supporting professional documentation for the need and benefit to the child. Assistance amount is up to $10,000.00 per state fiscal year, families have to document an economic need for this subsidy.

Just a note to all adoptive families no subsidy is a given, at any time the federal government can stop all funding.

If anyone would like more information I can be contacted at Franklin County Children Services 614-341-6035, I also have the other 87 counties in Ohio Phone numbers and addresses, counties will differ in the way subsidies are handled.