[CARIE GALVIN]

CAN ANYONE OUT THER HELP ME.I ADOPTED A SPECAL NEEDS CHILD 4 YEARS AGO.I AM NOW FINDING OUT SHE HAS SEVERE LEARNING DISABILITIES.WHEN I CONTACTED PHILA DHS AND REQUESTED AN INCREASE OF THE 13.00 A DAY THEY ARE GIVING ME I AM TOLD THAT I AM GETTING THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT THAT I WOULD GET IF MY CHILD WERE IN FOSTER CARE.I KNOW NOW THAT THAT WAS UNTRUE AND THAT IN FACT SOME ADOPTED CHILDREN ARE GETTING AS MUCH AS 30.00 A DAY.FIRST WHAT ARE THE ACTUAL FIGURES WHEN IT COMES TO FOSTER CARE IN PHILLY AND DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS ON HOW I CAN GO ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL APPEAL.THANK YOU

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[JENNI]

hi carrie, I'm just a FP myself ,but I think more severe medical needs are $30 like AIDS, etc. I've also heard that there is a Grandfather clause and most fos-adopt will not receive any $ after adoption. I'm not an expert though. I'd keep trying your old agency or SW.
Good luck!
Jenni

[LucyNJ]

I adoped in Phila Pa, and recieve 27 dollars a day, the only reson my child even qualified for subsidy is he is of mixed race. Go figure

[JENNI]

Hi LucyNJ
Did they help out with adoption costs too? Isn't that a shame they have to label these children. I've heard them say "unadoptable" just because a child is an older baby AA.
Jenni

[LucyNJ]

Jenni,
Yep, they covered the cost for all adoption expenses

[Gina Troup]

I'm from the western part of the state so I don't know what the rate is for your county for foster care/adoption subsidy.Since your child already had special needs before adoption you should have been getting the maximum amount and I don't think that $13.00 a day is it.We adopted our youngest son(now 4 years old) 2 years ago,but we got him in foster care in July of '99 when he was 7 months old.When we got him in care he had his blood checked for elevated lead levels and the test came back that it was a little on the high side,when I reported to the agency what the findings were,they did nothing.They didn't give me any info. about what I should do or anything.I later found out that I should have been getting the "special needs" allotment from the beginning because of the lead level and the fact that he was "behind" in gross motor skills and later on we found out that he was behind in his speech.We had to fight with our agency to get our son approved for the subsidy.I'm glad we get it for him because lately he seems to be having a lot of anxieties for just about everything.If I were you I would definitely look into getting the subsidy raised.You should contact a lawyer that deals with adoption and is familiar with the subsidy issues.Let us know how things turn out!

[DebPJ]

Hi, All!
I am considering foster parenting and as a full-time paralegal, wife, mother we would hve childcare expenses (additional, that is, we already pay about $700 a month for two school-age children!). This is something that we'd really like to be able to do but are concerned about the childcare expenses for an additional child. I was told that most private agencies pay foster parents a lot less than a county agency. Is this true? We would like children close in age to our bios (4 and 9 years old, girl and boy respectively) and were also told that foster parents of African American (which we are) children for some reason get a higher payment.

Also, there are so many private and county agencies to choose from? What's the difference between them all? Would anyone have a particular agency to recommend? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Deb PJ

[maimms]

You might want to take a look at http://www.nacac.org/adoptionsubsidy.html.

Apparently, the daily rate in PA varies by county. There are resources listed on this website for you to contact to get clarification as to what/how much you are entitled to receive.

Best of luck to you.

[maimms]

You might want to take a look at http://www.nacac.org/adoptionsubsidy.html.

Apparently, the daily rate in PA varies by county. There are resources listed on this website for you to contact to get clarification as to what/how much you are entitled to receive.

Best of luck to you.

[Lorraine123]

My daughter is foster to adopt from PA.

We get the max subsidy, but she was very special needs (mostly emotionally, but she has had 2 surgeries for a birth defect and will require more). She was in a therapeutic foster home before coming to us, so they received the therapeutic rate which was passed on to us.

[princessputter]

carrie did u adopt ur child thru the SWAN program?? i would think if anyone could help u .. they could good luck