Alabama Administrative Code › Title 660 - ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES › Chapter 660-5-22 - ADOPTION › Section 660-5-22-.06 - Subsidized Adoption

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
(1)
			 Adoption subsidy is provided to facilitate the adoption of children with
			 special needs by assisting with the removal of financial barriers to adoption.
			 Adoption subsidy may be provided to children who meet special needs criteria,
			 as well as other eligibility requirements described herein. Adoption subsidy
			 encompasses the principles of the Department's practice model including
			 permanency, stability, well-being, individualized services that are family
			 centered and culturally responsive, community collaboration and professional
			 competence. Adoption subsidy promotes the timely achievement of permanency for
			 children and, through appropriate planning, promotes the opportunity for
			 children to experience love, feelings of belonging and nurturing in a family
			 environment. Adoption subsidy supports the practice of providing family
			 centered and culturally responsive adoptive placements for children.
(2) Requirements and procedures of adoption
			 subsidy are
(a) In order to qualify for
			 adoption subsidy children must meet all four of the following criteria:
1. The child must be legally free for
			 adoption and the Agency/Department have determined and documented that a child
			 cannot or should not be returned to the home of his parents. For Department
			 cases, this is accomplished through the Individual Service Plan and before the
			 permanency goal of adoption is agreed upon. In most cases, termination of
			 parental rights is the last step in meeting this requirement.
2. Children must be determined as having
			 special needs. Adoption subsidy is predicated on the belief and assumption that
			 children with special needs require more than ordinary parental duties from the
			 adoptive parents; that children with special needs usually incur extra
			 expenses; and that parenting children with special needs is more challenging
			 that parenting children without special needs. It is the responsibility of the
			 child's DHR social worker to determine whether the child being placed for
			 adoption has special needs and there are special circumstances that make
			 adoption unlikely without a subsidy. It is reasonable to conclude that the
			 child cannot be placed for adoption, due to a specific factor or condition,
			 without providing adoption subsidy and/or medical assistance through Medicaid.
			 One or more of the following conditions must exist for a child to be determined
			 as having special needs.
(i) Physical or
			 mental disability must have been documented in the record as evidenced by a
			 licensed medical doctor or qualified mental health professional. Normal
			 childhood illnesses do not meet this criterion. Physical disability is defined
			 as a chronically debilitating, progressive, or fatal disease which requires
			 assistance for the child in activities of daily living or requirement of
			 assistance of another person or mechanical device for movement from place to
			 place. Mental disability is defined as a condition which is characterized by
			 impaired intellectual development and impedes the ability to function
			 independently as diagnosed by a licensed medical doctor or qualified mental
			 health professional.
(ii) The child
			 has a known emotional disturbance/ behavioral issue that requires on-going
			 treatment and that has been documented by a mental health professional.
			 Emotional disturbance is defined as an emotional condition which impedes the
			 child's ordinary developmental progress as diagnosed by a medical doctor or
			 qualified mental health professional.
(iii) The child has known and documented
			 factors that place the child at recognized high risk of developing a physical
			 or mental disability at a future time. At the time of placement, the child may
			 not have a documented diagnosis or show any signs of a physical or mental
			 disability. Nonetheless, there are known and documented factors, which are
			 captured in the non-identifying background summary, that place the child at
			 high risk for developing such conditions. Money payment is deferred until the
			 onset of symptoms, but the adoption subsidy agreement must be signed and in
			 effect at the time of placement or prior to the final decree of adoption. High
			 risk of a physical or mental disease means a potentially debilitating condition
			 as diagnosed by a licensed medical doctor or qualified mental health
			 professional.
(iv) Children who are
			 five (5) years of age or older.
(v)
			 The child is a member of a sibling group of two (2) or more being placed for
			 adoption in the same home at the same time.
(vi) A child has racial or ethnic factors
			 that make it unlikely that the child will be adopted without a subsidy.
			 Documentation of how the child's racial or ethnic factors prohibit him/her from
			 being adopted without subsidy must be submitted to the Office of Permanency,
			 Family Services Division. Concurrence must be received from the Office of
			 Permanency prior to the Department entering into any adoption subsidy agreement
			 based on this criterion. Race and ethnicity includes, but is not limited to,
			 African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, or other heritage which may
			 prevent a child from being adopted.
3. In most cases, at the time of initiation
			 of adoption proceedings, a child should be in the care or custody of the
			 Department or a public or private child placement agency through on of the
			 following:
(i) a voluntary placement
			 agreement; or
(ii) a voluntary
			 relinquishment; or
(iii) an
			 involuntary removal of the child from the home in accordance with a judicial
			 determination that remaining in the home would be contrary to the welfare of
			 the child. The term "care" refers to the responsibility vested in the
			 Department or public or private agency with such responsibility encompassing
			 the planning provided by the Department or agency when the child has a
			 permanency goal of adoption
4. Reasonable efforts must be made to locate
			 an adoptive resource for a child without benefit of an adoption subsidy or
			 medical assistance under Medicaid, except where it would be contrary to the
			 child's best interests because of the existence of significant emotional ties
			 with the prospective adoptive parents while in the care of these parents as a
			 foster care child. In cases involving foster parents, where there is evidence
			 to support the existence of potential detriment to the child by severing
			 emotional ties with the foster parents who are prospective adoptive parents, no
			 evidence is necessary that reasonable efforts have been made to place the child
			 without subsidy. In such situations, the ISP team should determine that it is
			 in the child's best interest to remain in a home which could not be an adoption
			 resource without an adoption subsidy and medical assistance. Reasonable efforts
			 to locate adoptive parents who can accept the child without a subsidy are not
			 required for foster parent adoptions when there are significant emotional ties
			 that make it in the child's best interest to remain in the foster/adoptive
			 home.
When the Department has placement responsibility for a child
				with a permanency goal of "adoption with an unidentified resource", it is
				necessary to register children with local, regional and national adoption
				exchanges; publicize the need for adoptive homes in general and for specific
				children; and make referrals to specialized public or private agencies.