10-148 C.M.R. ch. 13, § 3 - ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

a. The Child

1 For the adoption assistance program:

a The child must be in the legal custody of the Department or a non-profit, private, licensed child placing agency in this State.

b The child must be legally available for adoption or approved for a legal-risk placement.

c The child must meet the definitions of a "special needs child" and a child who is difficult to place.

d Adoption must be considered to be in the best interest of the child.

e Children who are eligible for federally-matched adoption assistance payments must be eligible for or a recipient of AFDC-Foster Care payments or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) at the time of the adoptive placement, and at finalization of the adoption, and must be adopted no sooner than the beginning of the fiscal quarter after the date of the approval of the Department's Title IV-E plan. These children must also meet criteria a-d above.

f To be eligible for state-funded adoption assistance, a child must meet criteria 1-4 above, but does not need to meet #5 above.

2 For purposes of reimbursement of non-recurring adoption expenses:

a The child must meet the definitions of a special needs child and a child who is difficult to place.

b The child must be legally available for adoption or approved for legal risk placement.

c The child must not be receiving, or eligible for, adoption assistance from some other state's program, or for non-recurring adoption expenses through some other funding source.

d The child must be placed for adoption in accordance with applicable state and local laws.

3 For purposes of retroactive adoption assistance, the child must be special needs and be determined to be eligible by the Department.

a Grounds for eligibility for retroactive adoption assistance are as follows:

1 Relevant facts regarding the child, the biological family or child's background were known and not presented to the adoptive parents prior to legalization of the adoption;

2 Denial of assistance occurred based upon a means test of the adoptive family;

3 The state agency erroneously determined that a child was ineligible for adoption assistance; or

4 The state agency failed to advise adoptive parents of the availability of adoption assistance for a child with special needs.

b Applications will only be accepted from families whose eligible children are under 18 years of age at the time of application.

c Children must have been in the legal custody of the Department or a non-profit, private, child-placing agency licensed in this state. Children in the custody of private adoption agencies licensed in this state and adopted prior to the law authorizing adoption assistance for these children (June 30, 1992) are not eligible for retroactive adoption assistance.

b. The Adoptive Family

1 For purposes of adoption assistance:

a Applications may be submitted by foster parents interested in adopting an eligible child in their care and other persons interested in adopting an eligible child.

b The family must have been studied and approved as meeting the Department's standards for adoption either by the Department or by a licensed child-placing agency with an adoption program, except for financial eligibility.

c The circumstances of the family must be considered in determining adoption assistance of the type, duration and amount requested.

d For adoption assistance that exceeds one year in duration, there must be an annual redetermination of need in accordance with Part8 of these rules.

2 For purposes of reimbursement of non-recurring adoption expenses:

a The family must have been studied and approved as meeting the Department's standards for adoption either by the Department or by a licensed child-placing agency with an adoption program.

b The family is not otherwise able to adopt this special needs child without reimbursement of non-recurring adoption expenses.

c The family must not have received, or be eligible for, reimbursement for these expenses from any other source.

d All applicable state and local laws must have been followed.

3 For retroactive adoption assistance, the family must request such assistance in writing to the Department, and approval must be made pursuant to the rules.

c. In some instances there are no common definitions of acceptability of families or of the best interest of children. When such instances occur in these rules, the determination of acceptability of families or of the best interest of children shall be made at the discretion of the Department.

Notes

10-148 C.M.R. ch. 13, § 3