According to statistics received from the State of Michigan, there are approximately 6,200 children in the foster care system whose parents’ rights have been terminated. Of those, about 4,300 children have a goal of adoption. On average, over 2,500 children are adopted through Department of Human Services’ offices and private adoption agencies each year. Many of these children have educational, physical and/or mental health/emotional issues due to the abuse and/or neglect that they have been subjected to. Often times the foster parents and/or relative caregivers are unaware of the subsequent effects that these issues have on the children they are caring for.

The adoption support subsidy is intended to assist with the expenses of caring for and raising an adopted child. It is not intended to meet all of the costs of raising that child. Adoption support subsidy eligibility is based on specific criteria and the basis for this policy is taken from Michigan law. At the time of eligibility determination, the child must be a child with special needs. This means that the child must meet certain factors as determined by DHS adoption subsidy policy. Not all children in foster care qualify to receive adoption support subsidy, which is unreasonable and an injustice to children in foster care. All children should receive, at a minimum, adoption support subsidy.

Based on the criteria, several children will meet the qualifications for adoption support subsidy; however there are also many children that will not. This simply should not be. Factors one and two are usually not disputable. In order for an adoption to occur, the child is under 18 and parental rights have been terminated. A child only has to meet one of the eight factors or conditions, but there are children that slip through the cracks and are found ineligible to qualify for adoption support subsidy.

Perhaps the largest debate about who should receive adoption support subsidy and who should not is the fact that no one knows what the future holds. No one knows what the long-term affects for a child under the age of three that does not qualify for adoption support subsidy because of the age factor. Some children may suffer long-term affects such as behavioral issues or learning disabilities that do not become evident until they are in the elementary school years. Other children learn about the past of their biological parents and then begin to have emotional problems because they cannot cope with the fact that their biological parents used drugs or abused other siblings. Why should the adoptive parents of these children be deemed ineligible to receive adoption support subsidy simply because they adopted a child before he/she was three years old?

While the government must have guidelines and policies in place when it comes to funding issues, a child’s well-being should not have a dollar amount attached. Children in foster care are not the average, run-of-the-mill children. They have been removed from their parents for abuse and/or neglect. They did not ask to come into a world and be exposed to such trauma, but they were anyhow. They deserve loving, stable homes and those that adopt such foster children should be eligible to receive adoption support subsidy despite criteria factors. If the State of Michigan is not willing to allow all children to be eligible to receive adoption support subsidy, perhaps they could revise their criteria so children do not slip through the system without the proper long-term support.

Of course, infants would not require any of these. Typically formula is covered by WIC so I can understand how your grocery bill has gone unchanged. Same for water since a 5-10 year old requires a much larger tub of water to bathe in each night than a 5-10 month old would.

I would think you would spend most of your stipend on diapers…..or do you sew cloth ones to save more money for the savings acct?

It is my understanding that the formula is covered by WIC so I would guess with just infants that your grocery bill would not be any higher than it was before?? I don’t suppose it would make sense to take infants to Chuck E Cheese either.

HOWEVER, DCFS does encourage foster parents to sign the kids up for sport teams and extracurricular activity and to reward them for good behaviors as well.

From what I am reading (and it is kind of hard with no caps) what you are saying is that if you scrap going out to eat, buying gas for trips, and keep the kids at home all the time then YOU CAN BE IN THIS FOR THE MONEY. Is that right? You are putting $200 into savings each month for a reimbursable emergency that may never happen? Hmmm.

we do it by several different avenues — extremely tight budgeting, we don’t eat out EVER unless we’ve saved and budgeted for it in advance, i learned how to sew just to save money — one yard of fabric that costs $0.99 in the scrap bin as opposed to a $15 sleeper that they’ll outgrow in three weeks, we started growing some of the food that we found was more expensive and that we use a lot (tomatoes, peppers that are almost three bucks for ONE), we have two cars, but only drive one unless it’s absolutely necessary to have two (i’m a stay-at-home mom), we belong to a church who was very generous with giving things if we need them, although we save EVERYTHING, i meal plan — breakfast lunch AND dinner — for every meal we eat until my husband gets paid again, buy produce from farmers, etc. the list goes on. we still tithe our 10% of each paycheck to the church and somehow it all fits. my husband does not make an exhorbitant amount of money. we live in st.louis, which is a fairly expensive place to live — don’t even get me STARTED on our mortgage payment!! — and he doesn’t get paid anywhere near what he’s worth.

i’m not saying i’m super awesome and everyone should be like me, b/c everyone’s circumstances are different. i’m just saying that if you truly want to make a difference in the life of a child, what they’re going to remember is you having a picnic in the backyard, not going to chuck e cheese. they’ll remember all the fun things you made up to do at home b/c you didn’t have the gas to go out and spend money on a shopping trip.

it’s been really, really hard and i struggle with making everything come together, but my husband and i do it together and it’s worth it. we live on as little as we possibly can and are always looking for ways to cut corners. i think it’s possible if we really look at what we’re truly spending our money on.

Those who are actually getting the $70/day stipends are dealing with children with SEVERE problems-many of which are not paid for by Medicare.

I have two children of my own and must pay for their childcare each time I go to court for my foster children or take them to a medical eval which could take all day etc. And when we have a staffing and my husband attends because he too cares about these kids and their rights, he loses two hours of pay which is $30 (or three days of stipend if you look at it like that)

So, know the facts before commenting or judging. Those who have never fostered have no idea the toll it takes on one’s finances.

This is why they make sure you are financially sound before accepting you as foster parents…they KNOW the monthly stipend will never be enough to cover all the expenses that go along with fostering.

Kim

When we started fostering in Jan. 1995, MI daily base was just barely over $12/day (I believe it’s up to $14/day now, 13 years later).

It’s true, every penny counts. I always used to think that if I didn’t have to work so hard making ends meet (such as running to every grocery store in a 30 mile radius to stock up on sale items while the kids were in school or dragging 6 preschoolers with me) I’d have more time to actually parent these kids.

Money doesn’t solve your problems, but it sure frees you up to do more good for these kids.

As for the people who always have something to say, but cannot DO, they should be ashamed of themselves. Every time they open their mouths, they show their ignorance.

We actually foster for free. You see, the monthly stipend rarely covers the extra water, electricity, bedding, furniture, clothing, entertainment, needs, etc. So any payment for the love and care we give is non-existent. They don’t understand this though because they’ve never done it.

We have a problem in this country because over 90% of Americans will read a story of an abandoned todder or abused preschooler and they will say, “That’s terrible! Those parents should be shot or have the same thing done to them.” However, if you turn to those same Americans and say, “You’re right! We need someone to care for this child. Can we bring them to you?” they suddenly stammer and stutter around giving excuses as to why THEY can’t afford it, or they work, or don’t have room, or don’t want the troubled child around their own children, etc.

So if you don’t, who will? I know who will. The people like my husband and I who in Arkansas get paid $13/day (less than a sitter) to foster a child. Luckily, the state pays for their medical care or we couldn’t afford to foster most children. If we didn’t get $13/day, we could not afford the higher light and water bills, the higher restaurant bills, the higher grocery bills, the higher ticket total at the movies, Chuck E Cheese, or the extra clothes we buy while waiting for a clothing voucher, etc.

We love these children….but yes, we would stop doing it if we had to without the money. What’s your excuse for not doing it?