Adoptions

The Calaveras County Adoption Program, under Child Welfare Services (CWS), works to develop alternate plans for a permanent, loving family if children cannot reunify with their parents. The children placed for adoption through Calaveras County's Adoption Program are children who entered the child welfare system due to safety concerns with their parents or guardians and they cannot safely return to their parents. As a result, there is a constant need for families who are willing to make a permanent commitment to a child or youth. Families who desire to adopt through the Calaveras County Adoption Program will need to complete the steps in becoming a Resource Family (RFA). The evaluation requirements and timeline for adoption approval can vary, but essentially in includes a thorough assessment of the family's ability to provide the child a safe and stable home environment. This assessment includes interviews, medical clearances, background evaluations and training specific to adoption topics.

Services provided through the Adoptions Program include:

Assessment of the child’s needs and capabilities
Compiling the child’s social and medical history
Determining and recommending to the Juvenile Court that parental rights should be terminated
Establishing if the child is legally free for adoption
Conducting home study evaluations of adoptive parents
Coordinating placement of a child in a family that will meet the child’s needs.

Adoption is the social, emotional and legal process through which children who will not be raised by their birth parents become full and permanent legal members of another family while maintaining genetic and psychological connections to their birth family.

The adoptions program is seeking families who are flexible, sensitive, patient, and realistic to become potential adoptive parents. The agency will meet with potential parents, assess the child’s needs, conduct a home study and determine if the family and the child are well-matched.

The Adoption Assistance Program (AAP)

The Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) provides funds to adoptive parents to assist them in meeting the basic and special needs of their adopted children. All families who adopt Calaveras County dependent children are eligible for AAP funds, regardless of income.

AAP eligibility begins effective the date the family signs the Adoptive Placement Agreement (usually a matter of weeks or months prior to finalization) and ends when the child turns eighteen. It is possible to receive AAP funds past the child’s 18th birthday, but there must be a documented disability, which qualified the child for continued AAP.

AAP is recertified every two years. However, adoptive families can request an evaluation for a higher rate at any time. They are not limited to the recertification period. If a family is requesting a higher rate, the AAP specialist will request documentation attesting to the child’s increased special needs.

State regulations do not allow AAP to pay for service (i.e. compensate a family for out of pocket expenses). The special needs rate is determined by an assessment of the child’s needs and the measures the adoptive family must take to meet those needs.

Per State regulations, AAP rates are based on the Calaveras County foster care rate structure not the foster family agency structure. AAP is to be allocated according to what the child would receive if he or she were placed in a county licensed foster home. Therefore, foster family agency families who adopt will not necessarily receive the same amount they were receiving as foster parents.

If a family chooses not to accept AAP at the time of finalization, they will be asked to sign a deferred agreement which allows them the opportunity to come back at any time prior to the child’s 18th birthday and request that AAP be initiated.

Any child who is receiving AAP is eligible for Medi-Cal benefits. If the adoptive family chooses to place the child on their private insurance, Medi-Cal becomes a secondary form of coverage.