OCFS needs to reform adoption subsidies

The Albany Family Court and CPS Examiner reported this morning that OCFS had paid out more than $180,000 to support adopted children that were already deceased.
As a parent of two special needs adopted children, who receive adoption subsidy from NYS OCFS, I assure you that this is needless waste.
My children were adopted in Fulton County. Each year, I am required to answer in writing to Fulton County DSS, give them my current address and phone number, and current status of these adopted children, including a signed statement regarding whether they still reside with me or live somewhere else, whether I use the money to support these children, and whether or not these children are deceased. If I do not return the signed statement, attesting that I am telling the truth under penalty of law, these adoption subsidy payments would cease.

Fulton County forces the adoptive parent to take an assertive role in verifying the parent’s right to these funds, as they should. Obviously, there are many people who don’t have integrity in regards to these matters.

This practice could easily be continued in other counties in NYS. OCFS has the means of checking to see if any of these payees are deceased, as they just did in this audit. This needs to be done on an annual basis.

In addition, this begs the question: how much MORE money is being paid out inappropriately because the adoptive parents receiving the adoption subsidy no longer have custody of their adopted child? Often special needs or handicapped children go into long term care somewhere other than the adoptive home, and the adoption subsidy is no longer appropriate in these cases, either.

As an insider, I can assure you that the time to reform adoption subsidies in NYS has long since passed. I see adoptive homes around me that are entitled to receive the subsidy, but don’t get it because they have to fight and fight to receive assistance that they are entitled to, while we read in the news about people who are receiving it and aren’t entitled to it.