Section 5101.141 | Administering federal payments for foster care and adoption assistance.

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• Effective: October 17, 2019
• Legislation: House Bill 166 - 133rd General Assembly

(A) As used in sections 5101.141 to 5101.1414 of the Revised Code:

(1) "Adopted young adult" means a person:

(a) Who was in the temporary or permanent custody of a public children services agency;

(b) Who was adopted at the age of sixteen or seventeen and attained the age of sixteen before a Title IV-E adoption assistance agreement became effective;

(c) Who has attained the age of eighteen; and

(d) Who has not yet attained the age of twenty-one.

(2) "Child" means any of the following:

(a) A person who meets the requirements of division (B)(3) of section 5153.01 of the Revised Code;

(b) An adopted young adult;

(c) An emancipated young adult.

(3) "Emancipated young adult" means a person:

(a) Who was in the temporary or permanent custody of a public children services agency, a planned permanent living arrangement, or in the Title-IV-E-eligible care and placement responsibility of a juvenile court or other governmental agency that provides Title IV-E reimbursable placement services;

(b) Whose custody, arrangement, or care and placement was terminated on or after the person's eighteenth birthday; and

(c) Who has not yet attained the age of twenty-one.

(4) "Representative" means a person with whom the department of job and family services has entered into a contract, pursuant to division (B)(2)(b) of this section.

(5) "Title IV-E" means Title IV-E of the "Social Security Act," 94 Stat. 501, 42 U.S.C. 670 (1980), as amended.

(B)(1) Except as provided in division (B)(2) of this section, the department of job and family services shall act as the single state agency to administer federal payments for foster care and adoption assistance made pursuant to Title IV-E. The director of job and family services shall adopt rules to implement this authority. Rules governing financial and administrative requirements applicable to public children services agencies and government entities that provide Title IV-E reimbursable placement services to children shall be adopted in accordance with section 111.15 of the Revised Code, as if they were internal management rules. Rules governing requirements applicable to private child placing agencies and private noncustodial agencies and rules establishing eligibility, program participation, and other requirements concerning Title IV-E shall be adopted in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code. A public children services agency to which the department distributes Title IV-E funds shall administer the funds in accordance with those rules.

(2) If the state plan is amended under divisions (A) and (B) of section 5101.1411 of the Revised Code, both of the following shall apply:

(a) Implementation of the amendments to the plan shall begin fifteen months after September 13, 2016, the effective date of H.B. 50 of the 131st general assembly, if both of the following apply:

(i) The plan as amended is approved by the secretary of health and human services;

(ii) The general assembly has appropriated sufficient funds to operate the program required under the plan as amended.

(b) The department shall have, exercise, and perform all new duties required under the plan as amended. In doing so, the department may contract with another person to carry out those new duties, to the extent permitted under Title IV-E.

(C)(1) Except with regard to the new duties imposed on the department or its contractor under division (B)(2)(b) of this section that are not imposed on the county, the county, on behalf of each child eligible for foster care maintenance payments under Title IV-E, shall make payments to cover the cost of providing all of the following:

(a) The child's food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, and school supplies;

(b) The child's personal incidentals;

(c) Reasonable travel to the child's home for visitation.

(2) In addition to payments made under division (C)(1) of this section, the county may, on behalf of each child eligible for foster care maintenance payments under Title IV-E, make payments to cover the cost of providing the following:

(a) Liability insurance with respect to the child;

(b) If the county is participating in the demonstration project established under division (A) of section 5101.142 of the Revised Code, services provided under the project.

(3) With respect to a child who is in a child-care institution, including any type of group home designed for the care of children or any privately operated program consisting of two or more certified foster homes operated by a common administrative unit, the foster care maintenance payments made by the county on behalf of the child shall include the reasonable cost of the administration and operation of the institution, group home, or program, as necessary to provide the items described in divisions (C)(1) and (2) of this section.

(D) To the extent that either foster care maintenance payments under division (C) of this section or Title IV-E adoption assistance payments for maintenance costs require the expenditure of county funds, the board of county commissioners shall report the nature and amount of each expenditure of county funds to the department.

(E) The department shall distribute to public children services agencies that incur and report expenditures of the type described in division (D) of this section federal financial participation received for administrative and training costs incurred in the operation of foster care maintenance and adoption assistance programs. The department may withhold not more than three per cent of the federal financial participation received. The funds withheld may be used only to fund the following:

(1) The Ohio child welfare training program established under section 5103.30 of the Revised Code;

(2) The university partnership program for college and university students majoring in social work who have committed to work for a public children services agency upon graduation;

(3) Efforts supporting organizational excellence, including voluntary activities to be accredited by a nationally recognized accreditation organization.

The funds withheld shall be in addition to any administration and training cost for which the department is reimbursed through its own cost allocation plan.

(F) All federal financial participation funds received by a county pursuant to this section shall be deposited into the county's children services fund created pursuant to section 5101.144 of the Revised Code.

(G) The department shall periodically publish and distribute the maximum amounts that the department will reimburse public children services agencies for making payments on behalf of children eligible for foster care maintenance payments.

(H) The department, by and through its director, is hereby authorized to develop, participate in the development of, negotiate, and enter into one or more interstate compacts on behalf of this state with agencies of any other states, for the provision of social services to children in relation to whom all of the following apply:

(1) They have special needs.

(2) This state or another state that is a party to the interstate compact is providing adoption assistance on their behalf.

(3) They move into this state from another state or move out of this state to another state.

Available Versions of this Section

• September 29, 2013 – House Bill 59 - 130th General Assembly
• September 13, 2016 – House Bill 50 - 131st General Assembly
• October 17, 2019 – Amended by House Bill 166 - 133rd General Assembly
• September 30, 2021 – Amended by House Bill 110 - 134th General Assembly
• January 1, 2025 – Amended by House Bill 33 - 135th General Assembly