How we support you

To meet the needs of children placed in their home, foster parents receive:

• Financial assistance in the form of a daily rate
• Medical coverage for the children
• Daycare assistance for working parents
• Other assistance provided to meet the specialized needs of children on a case by case basis.
• Ongoing training
• Child counseling services
• Respite care
• Tuition assistance
• Foster/adoptive mentors
• Support services

There are many resources available to assist families in adopting and parenting children.

Some of the available services are as follows:

• Medicaid (Medical cards)
• Monthly subsidy - funds used to meet the special needs of the child
• Nonrecurring adoption expenses - $1,000 per child to pay for attorney fees and court costs
• Extraordinary medical expenses - reimbursements for services/equipment not covered by the medical card
• Adoption tax credit - additional information is available at http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html
• Tuition waiver - tuition for any Kentucky public college/university or a technical school in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) is waived for any special needs child adopted from DCBS
• Educational Training Voucher (ETV) - available for children who were adopted from DCBS when they were 16 years of age or older The maximum amount is $5,000 per student per year; Allowable expenses include books, rent, day care, transportation, utilities and food
• Out-of-state travel expenses - DCBS may reimburse travel expenses for out-of-state families (who cannot pay) to attend a pre-placement conference or visit a Kentucky child
• Post Adoptive Placement Stabilization Services (PAPSS) - allows adoptive parents to place their child in a residential facility for short-term (i.e. 90 days) crisis stabilization, if necessary, when all other services have been exhausted