38-336. Enactment of compact.
38-336
38-336. Enactment of compact.The interstate compact on adoption and medical assistance ishereby enacted into law and entered into by this state with any other stateor states legally joining therein in the form substantially as follows:
The contracting states solemnly agree that:
The party states find that:
(a) In order to obtain adoptive families for children with specialneeds, prospective adoptive parents must be assured of substantialassistance (usually on a continuing basis) in meeting the high costs ofsupporting and providing for the special needs and services required by such children.
(b) The states have a fundamental interest in promoting adoption forchildren with special needs because the care, emotional stability andgeneral support and encouragement required by such children to surmounttheir physical, mental or emotional conditions can be best, and often only,obtained in family homes with a normal parent-child relationship.
(c) The states obtain advantages from providing adoption assistancebecause the customary alternative is for the state to defray the entirecost of meeting all the needs of such children.
(d) The special needs involved are for the emotional, physicalmaintenance of the child, and medical support and services.
(e) The necessary assurances of adoption assistance for children withspecial needs, in those instances where children and adoptive parents arein states other than the one undertaking to provide the assistance, is toestablish and maintain suitable substantive guarantees and workableprocedures for interstate payments to assist with the necessary childmaintenance, procurement of services and medical assistance.
The purposes of this compact are to:
(a) Strengthen protections for the interests of the children withspecial needs on behalf of whom adoption assistance is committed to be paid,when such children are in or move to states other than the one committed tomake adoption assistance payments.
(b) Provide substantive assurances and procedures which will promote thedelivery of medical and other services on an interstate basis to childrenthrough programs of adoption assistance established by the laws of the party states.
As used in this compact, unless the context clearly requires a different construction:
(a) "Child with special needs" means a minor who has not yet attainedthe age at which the state normally discontinues children's services or 21,where the state determines that the child's mental or physical handicapswarrant the continuation of assistance, for whom the state has determined the following:
(1) That the child cannot or should not be returned to the home of such child's parents;
(2) that there exists with respect to the child a specific factor orcondition (such as ethnic background, age or membership in a minority orsibling group, or the presence of factors such as medical condition orphysical, mental or emotional handicaps) because of which it is reasonableto conclude that such child cannot be placed with adoptive parents withoutproviding adoption assistance;
(3) that, except where it would be against the best interests of thechild because of such factors as the existence of significant emotionalties with prospective adoptive parents while in the care of such parents asa foster child, a reasonable, but unsuccessful, effort has been made toplace the child with appropriate adoptive parents without providingadoption assistance payments.
(b) "Adoption assistance" means the payment or payments for maintenanceof a child, which payment or payments are made or committed to be madepursuant to the adoption assistance program established by the laws of a party state.
(c) "State" means a state of the United States, the District ofColumbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, theCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands or a territory or possessionof the United States.
(d) "Adoption assistance state" means the state that is signatory to anadoption assistance agreement in a particular case.
(e) "Residence state" means the state of which the child is a residentby virtue of the residence of the adoptive parents.
(f) "Parents" means the singular or plural of the word "parent."
(a) Each state shall determine the amounts of adoption assistance andother aid which it will give to children with special needs and theiradoptive parents in accordance with its own laws and programs. The adoptionassistance and other aid may be made subject to periodic reevaluation ofeligibility by the adoption assistance state in accordance with its laws.The provisions of this article and of article V are subject to thelimitation set forth in this paragraph.
(b) The adoption assistance and medical assistance services and benefitsto which this compact applies are those provided to children with specialneeds and their adoptive parents from the time of the final decree ofadoption or the interlocutory decree of adoption, as the case may be,pursuant to the laws of the adoption assistance state. In addition to thecontent required by subsequent provisions of this article for adoptionassistance agreements, each such agreement shall state whether the initialadoption assistance period thereunder begins with the final orinterlocutory decree of adoption. Aid provided by party states to childrenwith special needs during the preadoptive placement period or earlier shallbe under the foster care or other programs of the states and, except asprovided in paragraph (c) of this article, shall not be governed by theprovisions of this compact.
(c) Every case of adoption assistance shall include an adoptionassistance agreement between the adoptive parents and the agency of thestate undertaking to provide the adoption assistance. Every such agreementshall contain provisions for the fixing of actual or potential interstateaspects of the adoption assistance, as follows:
(1) An express commitment that the adoption assistance shall be payablewithout regard for the state of residence of the adoptive parents, both atthe outset of the agreement period and at all times during its continuance.
(2) A provision setting forth with particularity the types of child careand services toward which the adoption assistance state will make payments.
(3) A commitment to make medical assistance available to the child inaccordance with article V of this compact.
(4) An express declaration that the agreement is for the benefit of thechild, the adoptive parents and the state and that it is enforceable by anyor all of them.
(d) Any services or benefits provided by the residence state and theadoption assistance state for a child may be facilitated by the partystates on each other's behalf. To this end, the personnel of the childwelfare agencies of the party states will assist each other andbeneficiaries of adoption assistance agreements with other party states inimplementing benefits expressly included in adoption assistance agreements.However, it is recognized and agreed that in general children to whomadoption assistance agreements apply are eligible for benefits under thechild welfare, education, rehabilitation, mental health and other programsof their state of residence on the same basis as other resident children.
(e) Adoption assistance payments, when made on behalf of a child inanother state, shall be made on the same basis and in the same amounts asthey would be made if the child were in the state making the payments.
(a) Children for whom a party state is committed in accordance with theterms of an adoption assistance agreement to make adoption assistancepayments are eligible for medical assistance during the entire period forwhich such payments are to be provided. Upon application therefor, theadoptive parents of a child on whose behalf a party state's dulyconstituted authorities have entered into an adoption assistance agreement,the adoptive parents shall receive a medical assistance identification madeout in the child's name. The identification shall be issued by the medicalassistance program of the residence state and shall entitle the child tothe same benefits, pursuant to the same procedures, as any other child whois a resident of the state and covered by medical assistance, whether ornot the adoptive parents are eligible for medical assistance.
(b) The identification shall bear no indication that an adoptionassistance agreement with another state is the basis for issuance. However,if the identification is issued on account of an outstanding adoptionassistance agreement to which another state is a signatory, the records ofthe issuing state and the adoption assistance state shall show the fact,shall contain a copy of the adoption assistance agreement and any amendmentor replacement therefor, and all other pertinent information. The adoptionassistance and medical assistanceprograms of the adoption assistance state shall be notified of theidentification issuance.
(c) A state which has issued a medical assistance identificationpursuant to this compact, which identification is valid and currently inforce, shall accept, process and pay medical assistance claims thereon ason any other medical assistance eligibilities of residents.
(d) An adoption assistance state which provides medical services orbenefits to children covered by its adoption assistance agreements, whichservices or benefits are not provided for those children under the medicalassistance program of the residence state, may enter into cooperativearrangements with the residence state to facilitate the delivery andadministration of such services and benefits. However, any sucharrangements shall not be inconsistent with this compact nor shall theyrelieve the residence state of any obligation to provide medical assistancein accordance with its laws and this compact.
(e) A child whose residence is changed from one party to another partystate shall be eligible for medical assistance under the medical assistanceprogram of the new state of residence.
(a) This compact shall be open to joinder by any state. It shall enterinto force as to a state when its duly constituted and empowered authorityhas executed it.
(b) In order that the provisions of this compact may be accessible toand known by the general public and so that its status as law in each ofthe party states may be fully implemented, the full text of the compact,together with a notice of its execution, shall be caused to be published bythe authority which has executed it in each party state. Copies of thecompact shall be made available upon request made of the executing authority in any state.
(c) Withdrawal from this compact shall be by written notice sent by theauthority which executed it to the appropriate officials of all other partystates, but no such notice shall take effect until one year after it isgiven in accordance with the requirements of this paragraph.
(d) All adoption assistance agreements outstanding and to which a partystate is signatory at the time when its withdrawal from this compact takeseffect shall continue to have the effects given to them pursuant to thiscompact, until they expire or are terminated in accordance with theirprovisions. Until such expiration or termination, all beneficiaries of theagreements involved shall continue to have all rights and obligationsconferred or imposed by this compact and the withdrawing state shallcontinue to administer the compact to the extent necessary to accord andimplement fully the rights and protections preserved hereby.
History: L. 1985, ch. 141, § 2; July 1.