This webinar, originally broadcast live on May 8, 2024 and hosted by Formed Families Forward, provides an overview of foster care in Virginia. Veteran DSS caseworker Shawn Nashwinter and foster/adoptive parent Melissa Lebling share specifics on training, eligibility and approval for foster or resource parents and address common questions.
Webinar Slides
Webinar recording
Families Rising (formerly North American Council on Adoptable Children; NACAC) operates an adoption assistance/subsidy resource center. It offers links to contacts for adoption assistance at every state.
Families Rising has a number of fact sheets on aspects of adoption assistance at https://wearefamiliesrising.org/resource-library/parent-resources/
Families Rising Adoption Assistance Center
This fact sheet (2020) from the Child Welfare Information Gateway describes subsidies, including Federal title IV-E eligibility requirements.
Link to Fact sheet
Social Security Advisory Board statement on the Supplemental Security Income program
The Social Security Administration was asked to conduct a comprehensive review of the children’s SSI program. In 2014, this review looked specifically at children in the foster care system. This report offers some clarification of income and eligibility requirements across programs.
2013 Policy Clarification from U.S. Department of Education re: excluding extended foster care payments as income on FAFSA can be viewed here.
Information sheet on the Virginia Adoption Assistance Program.
Children Adopted from Foster Care: Adoption Agreements, Adoption Subsidies and Other Post-Adoption Supports