March/April, 1995

The Way Things Are . . .
An Overview of Our Adoption System

With the specter of orphanages looming on the legislative horizon, and the possibility of federal adoption funding shifting to unallocated block grants, the futures of our nation's adoption-eligible special needs children are uncertain.

In Michigan, however, the future looks brighter. 1,890 permanent court and state wards were adopted last fiscal year, and for the second year in a row African American child adoptions outnumbered Caucasians. While the number of permanent state and court wards continues to grow each year, the number of adoptions completed in Michigan is nearly keeping pace with those entering the system.

The success of the adoption program in Michigan is attributed largely to sweeping adoption system changes that began in 1992. At that time the Michigan Department of Social Services (MDSS) revamped its "special needs adoption" system so adoption payments were equalized and based on performance and time frames, created a massive tracking system to account for all permanent court and state wards, and mandated photolisting for children who did not have an identified adoptive family within six months of wardship. The system changes were guided by the philosophy that all children should be given the opportunity for adoption (unless another permanency plan is proven more appropriate), that children should be adopted in a timely fashion, that statewide recruitment efforts should be made when there is no family identified for a child, and that families should be empowered to adopt hard-to-place children.

As a part of its MDSS contract, the Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) was made responsible for implementing a tracking system to monitor the state's adoption-eligible children. Components of this system include monthly reports to every agency detailing their wards' progress towards permanency, due dates for children facing mandatory photolisting, and financial sanctioning for noncompliance. Although "building the perfect mousetrap" has not been easy, our model has evolved into a stable, comprehensive and effective system. This article, along with the accompanying flowcharts, will provide an overview of how Michigan's "special needs" adoption system works.

"The Clock"

The adoption clock starts "ticking" on the date the judge signs the order terminating both biological parents' legal rights to a child. For children who are permanent state (MCJ) wards this is called the Permanent Custody (or PC) Date; for children who are permanent court wards, it is known as the Acceptance Date. The clock is stopped when the MARE office receives either court documents placing a child for adoption or proof that the child's permanency plan is no longer adoption. This insures that all adoption-eligible wards are tracked; in the case of a disrupted adoption (where an OTR is issued, but the case is never finalized), the clock starts ticking on the date the child reenters care (Ex Parte Order date).

MARE is furnished PC and Acceptance dates from the MDSS's CSMIS (Children's Services Management Information System) computer system. Every month, a disk containing numerous fields of information (including name, age, race, sex, care agency and supervising county) about every permanent ward arrives at the MARE office. The information is routed to MARE's tracking database through a sophisticated programming routine. New cases are added to MARE's data, and existing records are compared to see if updating is necessary. Tracking cases which do not appear on that CSMIS disk are automatically closed.

Time Frames

The most important deadline in the adoption system is known as the 182-day due date. Roughly six months from the day the clock begins, at least one of several documents showing that child's progress towards adoption must be received by MARE. If no adoption is in progress, the agency must photolist the child by the 182-day due date or face sanctions.

Secondary time frames may be activated, depending on the type of document first received by MARE. If the first document shows a completed permanency plan, the case exits tracking; if the document shows an adoption is in process, an extended due date is established by which follow-up documentation is required.

Documentation Types

An Order Terminating Rights After Consent and Order Placing Child for Adoption (OTR) indicates that a placement has been made. When this documentation is received on a case, the clock stops and the case exits the tracking system. No further documentation is required for this case, unless a disruption occurs. The previous OTR form was recently revised into a two-part form, the PCA318 and PCA320; please send only the PCA320 to MARE.

The DSS 5-S form (Change in Goal form) will also remove a child from the tracking list if the goal is changed from adoption to some other appropriate permanency plan. 5-S forms can be obtained through local DSS offices. If it proves difficult to obtain a 5-S form, but the local department has authorized a change in a child's goal, an Updated Service Plan (USP) indicating the planned goal change may be submitted. The USP must be signed by the local DSS supervisor, indicating authorization of the goal change. If the USP is not signed, it will not be accepted as a change in goal and the tracking clock will continue.

If a family has been identified for a child by the 182nd day but no OTR has been issued, the child's care agency can submit one of three documents to the MARE office that will "hold" that child until an OTR is issued.

• A Foster Parent/Relative Hold registration form. One side of this salmon-colored MARE form is to be filled out when children are in the process of being adopted by a foster family or relative.
• A Hold registration form. The reverse side of the above form should be completed when a child has been matched with a studied family by the 182nd day. The hold side of the form should be completed, and the back page of the adoptive family's homestudy must be attached.
• A notarized petition, signed by the family and adoption worker in the presence of a notary public. This form is being phased out of the tracking system: Please see the shaded box on this page.

Because children with identified families need not be photolisted, children in any of the above "hold" categories will not appear in the MARE book. Instead, an additional 182 days is added to the tracking clock; the Department feels this extension period should be sufficient to complete the adoption. If an OTR is not received within that extension period (within one year from the PC date), the case will be reported to the MCI Supervisor for investigation. Additionally, if the identified family withdraws from the adoption, the child must be registered in the photolisting book immediately

If no family is identified for a child by the 182-day due date, the child must be registered in the MARE photolisting book. A blue Child Registration Form must be filled out completely and submitted, along with a recent, well-defined photo of the child. If the form is incomplete or no photo is included, the form will be returned to the care agency and the tracking clock will continue. A child may not be featured in the book earlier than 182 days from the PC date.

Tracking Lists

Every month, MARE's computer system generates a list of all children who are being tracked. The list is sorted by care agency and mailed to the agency's adoption supervisor and executive/ county director. Tracking lists reflect both the information MARE has received from CSMIS and any documentation that agencies have sent to MARE for children in their care. The tracking list is essentially a courtesy list, providing agencies with detailed information about their children and upcoming due dates. It is the agency’s' responsibility to bring attention to and correct any errors they may notice on their lists. If the Permanent Custody date is erroneous, proper documentation must be provided (i.e. amended PC orders, Ex Parte orders) for MARE to correct the error.

Occasionally, a child's case does not immediately appear in the CSMIS-furnished data. Agencies are still responsible for meeting all timeframes for these cases. When MARE receives documentation for a child not currently in the tracking database, a new record is created for that child. The name and date of birth are entered from the received document, and the child appears on tracking lists and receipts with a blank PC date and an "Unknown" due date. When the child appears on a subsequent CSMIS data batch, the permanency dates are added to that record and due dates calculated; late cases will be sanctioned accordingly.

The Late Case Documentation Process

Agencies are provided with several notification steps for children in their care, with the hopes of achieving 100% compliance with timeframes. First, the monthly tracking lists indicate all documentation due dates. As such, these lists act as the initial notice to agencies of pending 182-day due dates. If agencies notice any inaccuracies on their lists, the MARE office should be notified immediately so that corrections can be made prior to sanctioning.

The second step in the process occurs approximately one month prior to the 182-day due date. If no documentation has been received for a child by that point, the MARE office will forward a letter to the responsible DSS or private child care agency indicating the approaching due date. This "warning" is called a "Registration Notice."

A "Late Documentation Notice" is sent to private care agencies if no documentation is received by the 182-day due date. This notice indicates that the sanctioning process has begun, and the daily administrative foster care payment for that child will be reduced 20% per day until documentation is received by MARE.

For local department adoption units, a list of out-of-compliance cases is forwarded to the Department on a monthly basis for follow-up and investigation.

Finally, a "Sanction Letter" is generated when initial documentation for a case is received after the 182-day due date. These letters are sent to private care agencies, and indicate how many days late the document was received. Agencies may calculate their final sanction from this information.

The Photolisting Book

The ultimate aim of this complex system is to insure that children who do not have identified families by the 182-day due date are registered in the MARE photolisting book. The book is updated and printed monthly, and distributed to adoption agencies and public libraries across the state. Children are added to the book as soon as a Standard Registration and photo are received by MARE.

Children are removed from the MARE book one of three ways:

• By submitting a DSS 5-S or signed USP to MARE when the child's goal changes to something other than adoption.
• By forwarding a Foster Parent/Relative registration form to MARE if the child's current foster family or relative decides to adopt.
• By sending MARE a Hold registration or OTR when an identified family decides to adopt. A completed green removal form should accompany any document removing a child from the photolisting book, for statistical analysis.

Placement of a child registered in the MARE book is best facilitated by worker-to-worker contact. Once the child appears in the book and the worker receives the first inquiry call from a family's worker, the child's worker has 10 calendar days to send out the child's evaluation packet. If more than one approved family expresses interest in that child within 10 days of the first inquiry, then the child's worker is to select one family among those interested. A packet must be sent out by the 10th day, and the workers of all families that inquired but were not selected will be notified. A new form, Child's Adoption Referral Packet Transmittal (DSS 4748) is to be used to facilitate the transmittal of case information.

Michigan's "special needs" adoption system has evolved into a complicated process. It is the only system in the country that includes both a comprehensive tracking system and a mandatory photolisting. But as such, it is a system that promotes the timely placement of adoption eligible children, makes accountability easy for agencies, and safeguards the needs of waiting children...if these steps continue to result in the placement of large numbers of waiting children in permanent, loving homes, it's definitely worth a little extra effort.