A change in how the Arkansas Department of Human Services pays thousands of foster and adoptive parents will make those families wait an extra month for their July subsidies. But while some families will have to reshuffle household budgets to cover short-term needs, many say it’s worth making the payment process more convenient.
Arkansas foster families and eligible adoptive families get between $410 and $500 per child per month from the department, depending on the child’s age. Until now, the department has paid families at the beginning of the month for a full month of care.
But as of July, the department will start making payments after the month ends. Families will now get their July payments after Aug. 14, leaving a month-long gap in the schedule they’ve become used to.
Department spokesman Kate Luck said in June that the department paid nearly $3.7 million to the families of 4,130 fostered children and 4,784 adopted children.
The department changed the schedule to avoid paying a full month’s subsidy to families that provided care for only a partial month. Under the old schedule, if a family stopped providing foster care or an adopted child aged out of the system before the month’s end, the department would have overpaid the family.
Luck said the family would then be responsible for paying back the overpaid amount. She said the new schedule, in which families will be paid for the previous month, will be more convenient for everyone involved.
“Now it works like any other job where you work [a month] and then get your paycheck,” she said. “From this point forward, they’ll get the payment the second week of the month.”
Leten Adams, 47, of Little Rock worries that a month of waiting for her payments could overstretch her budget.
Adams is a foster parent to five children ages 4 to 9, some of whom have food allergies. She said an unexpected trip to the doctor this month, coupled with the payment delay, threatens to disrupt her budget.
“When I have to take off work and take them to the doctor, it means I’m not getting paid,” she said. “Bills have to be paid, and they still come.”
She said special lactose-free foods for her children are also more expensive; it’s something the subsidy helps cover. But she said after this month, she expects her fiscal planning to return to normal.
“Once the process kicks back in, everyone can start budgeting,” she said. “It’s just this break that’s going to affect people.”
The payments are meant to cover basic monthly costs of caring for fostered and adopted children — things like food and clothing. But families also can apply for additional money to cover special costs, including school uniforms, summer camp dues, tutoring, band equipment and even prom dresses. Payments made under that process will not be affected by the change.
Beki Dunagan, assistant director of the department’s Children and Family Services Division, said when the department evaluates foster and adoption candidates, it ensures that the families can provide for children without relying solely on government aid.
“One thing that we need to make clear is this is not an income for families; this is a maintenance payment and it is tax exempt,” she said.
Dunagan said that while the department has been fielding lots of calls regarding the change, most families are reassured when told they’ll still be receiving their full subsidies, just a month later.
Julia DesCarpentrie is the coordinator for Saline and Perry counties for The CALL (Children of AR Loved for a Lifetime), a Christian group that recruits families around the state to foster or adopt. DesCarpentrie said families she works with are generally supportive of the change, though some have been concerned about back-to-school shopping with their subsidies delayed until mid-August.
“I don’t think any of our families in Perry/Saline counties use the subsidy as income; they use it to take care of kids,” she said. “But I know some people who are saying they’re going to have to wait to get school shoes and school supplies.”
DesCarpentrie said The CALL organizes a “clothing closet” service to get diapers and baby goods, backpacks, shoes and clothes to foster and adoptive families who may need help affording them. She said she expects use of the service to increase this month and next.
An adoptive mother herself, she said the state payments are hugely important to getting people involved in adoption and fostering.
“It would’ve been very difficult for us to adopt our children without the subsidy because we now have five children — we had to buy a bigger house,” she said.
Chad Harvison facilitates a monthly The CALL foster support group meeting at The Church at Rock Creek in Little Rock with his wife, Nancy Harvison. He said the change would make the payment process easier by keeping the department from having to recoup overpaid stipends.
“It’s the paperwork, it’s the overhead, it’s the back-and-forth between, ‘I paid you this much last month and now you’ve got to pay me this.’ All that goes away,” he said.
The Harvisons have opened their home to 16 children during their time as foster parents. Today, they have two adopted children, one of whom they receive a subsidy for.
Chad Harvison said although some families may feel a pinch between payments, he thinks parents will embrace the new schedule.
“I expect the next six weeks to be difficult overall for foster families, but in the long term I think it’ll be beneficial to both the families and the state.”