Idaho
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Pre-Service Training

No training is required to become an adoptive, foster or kinship parent; however, Fostering Idaho Resources & Skills Training (FIRST), which is based on the National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents, is available to potential foster, kinship, and adoptive parents.

Services Offered Through the State’s Post-Permanency Support Program

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare contracts with RISE Services, Inc. to provide post-permanency services statewide through the Idaho Adoption Resource Exchange.

Services include:

Staff complete a brief non-clinical phone assessment to gain understanding of the family’s needs.

Intensive case management is offered for families with high needs. Services are available for 60 to 90 days and then families are reassessed for extension. Staff help families address their concerns, make referrals, and coordinate services and providers to stabilize the family and safely keep children in the home.  All case management is done remotely.

Staff help families by answering questions and identifying resources and services needed to support the child and family. This may include, but is not limited to, renegotiation of their subsidy payments, access to grant funding for their child, or finding a qualified provider in their area. The Idaho Adoption Resource Exchange website includes listings of available support groups, trainings, articles, and providers that may be of interest to adoptive and guardianship families. They also produce a monthly newsletter for families.

Post-Permanency Grants (PPGs) provide flexible funds to adoptive parents and families with guardianship assistance agreements, to provide supports or services to their child that are not covered by Medicaid or other resources. Examples include educational curriculum for summer at-home learning, household needs to maintain a child’s permanent placement, extracurricular activities, summer camps, and trauma-informed training for the adoptive parent.

For more information, visit https://riseservicesincid.org/family-services/post-permanency/ or https://www.idadoptresources.org/

Geographic Area Covered

All services are offered remotely statewide. RISE Services, Inc. conducts outreach with families across the state to keep them informed of what services are available and how to access them.

Eligible Population for the Overall Post-Permanency Program

  • All families who adopted from the state’s foster care system

  • All families who adopted through intercountry adoption

  • All families who adopted through private adoption

  • All families who adopted from foster care in other states, territories, or tribes

  • All families who have guardianship of a child from foster care

Cultural Responsiveness

The Idaho Kinship Program offers resource and service navigation, support groups, and education and training for kinship families.

Outreach and Engagement

RISE Services, Inc. sends families receiving adoption or guardianship assistance a newsletter and annual reminder letter to inform them about available post-permanency services. The state provides RISE with contact information for new adoptive/guardianship families each quarter, ensuring all post-permanency families are enrolled to receive the newsletter. Information about post-permanency services is also shared at the annual foster and adoptive parent conference.

How the Post-Permanency Program Is Operated

  • Through a contract or grant with one private agency

Notes About Who Provides Which Service(s)

RISE Services, Inc. is the contracted provider.

Adoption/Guardianship Assistance/Subsidy Review and Changes

Adoption and guardianship assistance agreements are reviewed annually in March to provide a yearly opportunity for adoptive families to determine if they need to request changes.

Adoptive and guardianship parents can request a change in the adoption or guardianship assistance agreement whenever there is a change in the family’s circumstances or the child’s needs. Adoption and guardianship assistance benefits can be modified at any time before the child’s agreement expires (either on the youth’s 18 birthday or the 21st birthday). Parents must make requests in writing to the regional Youth Safety and Permanency office if the family resides in Idaho. If the family resides outside of the state, they must make the request to RISE Services, Inc., the state’s post-permanency contractor. Request for changes must include information detailing the change in the child’s needs along with supporting documentation from professional service providers. If the change is due to a change in family circumstances, families must provide written documentation of changes in family income or circumstances.

Tracking Adoption/Guardianship Discontinuity

Adoption history is tracked when children enter foster care, so international, private, and foster care adoption disruptions are all recorded in the state’s data system. A review of international adoption discontinuity data is completed yearly for the Annual Progress and Services Report.

Post-Permanency Program Spending (FY 2023)

  • Under $500,000

Funding Sources for the Post-Permanency Program (FY 2023)

  1. Adoption savings (reported on CB 496 Part 4 – Annual Adoption Savings Report)
  2. Adoption/Guardianship Incentive Program Payments (AIPP)
  3. Title IV-B, Part 2 (Promoting Safe and Stable Families/PSSF)

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