Oklahoma
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Pre-Service Training

Potential kinship, foster, and adoptive families—including relatives—in Oklahoma are required to participate in the 27-hour Guiding Principles for Oklahoma Resource Families curriculum. An applicant may request a permanent training waiver if the equivalent training was completed within the last five years from a tribe, private agency, or another state. This is subject to approval by the resource field manager. Relative caregivers may be approved for placement prior to completion of the pre-service training. 

 Lunch and Learn webinars focused on adoption competency topics are held regularly and available to a wide audience, including all individuals, professionals, and family types. Provided by the University of Oklahoma (OU) Center for Adoption and Family Wellbeing and Oklahoma Human Services Post Adoption Services (PAS), current foster families who are transitioning to adoption and supported guardianship receive in-service credit (1 per webinar) toward the total annual requirement (12) and professionals can receive CEUs. 

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

Oklahoma Human Services provides post-permanency services to assist adoptive and supported guardianship families, maintain the child in the home, and support adult adoptees and birth family members coping with the lifelong impact of adoption. Services are provided by Oklahoma Human Services staff members in the Post-Adoption Services (PAS) unit. These services are offered through the agency at no cost to families.

Services include:

Pre-permanency services include pre-finalization adoption assistance benefits including childcare assistance, access to behavioral health consultants under Systems of Care and the PAS Outreach Team, who assist with adoption disclosures, multidisciplinary team meetings, and involvement of staff from the Education Services and Developmental Disability Services Program (ESDDSP) Developmental Disability Services. Beginning in fall 2024, the PAS Clinical Team will work in conjunction with the Oklahoma Human Services Enhanced Foster Care Team to provide clinical assessment and support for foster families who are transitioning into adoption prior to legal finalization.

When a family seeks assistance, the PAS Outreach Team will complete an assessment within the first one or two contacts with the family. They assess immediate needs and current and past services used. When services are needed, the PAS Outreach Team completes a warm handoff to appropriate services such as community mental health and support organizations or to the PAS Clinical Team. 

When adoptive and supported guardianship families are referred for clinical services to be provided by the PAS Clinical Team, one of the state’s post-adoption clinicians conducts a family assessment over the course of two to three sessions, typically in the family’s home. Designed to guide the treatment plan, the assessment gathers information on the child and the family. The team uses various assessment tools, one of which is the Marshak Interaction Method (MIM) analysis. 

If an adoptive or supported guardianship family needs support beyond managing their subsidy case, the PAS Outreach Team functions as the case management team. The PAS Outreach Team collaborates with other community service providers and other child welfare teams on behalf of families. They follow up and monitor progress and assess and refer to appropriate services and supports, and they connect families to online trainings, in-person events, and support groups. They provide ongoing support to the family by telephone or in person, and may continue to follow up with service providers as needed. PAS subsidy specialists continue to maintain open PAS cases for administrative purposes and connection to the Outreach Team.   

Oklahoma has a unit of full-time clinical social workers (the PAS Clinical Team) who provide short-term support to adoptive and supported guardianship families in their region. Services are provided in the home, with visits happening approximately every week. Clinicians focus on family systems work, providing support for parents through trauma and adoption psychoeducation and therapeutic parenting techniques while treating the whole family using treatment modalities focused on attachment, trauma, grief and loss, identity formation, and adoption communicative openness. After about 12 to 15 sessions, the clinician will work to transition the family and/or child to an adoption-competent provider in their area. This service started in January 2023 as a pilot, but it is fully funded and supported with plans to expand.  

The PAS Clinical and Outreach Teams host virtual monthly support groups for adoptive parents and guardians focused on adoption-specialized and trauma-informed training with adoption and permanency clinical and subject matter specialists. The group meets virtually, once a month, and discusses topics such as attachment, loss and grief, trauma, and identity formation. This virtual support group is ongoing and open to other adoptive parents to join. The National Resource Center for Youth Services (NRCYS) also partners with Oklahoma Human Services to provide a number of support groups for foster and adoptive families across the state through the Resource Family Training and Support Program (RFT). PAS also partners with the OU Center for Adoption and Family Wellbeing to provide a variety of support and education for adoptive parents, adoptees, and professionals for children and families in adoption or supported guardianship in Oklahoma. 

The PAS Clinical or Outreach team is available to collaborate and work with schools on behalf of families, including attending meetings. Oklahoma also has the ability to partner with educational liaisons in child welfare and Oklahoma Human Services, including Oklahoma Human Services school-based workers who can provide additional support, if needed. 

Adoptive and supported guardianship families may request respite vouchers. The Respite Voucher Program provides financial assistance to families who have adopted or taken supported guardianship of a child who was once in the custody of Oklahoma Human Services or a federally recognized tribe. The Respite Voucher Program is available quarterly and offers up to $75 per child (for two children) plus $25 per additional child, with a cap at $300 per family. Applications are subject to available funding. It is up to the family to identify a respite care provider. 

Oklahoma’s PAS provides pre– and post–adoptive families with Lunch and Learn webinars twice per month. A diverse group of professionals offer a wide array of topics throughout the year. Families also have access to the Critical Ongoing Resource Family Education (CORE) Teen curriculum for foster and adoptive parents who are raising teenagers who have moderate to severe emotional and behavioral challenges. All families also have access to the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training (NTI).  

Oklahoma’s PAS Outreach Team members provide information and referrals for adoptive and supported guardianship families. Staff provide information and referrals to available community resources, national resources, adoption/supported guardianship assistance, and LGBTQ2s+-specific resources.  If a child has an immediate behavioral or mental health need such as risk of harm to self or others, the PAS Outreach Team may address this by contacting the state’s general Youth Mobile Crisis Response line, a free statewide mobile response program available to families with mental health needs.  

The Mutual-Consent Voluntary Registry allows adult adoptees and persons separated from birth family members to receive assistance locating birth family members when parental rights were terminated. Confidential Intermediary Search Program is also available where a person may request the services of a confidential intermediary to search for members of their birth family. 

For more information, visit: 

The Oklahoma Post-Adoption Services program provided individualized services to 329 families through the PAS Outreach team in 2023. 

Geographic Area Covered

Post-permanency services in Oklahoma are offered statewide. PAS Outreach and Clinical Teams serve the entire state. Some services are provided virtually to ensure statewide access. 

Eligible Population for the Overall Post-Permanency Program

  • Only families receiving adoption assistance.

  • Only families receiving guardianship assistance.

Variations in Eligibility for the Post-Permanency Program

Case management and counseling services are open only to families who have an adoption assistance or supported guardianship agreement. PAS may not provide direct services to families without an agreement but may make referrals to other providers and programs. Supported guardianships that do not enter into an agreement are ineligible for the PAS Respite Voucher Program but can be supported through other available resources. Those that have not adopted through the Oklahoma child welfare system (including those who adopted privately or through intercountry adoption) are not eligible for the programs described but are connected to local resources. For families who have adopted in other states and now live in Oklahoma, PAS can assist the family in transitioning their medical coverage to Oklahoma Medicaid to obtain public services in the state.  

Outreach and Engagement

Oklahoma has a staff of five full-time workers who focus on outreach—the PAS Outreach Team. When a family finalizes an adoption or supported guardianship, an outreach worker calls the family to inform them about post-permanency services. An email with a welcome letter is sent to the family that includes the Adoptive Parent Handbook and links to the PAS website, YouTube channel, and most recent newsletter, which includes contact information for the assigned PAS subsidy specialist. General outreach is conducted monthly for webinars and meetings around the state. The PAS Outreach Team makes an effort to reach out to rural families more often because it is more difficult to find services in rural counties.  

The PAS Outreach Team is tracking its efforts and impact with data. There is a partnership with the OU Center for Adoption and Family Wellbeing to create a more formalized plan of evaluation.  

How the Post-Permanency Program Is Operated

  • By specialized state post-permanency support workers.

  • Other (listed below):

    • Partnership with the University of Oklahoma

Notes About Who Provides Which Service(s)

Post-permanency services are provided by state staff. 

Oklahoma Human Services partners with the OU Center for Adoption and Family Wellbeing through a contract with the statewide coordinator of adoption preservation services to provide consultation and supervision to clinical staff at Oklahoma Human Services, offer training for Oklahoma Human Services child welfare and adoption staff, generate additional partnership efforts to promote adoption competence in the state, and evaluate PAS efforts. 

 

Adoption/Guardianship Assistance/Subsidy Review and Changes

Oklahoma Human Services reviews adoption assistance agreements annually. A form is sent out to the adoptive parent(s) to complete and return within a specific timeframe. Oklahoma Human Services will review the form to determine if the adoptive parent is fulfilling the agreement. Annual reviews completed for supported guardianship are similar. However, permanent supported guardianships require the guardian(s) to reappear in court at the one-year mark following finalization. At that time, the judge typically dismisses all other legal reviews and then they would only return if there was an issue. There are some counties where the judge requests an additional review to follow up on a particular situation. 

 An adoption assistance agreement may be modified and the adoption assistance payment amount readjusted periodically when warranted by a change in circumstances and with the agreement of the adoptive parent(s). A change in the child’s eligibility for the Difficulty of Care (DOC) rate paid constitutes a change in circumstance. The adoptive parent(s) must inform Oklahoma Human Services of circumstances that make the child ineligible for adoption assistance payments or eligible for payments of a different amount. Oklahoma Human Services may require: (1) the adoptive parent(s) to provide updated documentation of the child’s ongoing eligibility for the payment amount received; and (2) evaluation of the child by a suitably licensed or certified examiner selected by Oklahoma Human Services when the child’s eligibility is in question. When the parties cannot come to an agreement, Oklahoma Human Services establishes the payment amount.  

For supported guardianship assistance, payment may be adjusted periodically, in consultation with the relative guardian, based on the guardian’s circumstances and the child’s needs.

Tracking Adoption/Guardianship Discontinuity

Oklahoma produces a dissolution report that tracks adoptive families who terminate their adoptions. The state does not have a formal method to track other adoption/supported guardianship instability as the children are no longer in custody. They rely on self-reporting from the adoptive family about these circumstances. There is also a report that captures cases in which families are receiving adoption assistance while their children have re-entered the Oklahoma foster care system. The report also tracks the placement resource type (e.g., acute psychiatric hospitalization, congregate care settings, psychiatric residential treatment, etc.) for children who re-enter Oklahoma foster care. Children who are adopted via intercountry adoption are tracked if they come into protective custody.  

Post-Permanency Program Spending (FY 2023)

  • $2 million – $4,999,999 million

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

  1. Adoption savings (reported on CB 496 Part 4 – Annual Adoption Savings Report) 
  2. Title IV-E funds (including Prevention Services Grant Program/PSGP or IV-E training dollars) 
  3. State funds 

 

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