Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) As used in this rule, a training hour
means sixty consecutive minutes of instruction and may include a break of not
longer than five minutes per training hour when a training session is longer
than one training hour in duration.
(B) Stipend payments for foster caregivers
shall be made pursuant to the following:
(1)
Stipend payments must be made to the foster caregiver within one hundred twenty
calendar days of the completion of the training event for continuing training
or within one hundred twenty calendar days after certification for preplacement
training. Stipend payments may not be held or otherwise deferred pending
reimbursement by the Ohio department of job and family services (ODJFS).
Stipend payments shall be rendered for fractional hours in quarter hour
increments. The stipend rate paid by recommending agencies shall be calculated
as follows:
(a) For preplacement training a
lump sum payment shall be made in the amount of
fifteen dollars
per foster caregiver per training hour for all hours completed.
(b) For continuing training,
fifteen
dollars per foster caregiver per training hour successfully completed within a
training session that is a minimum of one training hour in duration.
(c) Recommending agencies shall make stipend
payments according to the following:
(i) For
preplacement training, the agency that certifies the caregiver shall record the
preplacement training in the statewide automated child welfare information
system (SACWIS) and shall be responsible for paying the stipend to the
caregiver upon certification.
(ii)
For continuing training, the caregiver's recommending agency shall be
responsible for paying all stipends to the caregiver and shall enter all of the
training sessions into SACWIS.
(2) A recommending agency is solely
responsible for any foster caregiver stipend payment due that exceeds the
amount reimbursable to the recommending agency. A recommending agency shall
defer the lump sum stipend payment for preplacement training until the foster
caregiver is certified. In these cases, a recommending agency's obligation to
remit deferred lump sum stipend payments for preplacement training begins upon
the caregiver's date of certification.
(3) A recommending agency may decline to make
a stipend payment to a foster caregiver:
(a)
If the recommending agency determines that the foster caregiver has not
successfully acquired the skills the training was designed to impart and as a
result the agency required the foster caregiver to repeat the training in
accordance with a corrective action plan.
(b) If the training was beyond the scope or
the amount of training specified in the foster caregiver's individualized
written needs assessment and continuing training plan.
(c) If the training the foster caregiver
received was part of a program of selfdirected study or otherwise not delivered
in a conventional or traditional setting where the principal transfer of
knowledge occurred through the physical presence of a trainer whose
responsibility it was to impart instruction to the foster parent.
(C) ODJFS reimbursement
of foster caregiver stipend payments to recommending agencies.
(1) ODJFS will reimburse recommending
agencies for stipend payments made to foster caregivers pursuant to paragraph
(B) of this rule.
(2) For
preplacement training, ODJFS will reimburse lump sum stipend payments made by
recommending agencies as follows:
(a) The
amount of
fifteen dollars per foster caregiver per training hour
for hours recorded by an agency in SACWIS. ODJFS will reimburse according to
the following:
(i) For pre-adoptive infant
homes, twelve hours.
(ii) For a
family foster home,
twenty-four hours .
(iii) For a
specialized foster home,
twenty-four hours .
(b) For
an existing family foster home that is receiving preplacement training to
become a specialized foster home, the reimbursement will be made in the form of
continuing training as specified in rule
5101:2-5-25 of the
Administrative Code.
(3)
For continuing training, ODJFS will reimburse stipend payments made by
recommending agencies per the following schedule of training hours:
(a) For a pre-adoptive infant home, not more
than twenty-four training hours during each two-year certification period for
each caregiver that is required to be trained.
(b) For a family foster home, not more than
thirty
training hours during each two-year certification period for each caregiver
that is required to be trained.
(c)
For a specialized foster home, not more than
forty-five
training hours during each two-year certification period for each caregiver
that is required to be trained.
(4) For the purpose of determining if a
stipend reimbursement is owed to a recommending agency for continuing training,
ODJFS will count only training hours that are received during the two-year
period after the foster caregiver's date of certification, and for each
two-year period thereafter.
(5)
ODJFS will not reimburse a recommending agency for any stipend payment made by
a recommending agency when the training the foster caregiver received was part
of a program of self-directed study or otherwise not delivered in a
conventional or traditional setting where the principal transfer of knowledge
occurred through the physical presence of a trainer whose responsibility it was
to impart instruction to the foster parent. Subject to restrictions that may
otherwise be imposed elsewhere by this chapter, such non-traditional training
may be counted by the recommending agency as acceptable training hours in
meeting the minimum number of training hours necessary to statutorily qualify
the foster caregiver to obtain or maintain such foster caregiver's
certification.
(6) ODJFS will not
reimburse a recommending agency for any stipend payment made for time consumed
by a lunch or dinner break that occurs during a training session.
(7) For the purpose of computing the maximum
number of preplacement and continuing training hours that will qualify for
stipend reimbursements, a foster caregiver's training history will always be
aggregated over the caregiver's entire service history and will not be reset by
the movement of the foster caregiver from the supervision of one recommending
agency to another.
(D)
ODJFS will pay a training allowance to each private recommending agency to
compensate that entity for its costs in providing, securing or procuring
training for foster caregivers through a preplacement training program or
continuing training program operated under rule
5101:2-5-40 of the
Administrative Code. The allowance rate will be
twenty
dollars per foster caregiver per training hour successfully completed within a
training session.
(1) A private recommending
agency may enter a preplacement training session into SACWIS prior to the
certification of a foster caregiver in order to receive a training
allowance.
(2) If a private
recommending agency enters a continuing training session into SACWIS in order
to receive a training allowance, the agency must have paid a stipend to the
particpant for the same training session.
(3) ODJFS will consider a private
recommending agency to have experienced a cost if any of the following items
occur:
(a) The private recommending agency
pays a trainer or another agency to conduct the training session.
(b) The private recommending agency uses its
own staff to conduct the training session and act as trainer.
(c) The private recommending agency rents
space and or equipment for the training session.
(d) The private recommending agency provides
a box meal or catered meal for foster caregivers attending the training
session. ODJFS will not consider the private recommending agency to have
incurred a cost if only break refreshments are provided.
(e) The private recommending agency purchases
a curriculum or program of instruction for use in the training session. ODJFS
will not consider the private recommending agency to have experienced a cost
for that curriculum or program of instruction when it is used in subsequent
training sessions unless the payment of a licensing or royalty fee is required
for each such use.
(4)
ODJFS will not make an allowance payment for training received or provided at
no cost to the private recommending agency. As used in this rule, "at no cost"
means that the private recommending agency incurred no out-of-pocket expense
for the training session. ODJFS will not consider a private recommending agency
to have incurred a cost when the private recommending agency:
(a) Uses its own facilities or equipment to
host or conduct the training session.
(b) Makes copies of instructional materials
that will be used in a training session.
(c) Mails training announcements to foster
caregivers.
(d) Uses an
uncompensated trainer.
(e) Enrolls
a foster caregiver for training in a training session held under the auspices
of a regional training center of the OCWTP where the regional training center
does not require a fee from the private recommending agency for the caregiver
to attend the training session.
(E) The recommending agency shall register
the foster caregiver's training history in SACWIS. ODJFS will pay foster
caregiver stipends and private recommending agency allowances only when the
recommending agency fully and accurately completes and registers the foster
caregiver's training history in SACWIS.
(F) Recommending agencies shall not submit
training registrations for training received or rendered under the adoption
assessor training component of the OCWTP.
(G) Submission of training registrations that
do not accurately reflect the training history of foster caregivers, or that
are filed prior to payment of earned stipends to foster caregivers, shall
establish a rebuttable presumption that the submitting recommending agency
intentionally seeks a training allowance or stipend payment to which it is not
entitled.
(1) If the recommending agency is a
private entity, the rebuttable presumption may serve as a basis for licensing
enforcement proceedings against that private recommending agency.
(2) If the recommending agency is a public
children services agency (PCSA), the rebuttable presumption may serve as a
basis for the imposition of any penalty permitted by section
5101.24 of the Revised
Code.
(H) Each private
recommending agency and PCSA shall register an update to a foster caregiver's
training history no later than thirty calendar days from the date on which the
private recommending agency or PCSA renders a stipend payment to the foster
caregiver. Failure to complete the update in this time frame will result in the
forfeiture of any stipend reimbursement or allowance payment owed to the
private recommending agency or PCSA for the event.
(I) ODJFS will not issue allowance payments
to PCSAs. OCWTP will be responsible for providing foster caregiver training to
foster caregivers under the supervision of a PCSA.
(J) All claims for allowance payments and
stipend reimbursements must be perfected within eighteen calendar months
subsequent to the month in which the training occurred. Claims made after that
time frame will not be honored.
(K)
Any failure of an agency to pay a stipend to a foster caregiver within the
required timeframes of this rule shall result in the forfeiture of any stipend
reimbursement owed to the agency for the event.
