Wisconsin Administrative Code
Department of Children and Families
DCF 021-99 - Safety and Permanence
Chapter DCF 50 - Facilitating Public Adoptions And Adoption Assistance
Section DCF 50.17 - Adoption assistance reviews and appeals
Universal Citation: WI Admin Code ยง DCF 50.17
Current through August 26, 2024
(1) BEFORE ADOPTION IS FINAL.
(a) Prior to the entry of the
adoption order, proposed adoptive parents may contest a department action by
requesting any of the following:
1. A review
by the division administrator or designee.
2. A hearing before the division of hearings
and appeals under ch. 227, Stats., and ch. HA 3.
(b) Any of the following department actions
may be contested under par. (a):
1. Denial of
eligibility for adoption assistance.
2. The amount of the monthly adoption
assistance payment that the department offered.
(c) A request for review may be filed no
later than 10 days after the date of the department's notice of the
action.
(2) AFTER ADOPTION IS FINAL.
(a) After the adoption is
final, adoptive parents may request a hearing with the division of hearings and
appeals under ch. 227, Stats., and ch. HA 3 to appeal any of the following
actions:
1. Denial of an amendment request
under s. DCF 50.14 or approval of an amount that is less than the adoptive
parents consider appropriate.
2.
Amendment or termination of the adoption assistance agreement without the
concurrence of the adoptive parents.
3. Suspension of monthly adoption assistance
payments without the concurrence of the adoptive parents.
4. Failure of the department to comply with a
condition of the adoption assistance agreement.
5. A determination that the adoptive parents
received an overpayment or the amount of the overpayment.
(b) Adoptive parents may request a hearing no
later than 30 days after the date of the department's notice of the action or
the date of the inaction.
(3) AFTER ADOPTION IS FINAL WITH EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES. After the adoption is final, adoptive parents may request a hearing with the division of hearings and appeals under ch. 227, Stats., and ch. HA 3 if all of the following conditions are met:
(a) The adoptive parents are appealing any of
the following:
1. A department decision after
the adoption became final that the conditions of eligibility in s.
DCF 50.09 are not met.
2. A department decision before the adoption
became final relating to the amount of adoption assistance under s. DCF 50.11.
(b) The conditions
for eligibility for adoption assistance in s.
DCF 50.09 existed at the time the adoption became
final.
(c) One of the following
extenuating circumstances occurred:
1. Facts
regarding the child, the child's biological family, or the child's background
that were relevant to the proposed adoption were known to the adoption worker
who served as the child's guardian and who represented the adoption agency that
placed the child for adoption, but were not presented to the adoptive parents
by the adoption agency or by another source, such as the child's physician or
the agency that originally placed the child for foster care, before the
adoption became final.
2. Adoption
assistance was denied based upon a means test of the adoptive family.
3. The department's determination that the
child was ineligible for adoption assistance was erroneous.
4. The adoptive parents were not advised by
the adoption agency or by another source, such as a social worker or another
adoptive parent, about the availability of adoption assistance and had not
previously adopted with adoption assistance.
(d) It has been less than 90 days since the
adoptive parents knew or reasonably should have known of the extenuating
circumstance under par. (c) that is the basis for the hearing
request.
A request for review of a decision may be addressed to the Administrator, Division of Safety and Permanence, P.O. Box 8916, Madison, WI 53708-8916.
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