ICAMA

1
ICAMA ICPC

• Liz Oppenheim
• Summit of the States on Interstate Cooperation
• National Center for Interstate Compacts
• June 1-2, 2006

2
Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical
Assistance (ICAMA)

• Background
• Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980
  required that states protect the interstate
  interests of children receiving adoption
  assistance through an interstate compact
  approved by the Secretary or otherwise (475
  U.S.C. 675 (3)).
• In 1986, the first nine states became party to
  the compact

3
ICAMA

• ICAMA is an administratively enacted compact,
  that is, enabling legislation is enacted by the
  state legislature delegating authority to
  administrative officials to enter into specific
  agreements on behalf of the state.
• The compact is then executed (execution method)
  by the appropriate authority in the state

4
ICAMA

• Having an administratively adopted compact in
  this instance was important because
• Changes in federal programs impacting the compact
  (Medicaid and adoption assistance)are frequent
• The programs of the states are so dissimilar
• THEREFORE, in order for the compact to work, a
  greater degree of flexibility and availability
  for amendment was needed

5
ICAMA

• First enacted by 9 states in 1986
• Today, 48 states and the District of Columbia are
  party to ICAMA
• The two remaining non-member states are committed
  to joining the compact

6
ICAMAs Success

• State developed solution to federal mandate
• Provides the mechanism that ensures that children
  with special needs receive necessary supports and
  services, wherever they live. Most importantly,
  medical assistance
• Prevents needless delays or denials of essential
  medical benefits by providing standard forms and
  procedures by which interstate eligibilities and
  transfers of Medicaid become a proper functioning
  reality.

7
ICAMAs Success

• States can better recruit and retain prospective
  adoptive parents and preserve adoptive families
  when they can assure these families that the
  services and benefits in their adoption
  assistance agreements will be provided no matter
  where they live.
• ICAMA provides clear lines of communication
  between states which ensure that problems
  families encounter will be resolved when they
  arise.

8
ICAMAs Success

• Is critically important because
• Medical Assistance is perhaps the most critical
  support for the children covered by the compact
• Adoption across state lines is critical to state
  efforts to increase adoptions from foster care
• The internet has blurred all state lines for
  children waiting for a permanent, safe, and
  loving family
• According to the most recent AFCARS data, of the
  532,000 children in foster care, 103,460 had the
  goal of adoption

9

• A Comparison of 1997 and 2002 data indicated that
  the number of children residing in a state other
  than the adoption assistance state grew by 70
  over that 5-year period
• Adoption exchanges report that 63 of prospective
  families who respond to child-specific adoption
  recruitment do not reside in the same state as
  the child

10
Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children
(ICPC)

• Background
• Grew out of a recognition of the failure of
  importation and exportation statutes to provide
  protection for children
• Recognition that a states jurisdiction ends at
  its borders and that a state can only compel an
  out-of-state agency or individual to discharge
  its obligations toward a child through a compact

11
ICPC Background (cont.)

• Concern that states did not have to provide
  supportive services to the children placed in
  their state
• Drafted in 1960 - New York was the first state to
  enact it.
• Law in all 50 states, the District of Columbia,
  and the U.S. Virgin Islands
• State ratification of the compact was through
  embodiment of the interstate agreement in statute

12
ICPC Protects Children By

• Assuring that children placed across state lines
  for foster care or adoption are placed with
  persons of in residential treatment facilities
  that are
• Safe
• Suitable
• Able to provide proper care

13
Protects States By

• Fixing legal responsibility
• Fixing financial responsibility
• Fixing responsibility for supervision and the
  provision of services for the child

14
ICPCs Success

• For over 50 years, ICPC has provided states the
  mechanism by which they could work together to
  ensure protection and services to children placed
  across state lines by
• Providing the sending agency the opportunity to
  obtain home studies and evaluation of the
  proposed placement

15

• Allowing the prospective receiving state to
  ensure that the placement is not contrary to the
  interests of the child and that applicable laws
  have been followed
• Ensuring that the sending agency does not lose
  jurisdiction over the child once the child moves
  to the receiving state
• Providing the sending agency the opportunity to
  obtain regular supervision and reports on the
  childs progress.

16
Solutions for the Future The new ICPC

• Renewed focus on safety and permanency brought
  ICPC into the spotlight
• Confirmed the important role that ICPC plays in
  ensuring appropriate placements for children
• Highlighted the problems with the compact as
  currently written and implemented

17

• ICPC was written before the interstate highway
  system, before the development of administrative
  law, and before the computer revolutionized the
  way we live.
• The new Interstate Compact for the Placement of
  Children provides a better legal framework to
  ensure that children are placed across state
  lines in a timely manner with safe and suitable
  persons.
• The changes in the new compact address the
  deficiencies documented in the current compact
  system and the problematic and legally deficient
  language of the 1960 compact.

18
The Interstate Compact for the Placement of
Children

• The American Public Human Services Association
  (APHSA) revised the ICPC with input from a
  diverse group of state human service
  administrators, state and local child welfare
  directors, compact administrators, and a broad
  and diverse groups of national organizations and
  over 100 stakeholders across the country.
• The writing of the new compact began in March
  2004 and was completed in March 2006.

19
ICPCs Continued Success

• Is critically important because
• Interstate placements constitute approximately
  5.5 (43,000) of children in foster care during a
  given year
• Most of the placements of children across state
  lines lead to permanency for these children, that
  is, these children are placement with families
  who become their permanent families

20

• For many of the 530,000 children in foster care,
  many will be placed with relatives who live in
  states other than the state responsible for their
  care and protection. Relatives are increasingly
  the best resource to provide permanency for many
  of the children in foster care.
• Children cant wait - Timely placements are
  critical
• It is a State Solution to State Problems

21
For More Information onICAMA and ICPC

• CONTACT
• APHSA
• 810 First Street, NE
• Suite 500
• Washington, DC 20002
• [phone]
• www.aphsa.org