About the Program
Program History
The federal program, Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), was adopted on February 9, 2018 and was implemented nationwide on October 1, 2021. FFPSA places emphasis on the use of evidence-based prevention services to alleviate the need for the placement of children in foster care, and ensuring appropriate settings are used for children in foster care. Adopt America Network (AAN) was contracted by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) to increase the capacity of Public Children Services Agencies, Private Noncustodial Agencies, Private Child Placing Agencies, and Title IV-E Courts throughout Ohio to provide kinship assessments, foster home studies, and adoption home studies.
The new ODJFS Adoption and Resource Assessor Program (ARHAP) was designed to provide agencies in the state of Ohio access to assessors who can respond to this increased need while reducing further stress on these agencies’ existing resources. ARHAP launched a pilot in the Spring of 2022 with a statewide rollout in July of 2022. AAN is now able to accept requests from Public Children Services Agencies (PCSA), Private Noncustodial Agencies (PNA), Private Child Placing Agencies (PCPA) and Title IV-E courts to conduct homestudies and kinship assessments.
Program Overview
ARHAP serves Public Children Services Agencies (PCSA), Private Noncustodial Agencies (PNA), and Private Child Placing Agencies (PCPA), as well as IV-E Courts in completing the home assessment process. An assessor from the independently contracted pool of assessors, maintained by Adopt America Network, is assigned to each accepted assessment request. All assessors in the pool are trained and meet all standards as required by the State of Ohio. These assessors are available to perform the following assessments as availability permits:
Initial foster homestudies
Initial foster and adoption homestudies
Adoption homestudies
Kinship assessments
Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC)
The assessors who are a part of ARHAP are not able to perform recertifications or step-parent adoption homestudies.
ODJFS will cover the cost of up to 800 foster/adoption homestudies and 700 kinship assessments during the state’s 2023 fiscal year. Should an agency request an assessment or homestudy after the funds have been depleted, the agency will be notified and then be informed if and when funding has been expanded. Agencies will also have the option to separately contract with the assessors in the program’s assessor pool to complete a homestudy or kinship assessment.
