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Ohio Laws and Rules
(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) Each recommending agency shall make stipend payments to foster caregivers under their supervision to compensate their cost of attending training sessions. Stipend payments must be made to the foster caregiver within sixty calendar days of the completion of the training event. 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 the equivalent of ten dollars per foster caregiver per training hour multiplied by the minimum required training hours as listed in rule 5101:2-5-33 of the Administrative Code.
(b) For continuing training, ten dollars per foster caregiver per training hour successfully completed within a training session that is a minimum of one training hour in duration.
(2) A recommending agency is solely responsible for any foster caregiver stipend payment due that exceeds the amount reimbursable to the recommending agency under section 5103.0314 of the Revised Code. A recommending agency may decline to make a stipend payment to a foster caregiver 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, or that 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. A recommending agency may decline to make a stipend payment where 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. A recommending agency shall defer the lump sum stipend payment for preplacement training until the foster caregiver is certified. In such cases, a recommending agency's obligation to remit deferred lump sum stipend payments for preplacement training begins upon the caregiver's date of certification.
(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 equivalent of ten dollars per foster caregiver per training hour multiplied by the minimum required training hours as listed in rule 5101:2-5-33 of the Administrative Code.
(b) For an existing family foster home that is receiving preplacement training to become a specialized foster home, not more than sixteen training hours for each caregiver that is required to be trained. For the purpose of computing the stipend reimbursement in this circumstance, ODJFS will consider the preplacement training to be within the foster caregiver's continuing training requirement and subject to the maximum number of training hours that will receive stipend reimbursement for that requirement.
(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 forty 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 sixty 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. ODJFS will not reimburse stipend payments made by recommending agencies for training hours that occur between the date that the foster caregiver has completed the statutory minimum number of preplacement training hours and the date of the foster caregiver's certification.
(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, or otherwise 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 fifteen dollars per foster caregiver per training hour successfully completed within a training session.
(1) ODJFS will not make an allowance payment for any training that it will not also otherwise honor for stipend reimbursement, except that it will not defer allowance payments earned for preplacement training where the private recommending agency has deferred payment of a foster caregiver's lump sum stipend until the foster caregiver is certified.
(2) 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 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 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.
(3) ODJFS will not consider a private recommending agency to have incurred a cost when the private recommending agency uses its own facilities or equipment to host or conduct the training session, makes copies of instructional materials that will be used in a training session, mails training announcements to foster caregivers, uses an uncompensated trainer, or enrolls a foster caregiver for training in a training session held under the auspices of a regional training center of the Ohio child welfare training program (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 allowance payment is to be used by the private recommending agency as reimbursement for costs incurred to train foster caregivers under its supervision. In those instances where a private recommending agency uses the services of a third party to provide such training, the allowance payment is intended to be used by the private recommending agency to compensate such parties. Nothing herein, however, shall be construed as making ODJFS a party to any contract or agreement between a private recommending agency and a third party trainer, or creating any enforceable legal obligation for compensation against ODJFS by a third party trainer.
(F) 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. The recommending agency shall register the foster caregiver's training history using the reporting process that ODJFS implements for this purpose.
(G) Recommending agencies shall not submit training registrations for training received or rendered under the adoption assessor training component of the OCWTP.
(H) 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. 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. 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.
(I) Each private recommending agency and PCSA must register an update to a foster caregiver's training history within 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 such event.
(J) 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.
(K) 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.
Effective: 05/22/2008
R.C.
119.032 review dates: 02/28/2008
and 05/01/2013
Promulgated Under:
119.03
Statutory
Authority:
5103.0316
Rule
Amplifies:
5103.0312,
5103.0313,
5103.0314
Prior
Effective Dates: 4/1/03, 1/1/04, 8/1/05