If you adopted your child out of foster care and your child is special needs you should qualify for:

• Medicaid for the child until he or she is 18.

This is transferable to other states. We adopted in Florida and then moved to North Carolina. I called the Department of Social Services foster care adoption unit and they simply transferred the Medicaid for me.

• An adoption subsidy until he or she is 18.

By law this is negotiable at any time. If your child’s needs change you can petition the state you adopted from in writing and request an increase.

• Federal Tax Credit

If you adopted a special needs child you are entitled to a one-time tax credit even if you had no adoption expenses. For 2016, the credit is $13,460 per child. More information here.

• Tuition Exemption to State Colleges

Many states offer tuition exemption programs to state colleges for children who have been in foster care. Here’s details I’ve compiled on every state: College $$ for foster care alumni

If your child was not designation as special needs at the time of the adoption, you can still qualify for these services. Once you have gotten a qualifying diagnosis, you can go back to the state you adopted from and request Medicaid and/or a subsidy.

Do you have any other resources you’ve found and can share?

Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash