Okla. Stat. tit. 10, § 10-7510-3.2

This Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance, hereinafter

called "the compact", is hereby enacted into law and entered into

with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein in the form

substantially as follows:

ARTICLE I. FINDINGS

The party states find that:

(1) In order to obtain adoptive families for children with

special needs, prospective adoptive parents must be assured of

substantial assistance (usually on a continuing basis) in meeting

the high costs of supporting and providing for the special needs and

services required by such children.

(2) The states have a fundamental interest in promoting

adoption for children with special needs because the care, emotional

stability and general support and encouragement required by such

children to surmount their physical, mental or emotional conditions

can be best, and often only, obtained in family homes with a normal

parent-child relationship.

(3) The states obtain advantages from providing adoption

assistance because the customary alternative is for the state to

defray the entire cost of meeting all the needs of such children.

(4) The special needs involved are for the emotional, physical

maintenance of the child, and medical support and services.

(5) The necessary assurance of adoption assistance for children

with special needs, in those instances where children and adoptive

parents are in states other than the one undertaking to provide the

assistance, is to establish and maintain suitable substantive

guarantees and workable procedures for interstate payments to assist

with the necessary child maintenance, procurement of services, and

medical assistance.

ARTICLE II. PURPOSES

The purposes of this compact are to:

(1) Strengthen protections for the interest of the children

with special needs on behalf of whom adoption assistance is

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 10. Children Page 389

committed to be paid, when such children are in or move to states

other than the one committed to make adoption assistance payments.

(2) Provide substantive assurances and procedures which will

promote the delivery of medical and other services on an interstate

basis to children through programs of adoption assistance

established by the laws of the party states.

ARTICLE III. DEFINITIONS

As used in this compact, unless the context clearly requires a

different construction:

(1) "Child with special needs" means a minor who has not yet

attained the age at which the state normally discontinues children's

services or twenty-one (21) years, where the state determines that

the child's mental or physical handicaps warrant the continuation of

assistance, for whom the state has determined the following:

(A) That the child cannot or should not be returned to the home

of his or her parents;

(B) That there exists with respect to the child a specific

factor or condition (such as his or her ethnic background, age, or

membership in a minority or sibling group, or the presence of

factors such as medical condition or physical, mental, or emotional

handicaps) because of which it is reasonable to conclude that such

child cannot be placed with adoptive parents without providing

adoption assistance.

(C) That, except where it would be against the best interests

of the child because of such factors as the existence of significant

emotional ties with prospective adoptive parents while in the care

of such parents as a foster child, a reasonable, but unsuccessful,

effort has been made to place the child with appropriate adoptive

parents without providing adoption assistance payments.

(2) "Adoption assistance" means the payment or payments for

maintenance of a child, which payment or payments are made or

committed to be made pursuant to the adoption assistance program

established by the laws of a party state.
ster child, a reasonable, but unsuccessful,

effort has been made to place the child with appropriate adoptive

parents without providing adoption assistance payments.

(2) "Adoption assistance" means the payment or payments for

maintenance of a child, which payment or payments are made or

committed to be made pursuant to the adoption assistance program

established by the laws of a party state.

(3) "State" means a state of the United States, the District of

Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam,

the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or a Territory or

Possession of the United States.

(4) "Adoption assistance state" means the state that is

signatory to an adoption assistance agreement in a particular case.

(5) "Residence state" means the state of which the child is a

resident by virtue of the residence of the adoptive parents.

(6) "Parents" means either the singular or plural of the word

"parent".

ARTICLE IV. ADOPTION ASSISTANCE

(1) Each state shall determine the amounts of adoption

assistance and other aid which it will give to children with special

needs and their adoptive parents in accordance with its own laws and

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programs. The adoption assistance and other aid may be made subject

to periodic re-evaluation of eligibility by the adoption assistance

state in accordance with its laws. The provisions of this article

and of Article V are subject to the limitation set forth in this

paragraph.

(2) The adoption assistance and medical assistance services and

benefits to which this compact applies are those provided to

children with special needs and their adoptive parents from the time

of the final decree of adoption or the interlocutory decree of

adoption, as the case may be, pursuant to the laws of the adoptive

assistance state. In addition to the content required by subsequent

provisions of this article for adoption assistance agreements, each

such agreement shall state whether the initial adoption assistance

period thereunder begins with the final or interlocutory decree of

adoption. Aid provided by party states to children with special

needs during the preadoptive placement period or earlier shall be

under the foster care or other programs of the states and, except as

provided in paragraph 3 of this article, shall not be governed by

the provisions of this compact.

(3) Every case of adoption assistance shall include an adoption

assistance agreement between the adoptive parents and the agency of

the state undertaking to provide the adoption assistance. Every such

agreement shall contain provisions for the fixing of actual or

potential interstate aspects of the adoption assistance, as follows:

(A) An express commitment that the adoption assistance shall be

payable without regard for the state of residence of the adoptive

parents, both at the outset of the agreement period and at all times

during its continuance.

(B) A provision setting forth with particularity the types of

child care and services toward which the adoption assistance state

will make payments.

(C) A commitment to make medical assistance available to the

child in accordance with Article V of this compact.

(D) An express declaration that the agreement is for the

benefit of the child, the adoptive parents and the state and that it

is enforceable by any or all of them.
th particularity the types of

child care and services toward which the adoption assistance state

will make payments.

(C) A commitment to make medical assistance available to the

child in accordance with Article V of this compact.

(D) An express declaration that the agreement is for the

benefit of the child, the adoptive parents and the state and that it

is enforceable by any or all of them.

(4) Any services or benefits provided by the residence state

and the adoption assistance state for a child may be facilitated by

the party states on each other's behalf. To this end, the personnel

of the child welfare agencies of the party states will assist each

other and beneficiaries of adoption assistance agreements with other

party states in implementing benefits expressly included in adoption

assistance agreements. However, it is recognized and agreed that in

general children to whom adoption assistance agreements apply are

eligible for benefits under the child welfare, education,

rehabilitation, mental health and other programs of their state of

residence on the same basis as other resident children.

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 10. Children Page 391

(5) Adoption assistance payments, when made on behalf of a

child who is subject to the jurisdiction of this state but residing

in another state, shall be made on the same basis and in the same

amounts as they would be made if the child were residing in this

state; provided, however, adoption assistance agreements with

families residing in other states signed before October 1, 2009, may

be continued.

(6) Effective July 1, 2010, for good cause shown, the Director

of the Department of Human Services or designee may approve adoption

assistance payments on behalf of a child subject to the jurisdiction

of this state but residing in another state, up to the maximum

foster care reimbursement allowable in the state of residence.

ARTICLE V. MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

(1) Children for whom a party state is committed in accordance

with the terms of an adoption assistance agreement to make adoption

assistance payments are eligible for medical assistance during the

entire period for which such payments are to be provided. Upon

application therefor by the adoptive parents of a child on whose

behalf a party state's duly constituted authorities have entered

into an adoption assistance agreement, the adoptive parents shall

receive a medical assistance identification made out in the child's

name. The identification shall be issued by the medical assistance

program of the residence state and shall entitle the child to the

same benefits, pursuant to the same procedures, as any other child

who is a resident of the state and covered by medical assistance,

whether or not the adoptive parents are eligible for medical

assistance.

(2) The identification shall bear no indication that an

adoption assistance agreement with another state is the basis for

issuance. However, if the identification is issued on account of an

outstanding adoption assistance agreement to which another state is

a signatory, the records of the issuing state and the adoption

assistance state shall show the fact, shall contain a copy of the

adoption assistance agreement and any amendment or replacement

therefor, and all other pertinent information. The adoption

assistance and medical assistance programs of the adoption

assistance state shall be notified of the identification issuance.

(3) A state which has issued a medical assistance

identification pursuant to this compact, which identification is

valid and currently in force, shall accept, process and pay medical

assistance claims thereon as on any other medical assistance

eligibilities of residents.
istance and medical assistance programs of the adoption

assistance state shall be notified of the identification issuance.

(3) A state which has issued a medical assistance

identification pursuant to this compact, which identification is

valid and currently in force, shall accept, process and pay medical

assistance claims thereon as on any other medical assistance

eligibilities of residents.

(4) An adoption assistance state which provides medical

services or benefits to children covered by its adoption assistance

agreements, which services or benefits are not provided for those

children under the medical assistance program of the residence

state, may enter into cooperative arrangements with the residence

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state to facilitate the delivery and administration of such services

and benefits. However, any such arrangements shall not be

inconsistent with this compact nor shall they relieve the residence

state of any obligation to provide medical assistance in accordance

with its laws and this compact.

(5) A child whose residence is changed from one party state to

another party state shall be eligible for medical assistance under

the medical assistance program of the new state of residence.

ARTICLE VI. JOINDER AND WITHDRAWAL

(1) This compact shall be open to joinder by any state. It

shall enter into force as to a state when its duly constituted and

empowered authority has executed it.

(2) In order that the provisions of this compact may be

accessible to and known by the general public and so that its status

as law in each of the party states may be fully implemented, the

full text of the compact, together with a notice of its execution,

shall be caused to be published by the authority which has executed

it in each party state. Copies of the compact shall be made

available upon request made of the executing authority in any state.

(3) Withdrawal from this compact shall be by written notice

sent by the authority which executed it to the appropriate officials

of all other party states, but no such notice shall take effect

until one (1) year after it is given in accordance with the

requirements of this paragraph.

(4) All adoption assistance agreements outstanding and to which

a party state is signatory at the time when its withdrawal from this

compact takes effect shall continue to have the effects given to

them pursuant to this compact, until they expire or are terminated

in accordance with their provisions. Until such expiration or

termination, all beneficiaries of the agreements involved shall

continue to have all rights and obligations conferred or imposed by

this compact and the withdrawing state shall continue to administer

the compact to the extent necessary to accord and implement fully

the rights and protections preserved thereby.