How much money can you make by adopting medically need children?

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2016

There's an entire industry of personal care group homes for special needs children. The group homes are typically owned by a sole proprietor and staffed by direct care workers. A nurse is usually on-call and utilized as a consultant/case coordinator.

However, these children are as deserving of love and affection as healthy children without special needs.

Susie2310 · Mar 17, 2016

This thread is designed to explore how much money you can make by adopting medically needy children.
How much can one be paid to adopt such children? For those who are wondering what I mean by "medically needy" children, they are usually trach kids, cerebral palsy kids, children with deformities, or life-shortening illnesses such as cystic fibrosis or a blood cancer. They are often wheelchair bound and many have muscle contractures.
Could one make a living doing this? Can you theoretically quit your day job and make money by adopting these kids and driving them to their appointments and such?

Are you interested in offering a medically needy child a stable, loving home? Your post only focused on how much money you can make from adopting a child with medical needs. Children are not cash cows.

RNdynamic · Mar 17, 2016

I am not interested in adopting such children. I am just curious about the matter.

elkpark · Mar 17, 2016

Are your other weird-question threads not providing enough entertainment any more? Time for a new one already?

ktwlpn, LPN · Mar 27, 2016

This makes me think of the case in NYC in the news,a foster father molested an untold number of children in his care for years.You should not go into fostering with any motive other than caring

Jensmom7, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2016

I am not interested in adopting such children. I am just curious about the matter.

Do you stay up nights trying to come up with all these bizarre topics??

heron, ASN, RN · Mar 27, 2016

You don't get paid to adopt - you pay for the privilege. As a parent of a child who is eligible for Medicaid, you can collect support and services, but it's far from generous. People also collect money as foster parents, but, again, it's not a whole lot.

Making bank just about requires that you neglect the child and/or commit fraud. Then there are the ethical issues already mentioned.

There's a special place in hell for anyone who exploits a child.

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Mar 27, 2016

As the PPs said, you need to first determine whether you have the desire and ability to serve as a real parent to these special children.

The money is a bonus.

Don't do it for the money.

It's not fair to the kids.

lindsayt05 · Mar 27, 2016

People adopting these children make just enough to live on and get by,(hopefully) and not much more than that. It also depends on your state. It's definitely not a way to get rich. A friend of mine adopted two little boys with special needs (she is also a special needs teacher.) She still works full time while she struggles to find child care for her youngest son because no one can seem to handle him. Obviously if she could afford to stay home with him she would...but this was not a career plan for her. I think the state provides their health insurance and a stipend for day care and food. That's about it.

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2016

I actually have something serious to add to this.

A handful of my patients are in adult foster care situations. The vast majority of the foster care providers are wonderful people, mostly grandmother types who welcome these folks with complicated mental illnesses into their homes and families with open arms.

However, one lady has three of the individuals in her mobile home. My patient is one of them. She pays almost $800/month to the lady for sharing a bedroom in a trailer...(not even a double wide). Apparently before the trailer, the fostered adults lived in a garage. (Yes, the state was informed, and yes, there was an investigation and now the trailer is a better alternative).

I really feel like this woman is in it for the money. She has three fostered adults, plus her brother sleeping on a mattress in the living room (and I'm sure she charges him rent as well).

Sick, but I could see someone doing this to children, too.

elkpark · Mar 27, 2016

I really feel like this woman is in it for the money. She has three fostered adults, plus her brother sleeping on a mattress in the living room (and I'm sure she charges him rent as well).
Sick, but I could see someone doing this to children, too.

Yes, this is common with kids. Lots of people are foster parents in order to make a living off the kids by having ridiculous numbers of kids in their home. My previous state passed new laws and regs several years ago in order to set limits on how many kids a foster parent can foster, how many square feet of floor space each kid is entitled to, how many max kids can share a bathroom, etc., because they discovered that families were packing kids in like sardines (six sets of bunkbeds in a bedroom, kids having to climb over other kids' beds in order to get into their own beds, no closet/storage space, one bathroom for 12 people, etc.)