Foster Care: E vs. F?
There are two foster care programs: IV-E Foster Care and Non IV-E Foster Care. It may appear that this distinction does not matter much since the current support is retained either way, but the difference is whether the federal government shares in the cost of a child’s care or whether the State of Oklahoma fully funds the cost. This becomes very important when the current support collection is distributed to the balances, as the appropriate reimbursement of funds of federal and state dollars is very important in these days of tightened governmental budgets.
The Foster Care Inquiry Tool displays a code in the column named “FC DIV” (when looking at the information online, it is Column “O”). The codes determine the type of foster care expended.
The table below displays the foster care types for each code and the corresponding balance types.
| FC DIV | Foster Care Type | OSIS Balance Type |
|---|---|---|
| A-IV-E | IV-E | F |
| E-IV-E | IV-E | F |
| F-MR-DD | DDSD | P (CP = DDS) |
| B-IV-B | Non IV-E | E |
| C-IV-B | Non IV-E | E |
| G-IV-B | Non IV-E | E |
| S-IV-B | Non IV-E | E |
| W-IV-B | Non IV-E | E |
Warning: Sometime, there are IV-E & Non IV-E benefits expended in the same month for the same child. This most likely happens when eligibility is back dated after Child Welfare receives additional information about the home.When this occurs, charge current support (either E or F) based on what benefit is expended the first month there are no double entries.
In addition, convert any remaining balances from the former balance type to the most current balance type (e.g. E>F or F>E).
It is important to note that foster care benefits are not issued automatically at the first of the month like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits. In order to receive foster care payments, a foster parent or home must submit a monthly claim for children in their custody. DHS Finance will then issue maintenance payments for each child based on the number of days a child is in custody. This means that foster care payments are not issued until a week or more AFTER the month-end. When payments are issued, they then populate on Foster Care Inquiry.
The Foster Care Inquiry Tool cannot be used as a fool-proof indicator to determine whether a child is/was in foster care. A child could be in DHS custody (and the CHU will reflect custody with an E or F case type), but housed in a group home or a shelter.
The majority of group homes and shelters are not reimbursed in the same way as a private foster home, so these reimbursements will not display.
In order to definitively determine whether a child is/was in foster care, only the eKIDS or KIDS system information can be relied upon for this purpose.