By: Rebecca Miller
Passion, and anger at the system that keeps families from adopting children due to high costs, rises in the voice of West Unity resident Shirley Wagner when she speaks about the need for the laws to be changed.
On April 15, 2021, Shirley and her husband Adam, who are outspoken Child Advocates for children’s issues, had the opportunity to let their voices be heard.
“Basically, we just want people to wake up about this horrible issue,” Wagner said in a phone interview. The Wagners have been working with Representative Jim Hoops for about two years, but they have been “unofficially mentoring children for years” and adopted their daughter because of that, in June of 2020.
“We are former foster parents,” Mrs. Wagner said. “Personally I come from humble beginnings in a rough home, and have a passion to help other children who grew up like I did.”
What truly began stirring their hearts and causing them to step up to the plate on this issue was the realization that it costs so much to adopt. When they began the process to adopt their oldest daughter (who is the newest in the family) they were given the label of “private adoption” which made it almost $9000 even though it was technically a kinship adoption.
Adoption costs too much no matter what it is labeled and she is not happy with the new initiative from the State Treasurers office.
Robert Sprague’s office has designed a Low Interest Loan program that will help with the costs of adoption, but the Wagners see this as unconscionable, saying it is the equivalent of buying and selling children.
“I wish they would raise taxes so that legal fees could be covered for adoptive parents, instead of doing that loan thing,” she stated strongly.
“Take away a tax incentive for adoption and put that money into paying for the legal fees. It is a big money issue. Helping children get homes is so important and I am furious about the fact that money is what it is all about, instead of being all about the children.
The Wagners have known their new daughter who is now a pre-teen, since she was two years old and have been a part of her life except for six years when they had moved away.
The child’s mother contacted them in 2019 and said that either they adopt her or she was going to have to put her in Foster Care. Of Course they chose to adopt this child whom they already loved.
Wagner is desperate for the laws to change and when Hoops called her a few years ago, she shared her story with him. He saw the great need for fairer laws for adoption. He showed her House Bill 83 and asked if she thought he should sponsor the bill.
The bill says that third party placements need to have the child support follow the child. Wagner says that support is hard to come by unless you have legal custody.
Kinship placements need the support and many families cannot afford to add another child, so children end up in the Foster Care system where there are not enough foster parents.
House Bill 83 provides a little more support for Kinship Placement, which is what they should have been labeled, instead of Private Adoption. It keeps the children out of Foster Care. She firmly believes and states that this is a Public Health Issue.
“The opioid epidemic is caused by this problem! The solutions being offered are a fallacy. It is literally affecting the moral fiber of our communities. I will not give up. I have written to the treasurer and told him that she could come up with 100 better options than this low interest loan.
He has not even called me back. This is not saving any children. Our tax payer dollars are going to this and are not saving the children. This is a public health issue and is not something to put a bandaid over with low interest loans.”
“I may be a voice crying out in the wilderness, but if I keep advocating for these children, and I can convince them that these things are wrong, then the blood of those children is on their hands, not on mine.
If Harriet Tubman could go back for the slaves, I can advocate for these children. I was not just an unlucky kid, that is a norm and it has gotten worse.
The laws are immoral. Reunification is the goal and that is not always the best for the child. Abuse and neglect are horrible and it has to be stopped. House bill 83 is a tiny little bite, but it is bite! If we can keep this on people’s minds, they will help us fight for the children.
The reason we are so vocal, if people understood what is going on they would be willing to push for Child Protective Services for real, not just in words. Who will do it? We will! I won’t change anything, but God will!
The warriors are worn out and feel that it will never change, but we have to start somewhere, one bite at a time,” she continued. She believes that Jim Hoops and the others on the bill are doing what is best for the children.
Below is the speech.
My husband (Adam Wagner) and I our child advocates. We have been advocating for children’s issues for two years now. We live in West unity. I grew up in Bryan and Adam grew up in Edon.
Adam works at Winzeler Stamping Company in Montpelier and I work part time at Thompson Funeral Home in Montpelier and teach part time at NWSCC.
“On April 15th we gave testimony in Columbus at the State House with Jim Hoops, our District Representative from District 81, with whom we have been working for two years to combat the ever growing issues in our community and in our state.
With the foster care and adoption reform Initiative that governor Mike DeWine started in November of 2019. To date we have not seen much come from that Initiative besides a few recommendations, but it’s representatives like Susan Manchester out of district 84, Representative Allison Russo out of district 24, and representative Jim Hoops out of district 81 who are the real movers and shakers combating child services issues through bills like House Bill 83.
This bill is being worked on by both the Democratic and Republican parties. These child issues are public health issues that know no party lines. We as a community, as a state, and as a nation need to make these issues of paramount importance, because the lack of stability and support for these forgotten children is causing the ever-growing problems with our opioid epidemic, it’s feeding human trafficking issues, and filling up our prisons.
If our state budget isn’t concerned about these children now, it will only move them into another tax paying expenditure once they reach adulthood. Child protective services is currently protecting hardly any children.
A social worker from Williams County said to us that she was “happy that our adoptive daughter was getting her happy ending because so few children do.“ which begs the question, are our taxpayer dollars being used wisely?
We hope to encourage people to become aware of these issues and to get involved. Together we can change things for the children who need us most.
My husband and I have started a Facebook page, called the Ohio Foster Care and Adoption Reform Initiative, to keep the public informed about what is happening and how they can get involved.”
The following is the speech which Shirley Wagner gave in Columbus on April 15, 2021:
Chairman Manchester, Vice Chairman Cutrona, Ranking Member Liston, and Members of the Families, Aging, and Human Services Committee:
Good morning. My name is Shirley Wagner. I reside with my small family in West Unity and hail from District 81 in Northwest Ohio. As an adoptive parent, child mentor and advocate, and former foster parent, I am passionate about legislation that will lift the financial burdens of families that have been placed in kinship placements or other third-party scenarios. I want to thank you for the opportunity to present my testimony to you in support of House Bill 83.
I will begin with a story from my childhood. I ran away from home at the age of 16 after being abused and neglect for years while living with my biological mother.
I finally decided to report my mother’s abusive behavior to the local police department and to my therapist. A social worker then contacted my mother and explained, following an investigation, she would be charged with abuse and neglect.
However, if my mother signed over power of attorney to my older sister, an investigation would not be necessary.
My mother signed over the power of attorney rights to my sister, and I went to reside with her at her home.
However, my sister was living on a limited income with two children of her own, and could barely make ends meet to financially support her own family.
The added burden of another mouth to feed forced me to have to maintain full-time, third shift employment while attending high school.
Because of the existing financial strains on my older sister, she was not able to afford to obtain legal custody or guardianship of me.
As a result, never once during this time was my mother or father required to pay any financial support to my older sister for bringing me into her home and providing for me. I could not help but feel like a burden to my sister.
As a supporter of children and families in need in my county, I see such scenarios day in and day out. I believe that House Bill 83 is one of the ways that the State of Ohio can assist families who would like to help their relatives through difficult times, while also holding biological parents financially responsible for their children. This legislation is long overdue.
I recently met with Representative Jim Hoops from District 81, the director of the Williams County Department of Job and Family Services, and the supervisor of Child Protective Services to discuss their newly founded licensing program for foster parents.
Not only were they attempting to advertise their ability to license foster parents in our county, they were also trying to build family trees to find distant relatives that would be able to house the children in hopes that they would be open to a kinship placement scenario.
I know from personal experience that kinship placements are not possible for many children that have relatives with financial limitations. This was one of the many reasons why our oldest adopted daughter ended up at our doorstep; the financial burdens of a kinship placement were too strenuous for any of her close or distant relatives to afford.
In a divorce scenario where one parent receives residential custody, the other biological parent is typically required to pay child support by court order.
If at any time that the non-residential parent fails to pay child support, they can be penalized. If this is the case, then parents who lose custody of their children should equally be held to the same standard and have to provide child support to a relative, or other third party, who is taking on the financial responsibility for their child.
This standard needs to be applied equally across the board to ensure that all third party caregivers receive the support needed to care for the children.
As a former foster parent, I believe this bill additionally supports long-term reunification of foster children with their biological parent(s). It is often the case that parents who lose custody of their children struggle to maintain a basic budget.
If these parents go months or years without being financially responsible for their child, they will feel immediate financial impact if or when those children are returned to them.
If they were providing some kind of support while the child was in care, they would be used to budgeting support for that child when they are eventually reunified.
Once reunification happens, the requirement to pay for support would be eliminated and the money once paid in support could now be used for the direct care of the child.
I believe that this bill will better set parents up for success and make the reunification process more financially seamless for biological parents who typically struggle with budgeting.
When I was presented with information about this bill, I researched the matter and spoke to people that it would directly impact.
My fellow citizens all agree – child support should follow the child and the parents that do not have physical custody of children should pay support for them.
This would alleviate the financial burden on kinship placements and help stunt the ever growing number of children, in the state of Ohio, entering the foster care system.
I support the idea that third-party caretakers should have the legal means by which to request and obtain financial support.
I agree with the idea that child support should follow the child to whichever household they reside in. Because of this, I, along with scores of my fellow citizens, am in full support of House Bill 83.
Thank you for your time.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com