PAP.15.6.110 Waiting List Policy and Procedures for Voluntary Kinship Care.

(a) Policy. The LCO Kinship Care Office shall maintain a waiting list for relative caregivers that have been determined eligible to receive voluntary kinship care payments at a time when the LCO Kinship Care Office's allocation for kinship care payments is insufficient to begin the payments.

(1) The LCO Kinship Care Office will move relative caregivers off the waitlist based on the following criteria:

(A) The order in which applications are received.

(B) The lack of stability in the living arrangement if a payment is not made.

(C) The level or urgency of the child's need under PAP.15.5.050(a).

(D) If the child is under the guardianship of the relative caregiver through a guardianship that is for permanency after a Minor in Need of Care (MNC) case or a Wis. Stat. § 48.977 guardianship.

(2) The LCO Kinship Care Office may provide a retroactive payment for the time period that a relative caregiver is on the waiting list.

(b) LCO Kinship Care Office Submittal. The LCO Kinship Care Office shall submit the Office's waiting list policy under PAP.15.6.110 to DCF by January 1, 2023, and following any change to the Office's waiting list policy

(c) Authorization. The LCO Kinship Care Office will establish a waiting list for newly-eligible relative caregivers if all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The LCO Kinship Care Office's allocation for kinship care payments in the current fiscal year will be fully expended by payments to existing relative caregivers.

(2) The LCO Kinship Care Office notifies DCF that the Office expects to be placing newly-eligible relative caregivers on the waiting list for the remainder of the fiscal year.

(d) Funding available. When the LCO Kinship Care Office has sufficient funds to begin kinship care payments to a relative caregiver that the Office placed on a waiting list, the LCO Kinship Care Office shall do all of the following:

(1) Notify the relative caregiver in writing that funding is available and request that the relative caregiver contact the Office if the relative caregiver continues to be interested in and eligible for kinship care payments.

(2) Begin payments to the relative caregiver for the time period beginning no later than the first day of the month beginning after the date that the relative caregiver contacted the LCO Kinship Care Office to express continued interest in and eligibility for kinship care payments.