Marisa Kwiatkowski

IndyStar

Debra Moss, an adoptive parent who is suing the Indiana Department of Child Services over unpaid adoption subsidies, said the state agency is "a deadbeat parent," no better than the birth parents from whom it removes children.

Moss' lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, claims DCS denied payment to more than 1,400 Indiana families that have adopted special needs children from the state's foster care system.

DCS promised in a contract to pay adoption subsidies to those families "if funding becomes available," according to the lawsuit. Yet, since 2009, DCS returned more than $238.6 million to state coffers while not paying subsidies to families that have adopted — which the lawsuit argues is a violation of the families' written contracts.

"How is DCS any different from the birth families that didn't meet their children's needs?" asked Mary Coovert, an Indianapolis resident who said she hasn't received adoption subsidies for the two special needs children she adopted from the foster care system.

DCS spokesman James Wide said he could not comment on the lawsuit because it is pending litigation.

Attorney Irwin Levin, of the firm Cohen & Malad, said dozens of families have called to complain that they, too, adopted special needs children but never received their promised subsidies. He said the law firm also received calls from families that could not adopt their special needs foster children because they couldn't afford the children's treatment needs.

Coovert, 49, said she doesn't have the money to pay for the extra therapy her 12-year-old daughter needs.

"We did adopt for love, but fair is fair," Coovert said, adding her children deserve the subsidies to help them get the fair start they didn't get at birth.

Moss, 57, claims DCS owes her about $40,000 in adoption subsidy payments. The La Porte resident adopted her three grandchildren in 2012 after caring for them as a foster parent for several years, according to the lawsuit.

On Monday, she said her family is making it by using local food banks and shopping in thrift stores.

She said she adopted the children to keep them together, not to get money. The per-day adoption subsidy would come out to less than $1 per hour, Moss added.

"Find a babysitter for less than $1 an hour," she said. "Don't tell me I'm doing it for money."

Call Star reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter at @IndyMarisaK.