ADOPTIVE PARENTS SETTLE FOR $200,000.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

The state Department of Social Services has agreed to pay $200,000 to an Antelope Valley family that was underpaid by the county for nearly a decade to care for six severely disabled adopted children, officials said Wednesday.

Donna and James Durando received the settlement after challenging an administrative ruling that denied retroactive benefits from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Service, said Encino attorney Lisa Jaskol, who represented the family.

``We recognize the needs of families who adopt children,'' state Department of Social Services spokeswoman Shirley Washington said. ``This settlement ensures that the adoptive family receives the appropriate benefits to which they are entitled.''

The county agency had acknowledged it miscalculated foster and adoptive-support payments and agreed to increase the payments, Jaskol said.

The county paid the couple $345 a month for one child when they were entitled to nearly $2,000 a month and paid $700 a month for another child when they were entitled to more than $4,000 a month, Jaskol said. But the county refused to make up the difference for previous years of underpayment, Jaskol said. An administrative law judge upheld the county's denial.

Donna Durando, 51, a nurse, said she and her husband, a sheetmetal worker, have adopted a dozen children out of foster care in the last 25 years. Seven of the children are disabled.

She said it now costs $2,800 a month to feed the children, and she pays $2,400 a month out of her own pocket for health insurance because Medi-Cal doesn't cover all their medical needs.

``I was taking care of all these kids while my husband was working. I couldn't work because my kids were so sick. We were surviving on less than $40,000 a year at the time,'' she said. ``If we'd had this money earlier for our children, they could have gotten a lot more services. Things like speech and physical therapy.''

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