Adoption classes and seminars

jacksjerseygirl

I see a lot of people talk about their classes, training and seminars. I've seen this also in a lot of books and sites I've visited. We will start our 4-6 weeks of homestudy with our agency next month. We've completed many forms, questionnaires, have an appointment for our criminal background finger printing, abuse clearance forms ... but our agency does not have any requirements for classes/training/seminars.

 Is this something something that varies based on agency or state laws? We have a phone conference with them on Monday in which we will go through our next steps and Q/As ... so I'll ask them if they don't discuss it first. I was just curious.

Dr.Loretta

I think it varies based on the agency you use. One agency we're interested in only has one one-night class, and all of their seminars are more informational that required.

speak-ez

We went on our own to an adoption "academy" class last spring. It's 4 weeks core, 4 weeks domestic and 4 wks IA. You can mix and match as needed. Our agency required 12 hours of education which they provided. Not sure if that was state or agency although I know that at least some was state because they commented that certain sections are mandated by the state.

517butterfly

I think it varies.  We have to attend two training sessions as well as doing 3 online courses in addition to having infant/child CPR as part of our agency requirements.

Jermysgirl

Our agency requires 5 classes in person and 5 online classes...and they have a few others that you can attend if you want.  I loved our classes...it made me feel a lot more prepared and we also got to meet other potential parents, which has been awesome for making friends and getting advice from them.