Two Weeks Since Homestudy

AlbertaGrayGirl

It has been two weeks since our homestudy, and we are waiting for our CW to write our homestudy report. How long did it take for you to have your report drafted after the final visit? I emailed her to get an update on the status, as well as to see if she had any answers to questions we had posed two weeks ago, and the response I got was "I am working on your homestudy report." Well, duh! But, how is it coming? How long will it take? Do you have any more information from us? 

Am I overreacting, or would you be frustrated by this as well?

maryoosa

It took six weeks for our homestudy to be completed and another 2 before we got it.

AlbertaGrayGirl

It takes that long just to write the report? She had initially told us that it takes about 8 hours of her time.

mysticl

AlbertaGrayGirl said:

It takes that long just to write the report? She had initially told us that it takes about 8 hours of her time.

I used to do foster care home studies.  You don't just sit down and write the report in one session.  You still have other families to visit, other reports to write, meetings to attend, etc.  There could be entire days where I didn't have the opportunity to sit down at a computer and type.  Also, I was not the final approving authority. I had to turn it over to my supervisor and you just never know how long they will hang onto it before they get around to approving it or sending it back to you to be edited.  

Dr.Loretta

Ditto mysticl. Our SW was a one-woman show in her office, so she was handling matches, classes, applications, orientation meetings, counseling sessions, etc. And i'm pretty sure she had to run it by someone else before she sent us a draft. So while it may have "only" taken her 8 hours, that may have been an hour here or there when she wasn't doing all of her other duties.

2 weeks would have been a miracle

orangecupcake

I think our SW told us it could take up to a month to get the completed report back to us, but I don't think it took that long. I know it's difficult to be patient when you want everything done.

Lacyj67

Yup outs said about 30 days she expected to get it done by then... We had a placement before it was even done lol!!

AlbertaGrayGirl

Is it realistic to check in every 2 to 3 weeks, then? I just don't want to drop off of her radar, because that has happened before. 

Dr.Loretta

I don't think it's unreasonable to remind her. We didn't even realize what our SW's schedule looked like, and we still checked in with her every few weeks to discuss next steps and find out how the report was coming.

AlbertaGrayGirl

That's a good idea. Maybe I will give her another week or two, and then when I do my next "check in" I will ask.

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annalisel

Our experience was that the social workers have a lot of cases that require attention and until our case was the one with the close deadline, others took priority. I do think it helps to email every few weeks to remind them you exist, but I never know where the line between proactive and annoying is.

thescreamqueen

Our social worker finished ours incredibly quickly (like a week) because we were extremely interested in a waiting child, so the clock was ticking, so to speak.  

AlbertaGrayGirl

UPDATE:

Our SW called me yesterday with some final questions. She told me that she plans to have our report finalized and ready for our review by the end of this week, and sent to the board for approval during next week. YAY!