Foster Parents - a question

ctbride08

How long was your certification process (from day of application through placement)?

It feels like our wait has been excrutiatingly long - application in January, homestudy and training completed in April/May, and we're still looking at another month or two before placement. 

I'm wondering if this is normal or if my state is painfully slow....

lilmufish

Good question! I can't wait to see others'responses!!!  I'm sorry yours going slower than you had wanted.

So in the past three months for the foster to adopt process...here is where we're at...

So far, with this agency, since the beginning of April:
* We submitted an application
* Submitted paperwork
* Had one visit from a social worker
* Completed protecting God's children
* Completed CPR/First Aid classes
* Completed physicals / TB tests
* We start our PRIDE classes tonight.  We should've started those in May, but they didn't have enough people. We are fortunate enough to be able to take our PRIDE classes through another agency since our agency doesn't have another one until September.  

We're coming a long...slowly but surely! 

 

come*on*baby

again - another case where we're the exception.

Our timeline:

turned in app - May 23, 2007

Pre-Service classes (PATH and PRIDE to others) - June 2, 2007

Final Home Study - July 1, 2007

License - July 23, 2007 5pm

First placement - July 23, 2007 6pm

Duchess1

Hi CT!

We had an informational meeting in December, classes starting in January, were licensed in February and got our first placement in April.

Our county will not do a home study until a child has been on your home for 6 months. I think that is why we moved along so quickly.

You know I am sending ringing phone vibes your way.

pepomntpat

We had our informational meeting in November and our classes in January. We turned in the last of our paperwork in March. We just had our home study two weeks ago and will be looking at final approval July 15. Not sure yet of the wait time for an actual placement after that point, but you seem to be pretty well on target.

It blows my mind a PP can have a placement before homestudy. WTF is that all about? So dangerous for those poor children!

Duchess1

Fredalina- I should clarify. We had to complete and pass a licensing visit, background check and paperwork to become foster parents. However, that is considered seperate from a home study which is used for adoption cases.

If our case moves to adoption we will have to do new paperwork, have a home study and a new background check to proceed. It seems really backwards to me and drags out the process but that is how our county does it. HTH :-)

come*on*baby

I still don't see how they can't do a home study for foster parents in your county. They should make sure you have the smoke detectors, fire extinguisher, enough room, make sure your house is livable, etc. Ours is one home study, but has the addition of the adoption home study as well.

Duchess1

A licensing visit does all of those things. We had our toilets flushed, smoke detectors tested, cabinets checked, cribs checked, escape routes and emergency phone numbers posted etc. They just have you do it all over again under the name "home study" when you are moving towards adoption.