Interviewing agencies

slapastick

Hello ladies,

I don't post often but was wondering if you girls could help me with something.  Originally we were going to do foster to adopt but after the informational meeting we are now considering domestic.   What questions did you ask the different agencies when searching for one?  Anything would be helpful.  

 

TIA,

Jen 

Dr.Loretta

Licensing questions we found in Adoption for Dummies (how long have you been licensed, when was your most recent licensing update, etc.)

What the fee schedule is (we didn't have to ask, it was very clear on their website)

Is their birthparent counseling, for how long, is it regardless of whether they make an adoption plan or not

What's their policy on disruptions and disappointments

Do they have a separate track for minority children (some people have an issue with this, some don't, and agencies handle it differently)

How long is the average wait. They may not answer that question as it may vary, so the alternative is how long is the longest wait currently

How many annual placements vs how many waiting families (the closer to 1:1 the better)

Do they have references they can share, specifically people who didn't have picture-perfect adoption experiences

How are birthparent expenses handled

That's all I can think of right now

EclairAngst

All of the above!  

We also asked asked about when they start showing us to expectant families (some allowed us to be shown before homestudy was 100% completed if profile was done)

If there were profile templates or if we could design our own

How was per-service training handled (in agency, online, traing centers, etc)

 We found that no many agencies wanted to tell us a typical wait time but the ratio of placements to waiting families was a good indicator of how long families were waiting. 

silliestbunny

If they talk about the length of time to a match, don't be overly impressed... delve deeper.  How long do couples that match you both in criteria and general story wait? 

Do they have hospital placements? If so, how is it determined who is called?

How many profiles does a birth mom typically see?  (We were astounded to learn that the organization we were initially with would show 50-75 profiles to a birth mom at once.  There reasoning-- they didn't want to interfere and filter for the birth mom. If there were 75 couples that matched her criteria, she'd do her own filtering... As PAPs, it felt impossible to get selected w/those odds.)

slapastick

Thanks ladies!!!    So many things I would have never thought of.