Foster/Adopt question: room size exception?

JellyTwoPointO

This might be a silly question, and yes, I'll go out on a limb and ask our caseworker when we're in the home study or licensed, but I thought I'd see the opinion of everyone here.

We have one spare bedroom that we're planning on making into a kids room for the children we hope to foster/adopt.  I know the rule is 50 sq feet per child.  The room we have is small.  I am sure we can foster/adopt two and fit into the rule.  However, I'm positive it's not big enough for three according to the rules.  However, I know the placing siblings, especially 3 or more, is normally very difficult for case mangers.  And on Adopt Us Kids, there's a set of three siblings aged 4, 3, and 2 that are just tugging on my heart from the next state over.  (we're in Indiana, the children are from Michigan).  Do case workers EVER make exceptions for things like this? I've heard that if kids are on that website, it means the CWs are REALLY trying to get them adopted and they are the harder to place children.  Is it worth asking?  Would it be likely at all, or is it a no budge rule for the room size?  I'm just curious....

msditz00

In no way, shape, or form did they attempt to measure our rooms, or even ask us to tell them measurements. 

Hopefully your case workers are as lax as mine!

DaisyZH

I'm also a little nervous about room size, our DS's room is fairly small but it's big enough for one other child to share.  We're toying with the idea of switching rooms since ours is a little larger but I still doubt we would be approved for more than 1 child.  In our state the regulation is 45 square feet per child. 

I'm really not sure about making exceptions, I know in books I've read by foster parents they have often had more children than they were supposed to, but it seemed to be for emergency situations, plus they aren't super-current books. 

Hmmm, if you ask your worker let us know what the answer is because I really do wonder.

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elissaann26

Our county is pretty strict about this requirement.  We need 40 sq ft per child.  The room we are using is 126 sq feet.  We wanted to be approved for 3 children, but they would only allow us to be licensed for 2.  They told us that since our room was "just" big enough they didn't feel comfortable putting a third child in there.  We really only wanted to be licensed for the third to allow us to do respite care while having a placement, so we didn't push it when they said no.  They basically told us that we would have to reconfigure DH's office to get licensed for more kids, which isn't a real possibility since he works from home.

JennaNAaron

elissaann26:

Our county is pretty strict about this requirement.  We need 40 sq ft per child.  The room we are using is 126 sq feet.  We wanted to be approved for 3 children, but they would only allow us to be licensed for 2.  They told us that since our room was "just" big enough they didn't feel comfortable putting a third child in there.  We really only wanted to be licensed for the third to allow us to do respite care while having a placement, so we didn't push it when they said no.  They basically told us that we would have to reconfigure DH's office to get licensed for more kids, which isn't a real possibility since he works from home.

We live in the same county as Elissa and our room size was never questioned.  We lived in a 2 bedroom when we were originally licensed and the extra room was tiny but they had no problem licensing us for 2...we weren't interested in 3 however.  We moved in May and they've never even asked to see our bedrooms in our new place and we have 2 kids placed with us...so I think it will depend on your worker.