Agency vent

edaire

Hey ya'll,

So we did our FBI clearances in the middle of October, signed our contracts on November 2, and had our first home study visit on December 5 (Louisiana law requires 3 home study visits). The social worker doing our home study said that she would contact us soon to schedule our second meeting. I didn't expect to hear from her for a while since the holidays were coming up. By January 7th I still had not heard from her. I emailed her that day and asked her if she knew when she would be meeting with us again so that I could plan out my month. She emailed me back a week later and said that the agency told her she could not meet with us again until after our FBI clearances came back. I was shocked that they were still not back since it's been so long and the FBI took the money out of our account to process it in early December. Today my husband called the FBI to check the status of our clearances and they said that it was mailed to our agency on December 12. I informed the agency of this and her response was "Oh I do have it. It came in over the holidays and it just wasn't put in your folder."

If it was mailed on December 12 then it should have arrived by the 15th, which is 10 days before Christmas. We are now a month behind on things for no reason at all. I'm pretty sure that I'm over reacting about this, and that the wait to be matched is making me a little more anxious than I usually am. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing with their agency? It concerns me because if we wouldn't have checked into it we would just be waiting and waiting while our FBI clearances sat on her desk. Is this pretty typical? Am I in for more instances like this? I would apprecaite some feedback of people working with agencies. I probably just need to cool my heels Thanks yall!

lafayettegirl

While I would not say this is typical, I would say that it is not entirely unexpected. The SWs are often dealing with a lot of people and a lot of paperwork. Heck, even I am still digging out of some of the mail that came in over the holidays and I am not a social worker!

That being said, this is a good reminder that you are your own best advocate. Always call and check in when something hasn't happened in the time or way you thought it would. While we have to rely on our SW, my DH and I keep pretty good paperwork about what we're doing/waiting on/etc. You just want to be on top of that stuff.

Good luck! 

jackieo1309

We definitely had our fair share of agency issues like that. We were delayed so many times- it was over 3 months AFTER our homestudy was finalized before we were actually "waiting" because they wanted to edit our dear birthmother letter 5 times and took almost 2 weeks every time. Half the time the "edits" they sent back had incorrect grammar or were so generic it was nauseating. And I still like our agency, I think this is just how it goes sometimes. I was beyond frustrated throughout the whole "waiting to wait" time and I couldn't understand why there was no sense of urgency to get things done on their end. If you read through some of my blog posts from a few months ago you can see what a crazy person I was I think it's definitely a good idea to stay on top of them when you are waiting for something specific to be done, but try not to get too worked up about it because it's often something completely out of your control. I'm definitely type A so dealing with other people's disorganization and untimeliness was definitely hard for me. Hope you are "waiting" soon and your wait isn't long!

Dr.Loretta

If it's the only delay, I wouldn't write off the agency at this point. If you see other red flags, I'd start to be concerned. I'd also factor in how many people work in the office, esp over the holidays. Our particular office was a one-woman show, so some things just took time while she dealt with orientations, info meetings, homestudies, matches, BM counseling, etc.

We had a delay with clearances, but it wasn't the agency's fault. The state sent our clearance....somewhere, and I waited 9 weeks to follow up. It was in our mailbox 2 days later.

lizlemon2

I definitely think the holidays slowed things down.  Give them a little break and see if it continues.  I know the wait is excruciating!!

sgb721

Maybe I'm jaded in saying this but I feel like every agency has a hang up. I have a feeling ours will be communication. At our workshop I brought up about how long after the home study is conducted do you receive word you are cleared to go into profile. She said 'about two weeks they mail you a letter'. Wow... so for all the money the agency collects through this process a phone call or e-mail is too much to ask, considering I have to call and set up a profile appointment anyway. So yea... I think they all have 'glitches'.

It doesn't excuse this lapse in paperwork though!!!