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Adopting children from foster care does require the adoptive parents to take preparatory classes from a state-approved agency (or the state directly, in some cases).
Some homestudies are done with particular ages of children in mind. If your agency did your study with the age of the private-adoption child in mind, it may need to be amended to account for the age of the child(ren) you are now looking at.
Not all agencies are licenced for all types of adoption. Make sure the agency that has your homestudy is licenced for state adoptions before you proceed at all.
The upside is that adoptions of children from the state foster care system are usually a LOT cheaper than other adoptions, if they cost anything at all. In fact, if you successfully adopt from the state, you may get reimbursed for the original cost of your homestudy (homestudies for foster care are usually free), because the state would pay the agency cost for the homestudy, because the state would rather have the kids adopted than in foster care. (Note: some agencies charge for state adoptions, so check with your agency and make sure it's not one of those! There ARE almost-free agencies if you're adopting from foster care.)
Good luck!
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