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Originally Posted by shy_bear
This may have been discussed before, but I was wondering to what degree of legal risk are you open to???? We are only open to low legal risk; we want to know that TPR is under way or is in the process of being started. For example, the baby we were offered but turned down was going to have TPR started at his next court date. We know us not being more open to risk is what is slowing us down in getting a placement. I know I could not handle a baby being here for months or years and then have to return it to bio's and we also don't want to put our girls through that.
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Well in Florida (or at least in my county in Florida) they DO NOT place by legal risk, because there is no official "foster to adopt program" here. They do not always know what the legal status of the child will be especially if they just came into care....
HOWEVER it has been my experience that if a child is coming to your home from another foster home they may have more info on whether or not it is likely they will be TPR'd....With my new placement when they called me initially they told me that it is highly likely the boys will be available for adoption and they had already planned to file for TPR....this is what made me choose my boys over the 2 little girls they were trying to place me with on the same day.....
However they also told me I was under no obligation to adopt them and this was not considered a pre-adoptive placement (although technically it is).. (The kids were removed unexpectedly because former foster parents were accused of abuse and they needed an emergency placement) ....If I didn't want to adopt (which I do)..they would have placed them with me anyway and just moved them to a another home once they found someone who wanted to adopt them after TPR had been granted....(Crazy I know!)
But I also have a little boy with me who is probably going to be going back to mom, if not mom, to other relatives....(mom has been TPR'd on 2 other kids in the recent past, so there is a moderate possibility of TPR, but RU is expected since she is actively working her case plan) and I knew that from the get go and I took him anyway....because I enjoy fostering too...and I plan to contnue fostering (and adopting) until they won't let me anymore...max is usually 5 kids in a home when you foster, but they do make exceptions, especially for siblings...
So the answer after all that rambling is I take all levels of risk......