[xxsurroundedbyxy]

Melissa~
Our state does not do a credit check. They gave us a worksheet early on where one side listed all income and the other side listed all bills including home and car ins, medical premiums, mortgage, car pyt, student loans, monthly electric and phone, groceries, credit card, etc. so that they can see if you have enough to cover your bills. Your past credit history should not come into play unless those are still bills you are paying and will need to include on your worksheet. As long as you can make the minimum monthly payments on everything you should be fine. Even if the minimum is $100 and you are paying $300 to pay off your debt, only list the $100 on the worksheet because that is what you HAVE to pay each month and in a squeeze could use that other $200 for something else if needed. So put only what you have to pay. Ours was short as we drive older vehicles and have no car loans or credit card debt..........but boy do I feel you on the student loans! )

We started classes. The licensing dept came to our home and made some suggestions and had a checklist to go over to make sure we met all the safety requirements inside and outside the home. It also had the paperwork we would need to collect and turn it but we had already done all that. Then at the end of classes, the same person came and inspected our house for our homestudy to make sure we had done the suggestions and requirements. She approved us and we were in the computer two days later and open for children. Our first came a week later and he is still with us.

So from start to finish it took us 2 and a half months to go from inquiry meeting to licensed foster home. We took the Saturday all day PRIDE classes for 5 weeks. Your AASK may be different.

We have not had a lot of trouble with the system, but I am not a shy one either and will tell them what we need and expect and what we were told in class our rights were.

Good luck and let us know when you finish!

Kim