[hkolln]

In some states they only have to contact certain relatives (in our situation it was all the SW had to do was show proof she called both sets of Grandparents) and if you are extended family that has moved away from or decided to separate from the relatives that are not any good then you never find out til it's way too late. Normally the SW has to prove to a Judge they looked for relatives according to their requirements. It's normally just a process they go thru. I think it stinks they didn't search harder in our case but they did follow their county guidelines. We only found out by speaking to my husbands other sister and she told us by hearing it from their Mom that CPS called her. There are many different reasons hubby has no contact with his mother (lets just say it's not a stable relationship and she has made alot of poor choices raising him).

There could be many reasons why relatives have not stepped up yet. And there could be they have and haven't passed a home study or they are afraid to stepup for one reason or another. I can remember the SW telling us she was surprised we even called her and stepped up because most of the time relatives don't want to go thru the hassles we did. And I can remember in our daughters case the FP's never were told about us being involved til many months later.

I wish they would search early in the case (weeks not months) and get it over with before these kids bond with the FP's and also have the bioparents come up with names of other relatives they feel would be a safe home too. In our case SIL did mention us only while the SW came to visit her in prison after 3 months into the case! At that point we were already involved in getting our foster care license.

They need to search much earlier then a year later! That's way too long to me.