[calif_couple]

My husband and I have been exploring the possibility of adopting internationally and domestically, but the costs are truly prohibitive. When I found a girl not quite two that stole my heart, and the agency said $18,500 (plus home study, INS, airfare, hotel, etc fees), my husband and I began to look at the possibility of Fost/Adopt.

I called a couple of agencies locally (California) and have a couple of more yet to call to get their info. I'm curious though ... what is the difference between agencies that work in your county? The pricing was different for each on the monthly allotment, and both appear to have support systems in place; both work with our local Calif Dept of Social Services and both have kids in need.

I've been drawn to Fost/Adopt before, but had fear about attachment issues (mine, not the child's); can we handle it (never been parents) etc etc etc.

When I start thinking, though, of the 110,000 kids in foster care ... that $18,500+ seems like it could be used at home by making our home available to kids in my own "neighborhood" that could otherwise become "hoods" in their lifetimes.

[DianeS]

The agency should be able to tell you what is different about their program that makes it cost different from another agency's. In general, though, becoming a foster parent or adopting from foster care shouldn't cost much of ANYTHING, because the state pays for the vast majority of the cost, and reimburses the agency for everything else.

Unless it's vastly different in California than anything I've ever heard - in which case someone who lives there will chime in and say what's different about their procedures.

Here in Colorado, different agencies do handle things slightly differently. For example, the agency we chose specializes in placing entire sibling groups together. They charge a $200 application fee, but then they provide training free of charge. Another agency specializes in placing babies with medical needs into appropriately trained families, and they have no application fee - however, you pay for your own training and the end cost is about $250 (my friend is licenced through them). So it works out the same, just different on the surface.

However, another agency in town charges $4,500 to licence a foster-adopt home! That's completely outrageous, as they were unable to justify that cost other than to say we'd get it back on our taxes after we adopted. Forget them! They didn't have any better of a training program, weren't staffed any better, didn't have any different of a post-adoption support network. Personally, I think anyone who used them would be nuts.

Don't forget that DFS often licences foster and foster-adoptive homes on their own, without a middleman agency. So don't forget to call them and see what thier program is! You may not choose it, just don't forget it. One question to ask is what the official state monthly allotment is for foster children - run away quickly from any ageny that offers you less, because they're skimming and that isn't technically legal. But ones that offer higher pay could either take harder-to-handle kids, or have a source of private funding.

My advice is just to look into them all closely, attend several different orientations, and see if you know anyone who has fostered and/or adopted who can tell you the pros and cons of the agency they used. Some may have extensive waiting lists for homestuddies, for example. Some may be notoriously bad about giving full disclosure on the children. Some may have 24-hour telephone lines so you can get medical treatment approval even at 3 am. Which reminds me - check with the BBB to see if any have claims filed against them. Also, check your local newspaper archives to see if there were any stories of wrongdoing even a few years ago. Inputting their names into search engines to see if it will pull up a bulletin board thread giving pros and cons is good, too.

Good luck!

[Peaches95827]

I work in Children's Services in Sacramento, CA.

The differences in Agencies that I see are what services are provided?

In Placer County with ACCESS, the Licensing for Foster Care is more rushed in tone. Licensing is at your door for the Home visit immediately following the Orientation class. The Kids' Therapists are basically almost Student Interns.

In Sacramento County, there are Agencies that have Mentoring Programs, More in Parenting Education, better support services. Licensing is at your door in the 5th or 6th Component. Instead of the first component. The Kids' Therapists have Master Degrees.


My Advice from hot and sunny California would be to look at the Quality of the Services that you are receiving. Are they focusing on the needs of the Adult or the needs of the Child. Attend Multiple Orientation Sessions.

[vbandsf]

We decided against using a foster agency (we're in LA County) and formed our own foster family home - so we don't have to deal with another agency. Instead, we deal directly with the state for foster licensing, and with DCFS for actually finding the children for fost-adopt.

Licensing with the state was actually really easy (once we got the right forms - we couldn't figure out why we had to provide really lengthy information - until we called and they said congratulations, our approval for our geriatric care facility should come through shortly!)

We've just been matched with two children, so we'll see how it goes from here. A friend of ours also went this route, and it worked.

Best of luck.

[2moms4kids]

Hello!
We are in the LA area. We had ZERO idea ab out the differences between agencies. I have worked in a psych. hospital and have gotten to know the name of a few agencies that way. i called 2 private agencies....one never called back (guess they dont need parents!). we then set up to get information from Trinity Foster Care Agency. The one thing i did find out is that the county social services are not very supportive. that they are overworked and unavailable. the impression i got was that Trinity is on pager 24/7. They make weekly visits in the first several months. I DEFINATLY like the idea of the SW's being available on a regular basis. The montly income they send for the children is approx. $630ish for children ages 4-10 years old. Is this about the amount that the other agencies pay? I was so excited to get this going it didnt dawn on me that there could be different amounts of moeny offered. needless to say the money offered is not going to support us (we both work)...but it is helpful to think there will be more money for learning tools, clothes, outings etc.
Where we are....they do not even attempt a home study until the month worth of trainings are over. Meanwhile...we have done our livescans (fingerprints), made copies of our CDL, SS#, Insurance cards (auto), placed locks in the appropriate places, furnished the rooms etc. The sooner we gain children the better. I hear from different states, that it can takes several months. Through this agency it appears to be possible within 2 months of the day we walked into the agency for the initial interview/info session. There are so many nightmare stories...i wonder if they are usually about county agencies as opposed to private agencies. i am scared that they will end up being like used car salesmen (women). i dont want the promises now and a broken down system later.
longstory short....(ok maybe not THAT short).....
does anyone have any insight in the state of cali. it sounds like we are at about the same place as you guys are.
Begging for input/insight!

Michele and Marilyn

[carolinec]

not in Cali, but dh and I work with a private agency that handles group homes, medical placements, foster and adoption placements. The baby that was adopted who just left us, her adoption costs were between 7-8ooo when she left. We are adopting our 2yr old we have fostered since december and it i costing us nothing!

We did our trainings (MAPP) with our public agency (DSS) but could also train with our local MSPCC, DSS, or any other foster/adoption agency or local hospital. Once we chose to upgrade (sorta speak) from just respite, we were investigated, and trained and had our first placement within 3 months. For us, we were not only the youngest couple in the agency, we are also only 1 of 3 homes that are willing to work with severely involved medical infants and toddlers. Most take in school age kids, with mostly behavior issues.

I USED to work with DSS, but the reasons we left were, we felt totally unsupported. I could never reach anyone, or get answers I needed. If something was going wrong, say with a bio-parent, the cw, in our instances, always seem toside with the bio, and I was always the "bad guy" or "making it up tokeep the kid" or " too attached" Needless to say, I burnt out real fast.

The nice thing I found with a private agency is I know my worker, she does NOT change as kids come and go, the kids have their own worker, and the foster home as it's own worker, looking out for the foster parents AND the needs of the kids, but is also willing to go to bat for youwhen something might happen. With our agency, we implemented a new rule, that BOTH agencies have to agree to their service plan., meaning if a child is set to go "home" both agencies have to agree it's inthe child's best interest to move at a certain point. That is very helpful.

The private agency does pay better, but expect more in return. For example, more trainings ( usually double what a private agency requires) and you usually work with more, as far as therapists, multiple doctor's, specialists etc...

I would also guess it would depend on what type of children you want to foster/adopt. My only down fall with a private agency is the placements don't come as quickly as a public agency. For us it's all money related. DSS doesnt like paying another agency for specialized care, when they can get a so-so home and take the chance they will be ok and get what they need, but it would be cheaper... the kids who are placed are usually long term tho so....... (6+ months)

[stephbix]

We are in Central California and are with a private agency. We chose the private agency route for many of the same reasons that others have mentioned. Another great aspect of private agencies is they can usually get children from counties other than your own. Our two boys adopted from fostercare came from another county. We have had children from 4 different counties in our home. With a county home you will only get children from your area and if you live in a rural area like us, it's nice to know you can go across county lines for placements. You may have to do some transporting to and from visits and the such but even with the different counties, our longest visit was only 25 min away.

As for training, our agency requires 12 hours a year and they provide the training for you (at no cost). Our county requires 40 hours a year (and your cost). Our agency also pays for all our fingerprinting, CPR/First Aid and also for anyone who will do respite for us. This saturday they are also having a huge end of summer party at a local waterpark for the families. They do a few things like this during the year and that is cool too (no cost to us).

I would also suggest taking a look at different agencies and also the county. You will get a feel of what their vision is and if your needs can be fullfilled by them. I would also suggest talking to some of their foster families if they will provide you with that information.

~Steph~

[carolinec]

a few more quick things I forgot to mention in my previous post.

With our agency, we know EVERYONE who works there, and we can reach our particular social worker 24/7. The agency is usually smaller than a public agency so you know other social workers, supervisors and other foster parents too.

Like Steph said, we don't get kids just from our area. We can take kids in from across the state of Ma. Most of our kids have come from Boston and we are 45 minutes west of boston. Also, like steph said, you have to be willing to go some transporting, but usually the worker helps out with that.

When we went thro W's death, we had total support from our agency in grieving and were ableto get help from anyone in the agency, if we needed to talk, yell, scream, etc. Our worker even attended his funeral with us, so we'd have support there if the DSS workers responsible approached us at all.

I can't say enough about working with a group of people like this. With 7 years as a foster mother, 6 with Dss and 1 with ou private agency, I don't know what I was waiting for, making the switch!!