[cameron2003]

I have read some of the posts comparing oublic and private agencies. We are looking for a 3 to 7 year old caucasian girl, without special needs beyond the obvious one of a traumatic first few years of life. I went to the Santa CLara County orientation. I was dissapointed it was so one-sided about their program, and almost dismissive of private agencies. Is there nowhere to get an honest comparison? I am plan on visiting a few local private agencies, like Future Families, Families First, LDS Family Services, and Kinship House. What I can guess so far is:

THe County will first try to place children to adoptive parents enrolled in their program. The private agencies contact the county (or vice versa), but only get to hear about children that the County can't place themselves. Is that right? So, the the advantage of enrolling with the County is first dibs for kids that come in to them. THe advantage of private agency is that they get to work with mutiple counties (and states?). So we are left to choose between adopting kids only in our county vs. multiple counties but only kids that couldnt be placed otherwise? HELP!

ps, the County told me they can work with other counties too, so I left thinking there was no real advantage to private agency as far as kids available.

[jneen25]

I'm also about to start the foster process in santa clara county and have the same concerns as you. any info you find would be greatly appreciated, as I will be happy to return the favor.

I wish you the best of luck in your journey!


Jeanene

[kayb]

We looked at all options and this is what I know so far:

We did not go to an agency that contracted with the county, like the ones your talking about, I call them quazi-private agencies. They do the foster kids and most do international too, that's how they make their money..

You need to know if Santa Clara Co. handles it's own adoptions, or if the state does it for them.

My county is rural and only licenses foster homes. Once a chld become adoptable, then the state steps in. The foster parents are required to attend a state orientation, and get homestudied again by the state before the adoption can done.

we have the advantage of adopting kids from other counties ONLY if the State does the adoption for that county. Ususally large counties have thier own adoption system and the state doesn't get involved.

I'm not 100% positive but my understanding was the kids in counties and state overflow (from rural counties or ones w/o a adoption system) is what goes to the quazi-private agencies. Also I think if you want to go thru another county, you have to have a separate foster license from each county, unless like our situation with the State overseeing our county.

Hope i didn't ramble too much, it's crazy stuff and I hope more CA people get chatting so we can learn more!

Kay

It would hurt to call a county social worker and ask how many kids they refer out and

[kennasmom]

Hi Cameron. I went through DCFS after calling an agency and having them tell me that they get the babies that can't be placed OR babies that come to the attention of social services after hours. After deciding to go with DCFS, we had a baby boy placed with us right from the hospital. He was adopted within 11 months. We now have a baby girl - we got her at 7 months - she's 16 months and her parents rights were just terminated. We did have one failed placement - a little boy -2- who went back home in three months.

I don't know if my experience is typical - we feel very fortunate - but i wanted to give you an idea. DCFS can be a great agency to work with if you get a good SW - we've had MANY! Good luck with your decision. Whatever you do decide, you'll get the baby you were meant to have - I swear!

[cameron2003]

Hello everyone, thanks for your info. I have now been to orientations from the County and one of the so-callled quasi-private agencies. Here is what I think I know:

County will try to adopt out to parents registered directly with them first.

If they don't have parents to adopt to, they contact quasi-private agencies.

Quasi-private agencies have the advantage of statewide access.

Quasi-private agency told me County really doesn't have that many parents, so they have access to the majority of kids anyway.

They also told me that would do a better matching job, since the county wants to foster the kids out as soon as possible (to save money), where as the private agency doesn't have that financial burden.

We want to adopt an older child (age 3-6). I don't think there are many people registered through county for those, so most of them would be available through the private systems

I am leaning towards the quasi-private to maximize access....Any and all comments or opinions are welcomes...

[crick]

Hey all...

Please note that any specific agency discussion has to be done via PM. It's fine to say "any info on Families First?", but it's not okay to say "Families First does xx and they said xx".

I've deleted several posts from this thread regarding specific discussion so please remember to do all that via PM.

Thanks!

[cameron2003]

OK sorry about that. I also want to say that all the agencies are terrific in their own way, they just have a different approach or clientele perhaps and you need to pick the one that works for you. Please continue to post here or PM me if you have comments regarding agencies. I already am in contact with some of you and we are sharing information about CA agencies by name. The more, the better...

[BigLex]

It looks like your mailbox is full. Have you adopted and through which agency?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by cameron2003

OK sorry about that. I also want to say that all the agencies are terrific in their own way, they just have a different approach or clientele perhaps and you need to pick the one that works for you. Please continue to post here or PM me if you have comments regarding agencies. I already am in contact with some of you and we are sharing information about CA agencies by name. The more, the better...

[DannieAS]

I can only say what I know. I love my county and my sw. I wouldn't go the private route...but then again, I work in the public schools, and I like to do community outreach, so for me, I enjoy working with public services and didn't think any other way when it came to adoption.

That being said....going with a private agency isn't bad...you just have to do your research. There are many people that have gotton kids from foster care through agencies...most of the time you don't just have the "leftovers" from the county, sometimes there are only 20 families waiting in the county for 200 kids needing to be placed. My county does a pretty decent job of matching according to some people taht have dealt with my county, so just research any place thoroughly before committing.

Also check into how many days your the sw's work, how is the financial crisis affecting the agency/county. My sw used to be able to work every day before the summer July 1 budget issue. Now our county office has every friday off due to furlough, and each sw has to have an additional furlough day off every 2 weeks, so it's the same caseload/workload but compressed so it has slowed down a tad in CA. Check on that. Also down in socal every 3rd Wed. is a court furlough day as well, so remember CA is having some slow times...not necessarily indicative of the people working, just how they have to cram everything in with not so much time.

[DannieAS]

remember also, that not everything is written in stone yet, til it's finalized.

Although it "seems" like i've been waiting a long time in a county that places children fairly quickly, things happen, if you look at my signature, I've had a couple bites, but they have not come to fruition for one thing or another. My sw is on a "warpath" now to get me matched. She doesn't like to have her waiting families wait so long....but it's also timing. You don't know what is going to be going through and sometimes it's only older children, sometimes it's a bunch of infants, and sometimes it's just a bunch of kids all over the age map.

[mamachell]

By quazi-private do you mean an FFA?

If so, I went through one and had a baby placed straight from the hospital and we are on the path to adoption. I think it depends on which agency you use and what they "specialize" in. Ours mostly does low risk under 5 years old placements. Also, eventhough you go through an agency you are still in the county system and the county will match you also. So, we've had calls from DCFS to our agency and then we can decide to accept or not. I have actually loved having an agency because I think they really helped us screen which placements to accept because they knew us and knew that we ultimately wanted to adopt.