[Ashlea]

I am going to my second class this week (I'm fostering/adopting through the state) and I already have so many concerns and questions. I've seen several people's posts saying that there will be tons of false accusations about you that will go on your record. How common is this? Granted, I've only been to the orientation and one class, but this has not been mentioned yet. This bothers me a ton. Who makes the accusations about you and why? Birthparents? I'll be fostering a baby. I can't imagine of being accused of child abuse and it going on my record. How could I ever adopt if that were to happen?
I also wanted to say a thank you for the people who've answered my many questions. This really is a good place to go during this process.

Ashlea

[Peggy]

I Have not had any false accusations against me. From what I have heard, sometimes older children will make false accusations. Most of the time, your caseworker knows the child well enough to know when it is just talk. My daughter's fostermom had a couple of her foster kids tell a respite worker that she was mean, and made them work, and did not spend any money on clothes. I have heard in some Foster/Adopt cases where the birthmom will make accusations, which would more likely be your situation. However it is not all the time, and once again, it is investigated, and the caseworkers know the situation, so if it is false, they know.

[DianeS]

False allegations are rough, no matter who is doing the accusing or what they're saying.

From what I hear, once an accusation has been thrown at a foster parent, it's simply easier for the agency to remove the children and not deal with that foster home again than it is to actually investigate the accusation. It's then on your record that you were accused of something, but that it never got to court.

Sometimes that can be worse. While some people/agencies/jobs only ask or care about convictions, others care about accusations. And never going to court means you never get the "not guilty" verdict. It can color people's perceptions about you forever.

The agency is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they don't want to bow to the pressure that the child or bio parent is giving them ... but on the other hand they have visions of dead children and newspaper headlines claiming the agency ignored the family's warnings.

If "What happens when someone claims you are abusive or neglectful of the children in your care" isn't addressed in your training, then you need to ask. There needs to be a standard way of handling claims that can arise. You need to be assured of a fair hearing to determine your guilt or innocence, and an explanation of how they determine that, and an explanation of what happens to you and your home while they're deciding. (If they can put you in contact with someone who has been through the proceeding and come out OK on the other side, that'd be great.)

I wish you luck!

[lucyjoy]

IN my state, when an accussation is made, they have thirty days to investigate and either decide yes to abuse, yes to inappropriate discipline, or no it didn't happen. If NO is decided, it does not show up on background checks. Allegations are often made by schools based on something a kid says, older children, or birthparents. Kids with RAD often lie about abuse. I have a boy who likes to tell people we lock him in his closet. He has no doors on his closet and we have no locks. He likes the attention he gets when people feel sorry for him. When the social worker comes out, I let her check out my house and leave the room while she talks to the kids. I haven't met a worker yet who didn't already know who my son was before he got here.
With babies, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Ashlea]

Thanks for all of your responses. This is a scary thing. The bottom line is that I want to adopt. I would like to adopt through foster care, but if there's even a chance it will harm me ever adopting, I have second thoughts. I'll ask questions at the next meeting.

[JuliannaTeresa]

Ashlea;

When you base your Questions? Look at why was this Infant taken away from Mom? Then look at why isn't the baby with Grandma?

With an Infant it is usually either Narcotic related or neglect?

The Parent may be 10 years older than you how would you handle this, or how would your Agency handle this when there are accusations?

[Allieloopy]

I have had allegations twice, once by a child and once by a bio-mom. Something that really helped me a lot was having a day to day journal of the childs behaviour. I had two months worth of daily instances of where this child lied or destroyed property. Either the workers were convinced of my innocence or the were intimidated that I was better prepared than they were. In neither case were the kids removed from my house but I hear that can happen. They can take your bio kids as well if abuse is suspected.
I don't know if unfounded charges come up on a background check but it doesn't matter, they are in my foster care file for all to see and they were in my homestudy too.

It may not happen, but the longer you are in foster care the higher the odds. When we go back we are only taking younger kids to lessen our chances of getting allegations. Since we adopted our daughter we want to be very careful.

Don't let it scare you, just be warned and overprepared.

[Sharon]

The topic of this thread is a frightening one to me for the following reason:
If the child has RAD or whatever and is prone to making false allegations of abuse, how does CPS know that the initial allegation (the one against the biological parents, which resulted in the child being removed from their custody) was not false as well? If a child could make up lies about his or her foster family, lies that are convincing enough to possibly be believed, or at least to be worrisome, couldn't he or she also have lied about the bio-family?
Frightening.
~ Sharon

[lucyjoy]

Yes, and that does happen. However, bio parents get a chance to work to get the child back using therapists etc. But, RAD is usually caused by abuse and neglect during the first two to three years of life, so the bio parents still could be responsible. However, premature, ill babies, or ill moms can cause attachment disorder as the babies needs may not be met or he may be in pain that cannot be relieved. IN my experience, most of the kids that make the false claims have been in the system awhile. I had a kid who made the same exact claim in five different homes before he got caught.