[HOPEFULMOM2B]

My husband and I are looking to adopt children out of the foster care sys. However i have a few questions.

what is the difference between using an agency vs. going directly through child services and how do you go about it.

what are some of the questions that I should be asking of the agencies

I hear that there is financial assisstance when adopting from foster care

also has any one ever heard about swan adoptions.

Any other info that may be helpful would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[tancee]

From my understanding hard to place children and sibling groups are usually placed in the agencies. They are usually older children 15 Months and up. The agencies usually have their own requirments for foster care. With the major requirements being the same as the states. I've heard that the subsidies are less than what the state pays for their foster children. The child must have a special need to receive adoption assistance like, medical needs, sybling group, and handicap etc.

This is what little I know. Hopefully a more experienced foster parent can offer you more asisstance. I hope I helped a little.


Good Luck and Godbless!

[DianeS]

This is one question that is DEFINATELY state-specific.

In my state, there are no state foster homes. Everyone goes through a private agency. All private agencies are notified of a child in need of a home at the same time, and the first one to call back with a "yes" gets the child.

In other states, state homes are called with placements first, and if noone chooses to accept that child, the private agency homes are called. I've even heard of one state that does it the other way around, because state homes are supposedly more expensive to maintain (no clue why they say that).

Some private agencies will specialize in certain types of kids. But that can be ANY type of child. Some specialize in teens, some in sibling groups, some in a particular race, some in children with behavior problems, others in medical emergency cases or children with high medical needs, and others in healthy newborns.

In every state I know of, the private agencies can set their own rules as long as they are the same or more strict than the state rules. They can set their own payment rate, too, although any that pays less than the state does is liable to get into trouble unless they can prove the money is still being spent on the children. Some private agencies pay higher rates than the state, or have more benefits, because they have additional funding.

So, find out how it works in your state, county, and city. After you KNOW for a fact who gets placement offers when, you can start interviewing agencies.

Start simple - like telephoning and asking for their brochures and applicant packets. Some won't ever arrive, even after you've asked twice, and you probably don't want to work with anyone who can't respond to such a simple question.
The brochures and packets will eliminate some of the private agencies, too, if they specialize in a type of child you would not be able to have in your home as a foster child. Also, some will charge a rediculous amount of money for the priviledge of becoming a foster parent - they'll weed themselves out, too. Some have a statement of faith that you won't be willing to sign.
Once you have a small pile of "maybes", attend their orientations. Some drop the ball at this stage, too, getting dates or times or directions wrong, so you'd probably stop considering them.
Others don't make a good impression in person - rude, overbearing, uncertain of their own policies. Still others will have too long a waiting list for a homestudy, or will tell you details at the orientation that make them a bad match for you.

In the end, with any luck you'll be left with one or two or three choices that feel right to you. One may be the state agency, or it may not. Then you can do more question-asking and get referrals from friends and acquaintences who have used them. Remember to check the BBB in your area, and choose what feels right for you and your situation.

Good luck!

[Peggy]

It does depend on the state. I went with a private, non-profit agency. While they do "have" or represent certain children within the state system, I did not adopt any of those children. My file was as available as if I had gone through the state directly, I adopted a child not "represented" by my agency, and from another part of the state. The advantages of going with the agency, were that they did the homestudy, and held the classes. I also had a caseworker assigned to me, and she acted as a liason with other social workers. For example, she went with me to an emergency placement staffing, so she could give me advice, or if I found a child online or from a photobook she would make the inquiries for me. She was far more able to access information. As far as subsidy, it is from the state, so going through a private agency that contracts with the state should not alter or lessen the subsidy. In fact it can help as they will make sure everything is done according to procedure. I incurred no expenses at all, everything was free, or paid by the state.

[yanknrebel]

I'm confused, which doesn't take much. I am going through the state and am a foster to adopt parent. We want to adopt. Do you get a chance to adopt children that you are fostering if you are doing it for a private agency? Or is everyone talking about strictly doing foster only until an adoptive parent or couple applies, is matched and pays the enormous amount of money these private agencies require? I have been proactively searching for a 0-4 year old to adopt. I have been going to all the state agancy websites, sending inquiries, filling out and submitting my info to each agency, contacting my adoption caseworker and haveing her send our homestudy to each of these state Dept. of Children's Services. We have one foster to adopt child that will FINALLY be going to tpr on June 21st (if all goes well). SHe is now 28 months and we have had her since birth. We would like to adopt her and are looking for one or two others to adopt, close to her age. We have been foster to adopt parents for 32 months. We have in our homestudy we want 0-4, caucasian, hispanic biracial or any mix ethnically, will consider some special needs, but we most definitely want to adopt. While we ONLY get calls for teenagers, our fd is the ONLY baby or toddler in our range that has been placed with us.I am seeing on these message boards where some parents are getting many calls about infants and toddlers. Or sibling groups with an infant or toddler. In 32 months, we have had the one call for our fd, and a call for a set of twins, that were only in custody for the weekend , but due to the inefficientcy of the note taking of the hospital social worker, the state had to return these babies to a borthmom who had not visited these children in over two weeks, since the babies birth. The baby boy was not expected to live due to being 29 weeks premature, but mother still never visited. The hosp. sw kept calling and harrassing the bmom to come see the babies. The ONLY thing that finally got her up to the hospital was to tell her that they had been assigned to us the foster parents and we had been to see them everynight. She then became interested and got to take these children home. She had already lost two children due to neglect. SHe is 26 but mentally the age of 12). She had the twins in Feb, 29 week preemies. SHe is NOW pregnant again.

[tancee]

Infants and young sibling groups are hard to come by because they usually get adopted by their foster parents. We were discussing adoption through foster care. I too, have applied to foster to adopt. Yes private foster care agencies offer foster to adopt also. I'm not sure if that varies from state to state. It also, depends on weather or not your state/county has a high need for homes for that age group. If they don't that may be why you haven't gotten any calls for that age group. In my county they have a need for more foster to adopt homes.



I hope this helps.

Good Luck and Godbless!

[yanknrebel]

tancee,

Thanks for the info. So I need to check to see if our state of TN has private agencies that do foster to adopt programs? If so, as a foster to adopt parent, if a child is placed with you from these private agencies and you get to adopt that child, do you have to pay the full $10k-30k that private agencies charge?

[tancee]

From what I'm understanding its cheaper to adopt a child from foster care within a private agency. I've heard costs to be around $100- $200 if there is any. Don't quote me on this. I know for sure if the private agency is working with the state. It usually costs nothing. Also, most people I know that has fostered first and then adopted had to pay nothing. What I mean about the private agencies working with the state is they take the children that the state couldn't find homes for and try to place them with permanent homes from their client list. Again, call and check with your state to see how their system works. I hope this was helpful.

Good Luck and Godbless!

[Love_um_all]

when i first became a fp, adoption costs were reimbursed up to $1500.00. This has now changed and no longer get that. That is the approx amount to hire the attorney and get all the papers filed at the court. Most attorneys will work with you on that.

[mary112233]

We are in Ca. and have adopted both from a private Foster Family Agency and from the county.With the FFA agency we did pay for our home study which was 1000.00.300.00 was reimbursed by the childs county.We did our own court papers. They are very simple to do and any county clerk can answer any questions you have.We did 2 adoptions this way. The first was a 5 week old baby boy and the 2nd a 2 year old girl.Our next 3 adoptions are children we had as foster kids through our county. They were 8 months,1day, and 3 days at placement. Only the 8 month old has any family contact. It just so happened that the FFA angency who we adopted our first 2 from also did our county homestudy. This time there was no cost. We did pay for fingerprints and TB test.The county would have reimbursed us for this also but I never turned it in. I didn't think it was worth it.We receive AAP which is adoption assistence payment for all 5 kids based on their needs.This is something you can receive no matter which type of agency you use.Its based on the child.The big difference with using private vs county is time. Things seem to go much quicker with the private agencys then the county. Also if you are doing straight risk-adopt through the county at least with ours there is a 500.00 fee.I am not sure if its reimbursed but I don't see why it wouldn't be. I think the only one that has no fee's is if you are a foster parent and one of your placements become available. Good Luck
Mary

[vpparents]

One thing we found was that in our state (and county....here things are different from county to county as each county has its own agency as well as private agencies): Protective services contacts the state/county agency first. If they don't have caseworkers and/or foster homes available, then they pass the cases on to the private agencies.

We initially licensed through a private agency, which provided a lot of education and support but few kids under 13 (we were hoping for 0 - 5 yo). We learned it was due to the above. Eventually that agency closed its office in our county and our license was switched to the county agency. Many more young children available. However, the education/suppport of the initial agency was invaluable.

Talk to active foster and/or foster-to-adopt parents in your area. I have found that they are the very best source of how things work on a day-to-day basis.

God's blessings on your search.