[bookwormmommy]

Hi, to everyone. I've been reading for awhile and finally got the courage to post. I was just wondering how long most people have waited in Indiana before their first placement. We have been licensed since June and haven't received any calls. Also approved for SNAP also no calls. Is there anything I can do to improve my chances of getting called. We are thru the state not an agency. Thanks for read.

[sonya47]

Hi bookwormmommy,
We are licensed through the state as well. As we were doing our training classes we discovered that the county we live in doesn't receive many placements but the neighboring county does. We asked our county to transfer us to the neighboring county and was met with a little resistance because our availability is wide open (newborn to age 10 and we are licensed for 6). I was notified last monday that the county we requested received our packet. Friday I spoke to our homefinder who advised she was putting us into the system as we spoke and 2 1/2 later we received our first call and 24 hours after that our second call. It's a 20 minute drive for us to pick up the kids, so really not a big deal for us accepting placements from a different county. The calls we received were both after hours. We told our homefinder that we would accept emergency placements. Of the 2 placements (2 separate sibling groups) it looks like one may be short term and one long term. You might see if an adjoining county could use you or call your caseworker to remind them that you are available. My former county was probably glad we transferred since I called and emailed her every step of the way so they didn't drop the ball.
We made our first inquiry in June.

[bookwormmommy]

Our county that we are in doesn't have very many placements either. I asked about being registered in another county and was told that its all the same list if we are need by another county we will be contacted. What is a homefinder? I haven't heard of this person before.
We contact our caseworker at least once a month and have also contacted the caseworkers who did our training and they all have said to be patient.
Thanks for the reply.
Maybe our biggest problem is our age range which is 0-6 yrs girl and 0-3 yrs boy. But I have to think of my daughter and that I have never parented an older child so we went with a younger age range. We are licensed for 3 children.
Guess I will just sit and wait. If just so hard to do. We were licensed in Tn before and had five placements in the same about of time that we have been waiting for our first one hear.
Thanks again for listening (reading).

[mommamarci]

Your license is good in the whole state. However, say you live in county A. County B will use all of their families first. If they have a kid and no families, they will call county B (or C or D) and ask the caseworker for permission to call you. If the CW says no, they call a different county. That is how it was explained to me.

So, you can get placements from another county, but from my understanding, only if that county is full.

I have also heard if you push enough, you can get moved to a different county. We are going to try things out in our county for a few months. If we get no placements, I will throw a fit and try to get moved to the next county over. They are much larger and do not have a single opening in foster homes right now.

[mommamarci]

By the way, what is SNAP? I am not familiar with that.

[bookwormmommy]

Thanks for the info. It was never really explained to me how it works. I was lead to believe that you couldn't switch counties if was the county you lived in only. Unless you were licensed through an agency. So I will have to ask again and see what they tell me this time.
We are just getting very frustrated and so is our daughter we explain all of this to her and she was so excited that there would be more children in the house. She is always asking when are we going to get a kid.

SNAP is the Indiana Special Needs Adoption Program.

[kermitdfrog]

I also live in a small area of Indiana and we just got a placement after waiting for a year in a half.

From my understanding is that they are really trying to keep kids with family and doing more in home service. Or at least that's how I've heard it to be by us.

[bookwormmommy]

Thats what one caseworker for another county told me also. Glad to hear it from someelse also.
I guess patients are need here more than anything.
Thanks everyone for the information and to let me know I'm not the only one.

[EandDmom]

We are also in a small county Boone (but a huge drug area) before we were licensed I contacted Marion county and was told if my county didn't use us to call them back and they would contact our county and ask to use us. They said they had a girl that was great at getting that to happen. Marion is not that far from us so the drive wouldn't have been that bad. She was salivating when I said we were going to be licensed for 3 and preferred siblings.
As far as how long it took. I got a call at work and was told we got your paperwork today. We can have you licensed by 2 and 3 siblings at your house by 3 do you want them? We have been told they will keep us very busy.

[lmnop2]

From the time we started our classes, it took us 11 months to become licensed. Then, it took another 6 months before we received our first placement. Our foster daughter just left yesterday, and I hope it doesn't take another 6 months for another placement!

[LacyMom]

I don't know yet, we just turned in our packet 2wks ago and haven't heard anything.

on the SNAP did they do that around the same time frame of getting licenced for foster care? tia

[bookwormmommy]

I keep hoping we will get a call since its been about six months. That seems to be the common magic number. In the mean time I think I will look into some other counties. There are serveral that are only about an hour or less away. I will try to contact the directors of those counties maybe we will be needed there. I guess in this case its good not to be needed.

Yes our SNAP license was done at the same time as the foster care. Your caseworker just has to present your homestudy to the SNAP committee (I believe is how ours was done).

[LacyMom]

ah thank you! I think I"m going to email the case worker. they've had my packet for 2+wks now and i've yet to hear a word. I don't want to be left on someone's desk w/nothing done.

[bookwormmommy]

Well we finally got the call!! But we weren't home and by the time we got home we couldn't get ahold of the caseworker.
It just makes me sick that I waited six months for this call and then missed it by an hour. I though the caseworker had our cell phones numbers but I guess not or maybe they only call one number. Either way I ask them to change my number to my cell phone. Hopefully we will catch the next one.