[kbs4dws]

My husband and I are interested in adopting 1-2 children, 7 years or younger and have found several possible fits both in our state of Ohio and Oregon. I have been told that we have to take the 28 hours of foster/adoption classes before we can do the homestudy. Is this true, or is this just a rule of public/county department of children services??? We are trying to figure out the fastest way to go about this. Some counties have a 6 month plus waiting list just to be able to start a homestudy. This seems really long to me.

Would it be better if we tried to go with an agency???

Does anyone have any positive or negative opinions on public or private agencies?

And does anyone know if the classes are required for agencies???

Thank you for all the help and info.

Dazed and Confused

[SquirlyGirl]

Since no one has posted yet, I will tell you what my understanding is of public vs private:

There isn't much difference.

If an adoption is not a new born the child/ren is a ward of the state (I am sure there rare are exceptions) therefore you have to meet state requirements regardless of using a private agency or through the state.

Some states do allow private agencies to place children for them as well as the state placing. Either way I think you will have to jump through all the hoops the state throws at you because you will have to meet the states requirements.

The advantages of dealing with a private agency might be that you have a closer relationship and more contact with your case worker. BUT that is not always the case. Disadvantage: cost, I know in my state it is free to adopt through the state.

We are adopting through our state and we have one of those slipped through the cracks really messed up timeline issues. We first called in February 05 and finished our classes by May (we should have had our homestudy and been liscensed within 6 months of our initial phone call, per our state's policy) Instead it is now July 06 and we should receive our liscense any day now. Somehow my calling bi-weekly and emailing them constantly to ask when we can get our homestudy done confused them because it took from October until March to actually get them to actually do it. And it finally took a call to the head of adoptions at the capital to get our area adoptions specialist to respond to my calls and emails after the home study.

All in all, regardless of whether you go private or public adoption patience is a virtue.

You might have better luck with a response if you post this under the "General Adoptions" or "Foster to Adoption" forums.

[skirbo]

I can't help you with the decision to stay public or go with a private agency, but either way you look at it you are talking about adopting dependent children from the state. It's a question of whether you are using a third party to help facilitate or not.

Yes, the training classes are required either way, it is, I believe, a national requirement. They should be called Model Approaches to Partnerships in Parenting (MAPP) or something similar.

You can get the number for your local area training coordinator, get set up to go to their classes, and generally they will let you get your application then. You don't have to finish the training to start the homestudy in my area, but you do have to finish the training to *complete* the homestudy.

Either way, it's not a very fast process. They want and need to separate the wheat from the chaff a bit.

As your home study is going to take place in your home state, your state government home page should have some links available to take you where you can get more information. Be patient, but also be persistent.

Sarah

[denisenw5]

If you are going to use a private agency in Ohio to do an independent home study for an adoption, then you must meet the requirements of the state and the agency. Private agencies do not require you to take the MAPP class in order to have an approved home study. (But I'm sure the state requires it if you are adopting through a public agency.) They will require you to have some training which could include child care classes, infant and child CPR, and reading books regarding adoption and answering questions. If you are going to use a private agency to help you find a child, then they offer training classes specifically designed to educate their clients on the type of adoptions they do. I have no idea how the different counties work, only how private agencies work. If using a private agency to do your home study, they should have no problem completing it within 30 days, as long as you fulfill your paperwork obligations. Hope this helps and good luck with your decision!

[kbs4dws]

Thank you for all of your help and support. I am schedualed for the classes in September and I am checking out private agencies. I was told by another Ohio county DCS my best bet would be to go thru a private agency because I don't want to adopt from my county. I should have a list in the next few days.
Thanks again.
Kristin

[MtnMama]

In my experience, you can get your homestudy started through a private agency before you start your classes. That's what we did because we heard that it could be a year after we finished our classes to get the study done through our state. You'll have to check with the private agencies in your area to see what their policies are. A big benefit to getting your homestudy done by a private agency is that you can send your study in for out of state children. I notice you are already looking out of state so that's something to be considered. If you have the study done by the state, they won't let you use it out of state. That may vary by state, but I doubt it. They do it for no cost to you because they want to place their children. Good luck!

[Blackcat66]

I decided to go the route of using a private agency after being told that the Homestudy would take 6 months maybe longer and then I should plan on at least a year wait for a child, but no guarantee as to placement. I met with a CW for a Public Agency and then received a referral for the Private Agency from a friend. The CW for the Public Agency said that she would not be able to help with an out-of-state adoption and only would assist with kids in our state and highly discouraged anything else. I offered to pay for my HS or have another agency (Private) do the HS, but she said that I would wait longer if I did it that way. My husband and I decided after we met with the Private Agency that we would only search out of state and would try to do it our own way. I started the process in mid March 2006 and had an approved Study by May 8. I was aggressive with making contact with out-of-state
workers and my CW said after we had gone through two thirds of my visits (all else was verified and complete)that I could register on various sites and tell workers that I was approved only waiting on the official hard copy of the HS. All that perseverance paid off and we were matched with our kids on Memorial Weekend and are hoping to have our first visit in the next few weeks. The cost of the HS was $2000 and well worth it to me. I advocated in my own behalf and didn't involve my worker unless absolutely necessary. She charges $125/hr., so you can probably see why. There is just no way I could wait 6 months to do something that takes 4-6 weeks. We're looking at the travel aspect of things as our vacation this year knowing that the route we chose is more expensive. I think there are always alternatives if you're willing to be creative about things. As a side bar, we didn't have to take the state classes as we're not adopting from our state. We did online education and that is fine with the sending state. Just my experiences...you do have other choices.

[queenjane]

I live in Michigan, made the initial contact with the agency in late February (i think), took my two PATH classes in late March, got my letter with paperwork from the agency in April. For various reasons i didnt finish the paperwork until late June. The worker came out this past Saturday for the home visit, and said i'm approved (YAY!!!!)...now i am just waiting for a copy of the homestudy. She said my case will be transfered to a different worker for the actual matching process. I'm looking for a male child, any race, under 8 yrs old.

My agency is a non-profit private agency that places state wards. I didnt have to pay for the homestudy and they are more than willing to place out-of-state kids, but i'm sticking to MI kids for now since i homeschool and want to be able to do that from placement.


Katherine

[Blackcat66]

I just wanted to give a follow-up on my earlier post regarding private versus public agencies. If you are on the fence about making a choice I would absolutely recommend the private route. My Adoption Specialist has been amazing. Although I did a lot of work on my own sending out studies, following up with workers, etc. things have gone very well for us despite a delay with getting the initial file for the kiddos. Once we accepted the placement both my AS and the kids AS worked together to get things expedited, so the kiddos can come home to us this weekend. We only started our HS in March, so I think this is relatively fast as a timeline. The other thing I wanted to point out is that my DH and I didn't have to take any classes although we did online education. Our ICPC was approved in 9 days by both States which I think is very fast. The other thing that worked well for us was a photo album of 20-30 photos that you can e.mail to a Worker. Giving them the visual on you along with your HS was very effective.

[Hollie McGarvey]

Hi, I am wondering if you have the information you need about adopting older children. Email me if you would like to hear my thoughts.
Thanks,
Holly