[Robinyyes]

Hi.

I am being considered for a boy who lives in AZ. I live in CA. My sw told me that she can't tell me not to adopt out of state, but that I would be on my own and won't be able to go to the county for resources. She is very supportive of me adopting in the county however. Neither she or the AZ sw have info on adopting from out of state, and frankly I have no idea where to start or what questions to ask, and who to ask. Anyone who has adopted from out of the state they reside in (and especially in CA but adopting from out of state) information would be GREATLY appreciated. I just have no clue at this point and it doesn't look like any of the sw are cabable of giving me one either.

[jeffw]

You need an agency if you want to go out of state. They can handle all of the logistics. Its only natural that your local Health & Welfare/Child Protection Services isn't interested in helping. They have their own kids to deal with and surely aren't interested in bringing in more.

[Lylac]

You are a licensed foster parent, so you do have a sw and NO you won't be left totally alone.

#1 To adopt from another state, it has to be done through ICPC "Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children" and the recieveing state (your state) HAS to do what is requested from the sending state (childs state).

#2 All subsidies(money,insurance, and anything else thats in the adoption agreement) will come from the childs state .

#3 There is always a waiting period, once the child is in your home, the child will be assigned a sw in your state, that will monitor things..kinda like the eyes and ears for the childs home state.

I'd do some research on ICPC and adoption subsidies from the childs state.

Good Luck! If you have any specific questions, I'm sure some of us can answer them. Most..if not all of us have adopted from other states.

Came back to say, that your sw may not do adoptions, thats why she can't help. But I'm positive that they will give you one that does do adoptions

[MilehighDad]

Robin,
There are two ways to go out of state - private and public. The two answers you have represent those two ways. Since you already have a homestudy with a public agency, it is going to be way easier to stay public. However, it won't be the same people and processes as foster or adopt that they have trained you for.

For now, here's all you need to do: get a copy of your homestudy sent to the worker responsible for the boy in AZ. To do that, you have to request your county to send it, you have to sign a release for them to send it, and you have to know where it is going.

Call and find those things out. I would try whoever performed your homestudy first. If that worker can't answer the questions, call their supervisor. If they can't answer the questions, call your county and ask for the ICPC office.

One step at a time! Get that homestudy to AZ and they will decide whether or not to match you with this boy. If you are matched, you can figure out all the details later, but I assure you that there are processes in place and it will happen, but it is long and tedious. Also, when you contact Arizona, make sure to write a brief summary of who you are and why you are interested, making sure to include the fact that you have a public homestudy in place.

I think it's great that you have found a child you are interested in, but it will take a lot of your work along the way to make it happen. Good luck.

Forgot to add one detail: in Colorado the counties are allowed to wait six months before sending a homestudy elsewhere to give them a chance to match you with one of their own kids. I don't know if California has a similar rule . . . .

[Robinyyes]

Thank you!

I'm staying public. No need to sign up with an agency. My sw's supervisor sent off my home study to the child's worker 2 weeks ago and it was already approved. (sw was on vacation) Now the child's sw wants to talk to my sw, and she said she is willing to talk to him, but I would be on my own as far as moving forward since he isn't in CA. Here in CA they ask that you wait six months, its been five; but they also tell you they can't ask you not to look outside of the county.

I think more then anything I just have no idea what to expect and the childs worker has never done a placement outside of AZ either. :sigh:. I'm just going to keep praying.

[MilehighDad]

Well, that's great! You are pretty far along already. At this stage, the match is up to the AZ workers. There are a lot of different ways that states use to evaluate homestudies and make the matches, it ranges from pretty informal to a very strict process.

If they want to talk to your worker, it is probably just to try to get more of a feeling about you from someone who knows you. The next step in the process that you see is likely to be a "staffing" or "matching" meeting to decide who to match the child with. Talk to the Arizona worker and ask them what the next step is and when they will be taking it.

Here are the steps, in general, that the Arizona workers will be going through to recruit a family if none was found in their county/state. Note that this certainly varies state-to-state:

1. Submit profile and photograph to photolisting or Heart Gallery.

2. Collect homestudies.

3. Read homestudies, probably just 1 worker, and eliminate poor matches.

4. Gather other information, including contacting SW from all families considered possible matches.

5. Down-select to small number, maybe 4, homestudies.

6. Have staffing meeting with all parties involved in case, may include telephone or personal interview of families. Select one family.

7. Provide "full disclosure" to selected family.

8. Get informed commitment from selected family (in some states this means waiting 3 days and signing a paper)

8. Start ICPC if out of state.

9. Go forward with meeting child and transitioning to new home.

Also note, probably 75% of the people who have ever gone through this had different steps, in a different order, or it hardly even looked like this. You should expect something like this, but it is up to Arizona to decide and the easiest way to find out is simply talk to the worker.

On the bright side - every call is logged and when he's your son and you go to review his file you can read their impressions on all your calls. . . .

[Robinyyes]

MileHighDad,

Thank you so much for your information and experience!

I've heard from "A"s worker this morning via email and they are scheduling the matching meeting for next week when another worker returns from vacation! (AZ seems much faster in terms of getting things done then CA btw)

Hopefully I won't be too much of a bother to you as I'm sure I'll have many more questions if we get through this next step. (My sw will represent me during the matching meeting next week)

Just having an idea of what the steps are helps quite a bit. No one has been able to give me a general idea until now (I would think that with all the out of state that goes on they would have a special unit or information at least here in CA :shrug I don't think I'll know anything until sometime next week, but once I do I'll let you know.

Thanks again,
Robin

[MilehighDad]

Robin,
No worries about being a bother, we all have the choice of whether to answer or not! And, since I'm answering, clearly it isn't a bother.

I can assure you, your county in California has an office for dealing with out-of-state adoptions, it just isn't very closely linked to the child services offices. The formal paperwork agreement will be under ICPC, which stands for Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children. Your county will have an ICPC office which must eventually route and approve any ICPC agreement, however they will be of no help to you now. It is also not unusual that your worker in county services has no experience whatsoever with out-of-state adoptions.

If you are matched with the child, the AZ adoptions worker will fill out a form for the ICPC agreement and begin routing a large packet of information from her county, to the AZ state office, to the CA state office, and down to your county office. In our last adoption, this packet was 250 pages! Usually, the only information she will need from you is in your homestudy. But, the documents get sent through many hands, so it will take a while to get in place, usually 2-3 months.

Once the agreement is in place, it will enable a number of things to happen across state lines. AZ will authorize medicaid to be paid to you, then CA has to set it up. AZ will send payments for foster care maintenance, and this may be sent directly to you or indirectly through CA. A CA worker will be arranged to conduct regular home visits and report back to AZ on your child's well-being.

Oh, and the "wonderful" part of ICPC is if something goes badly wrong and the states have a dispute - the lowest entity that can be consulted to settle the dispute is the US Supreme Court. Needless to say, you hope that everyone can reach an agreement, because I don't think the court has ever heard such a dispute, the agreement just never gets approved and you never get your child placed. (Yes, the "wonderful" comment was sarcastic!)

I hope you get matched, it does sound like they are moving AMAZINGLY fast. Our daughter's worker stopped collecting homestudies on May 24th and they didn't have a matching meeting until September 22nd! Four months to read homestudies, select four, and schedule a meeting! We almost went crazy waiting.

If you do hear anything, certainly let us know!

[anilorak13ska]

Hello. We started out with a private agency (The Datz Foundation) doing our homestudy as we were pursuing an independent domestic adoption of an infant. That HS was completed October 2008.

This spring we went through PRIDE training in hopes of foster-to-adopting, and should be licensed within the next couple of weeks.

Last month we started seriously considering older kids, and are now looking for a child up to age 4. As we go through the photolistings and inquire about kids, we're either told to submit our HS or have our agency submit it for us.

We've been eliminated twice now. I wonder if there's something wrong with our strategy.

Yesterday our DCPS SW told me that we cannot use their HS to adopt an out-of-state child, bc it's not an adoption HS but a "resource" HS. (News to me, since we went through fost/ADOPT training) She did say that if we inquire about a child out of state, that child's CW can request our HS directly from our DCPS. But this is not what the photolistings seem to follow at all. Why would they bother with that when they've got people submitting HS directly to them, without their having to ask for them! I though getting a HS through the state would mean we could replace the private HS, but it does not look that way at all.

The other option, which we've been using, has been to use our private agency adoption HS, but our SW there isn't full time with Datz, so when we've asked him to submit our HS on our behalf (for states like Oregon who won't talk to us directly), he just forwards it to someone else at Datz to submit. (I just spent a good week and a half trying to figure out WHO at Datz is the person who can find out more information about a child. Looks like by the time we straightened that out, the child's CW had already narrowed down their choices.)

Also, I wonder if all states require what I just found out Oregon does - a "special needs HS" in order to adopt a child from foster care. Supposedly our PRIDE training would work, but since we can't use our DCPS HS, we've gotten an addendum done by our private agency stating that we went through the PRIDE training. Now our HS has two addendums, and will need to be updated in 4 months anyway for out-of-state adoption (within VA it'll be valid for 3 years).

DH and I have both changed jobs, which affects the amount of time we can dedicate to a child (now we have more), but this is not reflected in our private HS, though it is in our DCPS HS (which we can't use like we thought we would). Therefore, we also don't know if we should go ahead and pay for the update of the private HS now, or wait until it needs to be done in a few months.

I should add that Datz doesn't place children, so we're not "signed" with them. We paid for the HS, we planned to pay for the post-placement visits, and that's it. Now they're telling me I'll need to submit a retainer if I want someone at Datz to communicate with a child's CW (at $100/hr!)

So when I hear about my SW representing us at a child's staffing meeting, I have no idea who that would be. HELP!

What am I supposed to be using to be considered for out-of-state kids on photolistings?!?

Thank you in advance!

[MilehighDad]

anilorak13ska,
Goodness, that is a tangled mess. It doesn't sound to me like you've done anything wrong in submitting the private homestudy. I doubt that you were eliminated in the two matches because of any real problem with your approach, but there are probably some things that you can try to tackle in a different way to put yourself in a better position.

First off, when adopting from out-of-state, the ICPC system was set up so that you wouldn't need a homestudy because the distant state could request and pay for your homestudy in your state. Due to practical limitations, though, now that only really happens when relative placements occur. That is what your SW was talking about when she said the other state could request a homestudy. Also, since you have not one, but two approved homestudies, you are actually in really good shape.

Second, take a minute and think about the perspective of each agency you are working with. The private agency is a pay-for-service arrangement, and they are only interested in helping you adopt from foster care out-of-state when there is money in it for them. They may be willing to do the post-placement visits, but again they'll get paid for that. The public agency is doing your homestudy and working with you, but their interest is in finding homes for the kids that are their responsibility. If you go out-of-state, they basically lose a family to place a kid with. Different public agencies have different policies on how much support they will give, but often it is not very much. However, your SW is probably incorrect in stating that your homestudy is not the "right one" to send out of state. Pretty much, a homestudy is a homestudy, the only difference is that they intend to use YOU as a resource therefore they don't want to give it away.

So, you're struggling with both of them because neither has a vested interest in helping you. We struggled with this exact issue, as have many others, so you're not alone. But, so far I have found no real solution to this problem. There are some work-arounds, I'll list a couple although you can't do both in any one case.

1. If you find out who is the clerk who sends out homestudies for your public agency, you can provide a consent form and get the public homestudy sent. How would you find that out? - a friendly SW, apparently not the one who told you it was a "resource" homestudy. I would suggest calling someone high-ranking in the agency and tell them you want to send your homestudy. At the same time, remind them if you do make a match out-of-state that they will be reimbursed for the cost of the homestudy by the sending state.

2. Keep having your private homestudy sent, but follow up on your own. Often the listing organization will provide contact information if you request it. They may want to give the contact info to your SW, but explain to them that you don't have a SW interested in making calls for you and they will probably just give you the contact. If you can't get contact info, then start from scratch. Every public agency in the country has public phone numbers, and you can just start calling until you track down the person responsible. If you don't even know the county the child is in, this is going to take a while, because you'll have to start at the state level, ask for state adoptions, ask them to track down the correct county, call the county, ask for adoptions, ask for them to track down the child's adoption SW, call the child's adoption SW, call the child's adoption SW, call the child's adoption SW. . . you get the picture. I think I called our latest girl's adoption SW about 150 times, because if I got her answering machine I would just hang up and call back later. There is often no point in leaving messages because they won't call you back. Also, about 15 minutes after their work day starts is a great time to call. . . .

I'm sorry that you're going through this, there should be an easier way. Everyone in private and public agencies says they want more foster kids to be matched and adopted but there is no easy way to go outside your local public agency. When you talk to both of your agencies, don't be above begging and laying on a guilt trip about what you're trying to get done.

Most of all, you've really done what you need to the last two times. As long as your homestudy is in the hands of the committee making the match you're in the running. They'll either pick you, or they won't. Striking out two times really isn't surprising, you will just need to keep trying. Since you are considering relatively young children, there will often be many families submitting homestudies, possibly a dozen or more.

Finally, make sure to also get in a letter stating why you are interested in this particular child, why you want to adopt in general, and what makes you a good family. You might get that letter into the inquiry form that you fill out from a Heart Gallery or photolisting. You might be able to reply with that letter when they contact you and say to send a homestudy. You may be able to just send the letter after you have talked to an adoption worker. Or, you might want to ask your private agency to attach that letter to the homestudy when they send it. Anything you send will get saved and put in your file, SW's are great collectors of information. You might even try to sneak in a family photo with the explanation that "you just want them to be able to see what you look like since it is likely that some of the possible matches will be people they know." That worked for us . . . .

Good luck!!!

[anilorak13ska]

Thanks for your feedback, MilehighDad.

I have written a cover letter for both situations, explaining why I think we're a good match for the children. In the first case, I faxed it with the HS, but in the second, it went through the agency, so I faxed it later, with a page of photos and our PRIDE certification. It appears that in the second case, they were already narrowing it down while I was still trying to get all my paperwork in to accompany the HS. So I will continue to do this and be sure now that I think I have all the addendums I need for now (!) to send or request to have everything send together.

I wonder, too, if I couldn't just ask my SW for the child's CW info, since none of them were trying to call on my behalf, and they seemed perplexed by my not being able to contact them directly. Though I do worry about getting yelled at, as in "how did you get this number?!"

I do understand that each agency has a different goal, and neither's priority is helping US. But I wonder if that's where the $20,000 agencies come in.

Thanks again, and if anyone else also has wisdom to share, I'm all ears

[Robinyyes]

Well I've got good news! While I started this thread about out of state, I was asking about an out of state child. That placement ended up not happening.

However, unknown to me at the time a child that I had inquired about months ago (and was told he was matched) ended up becoming available. And so, as of last night, I'm matched; we've done the disclosure meeting, and at this point I'm waiting for an assessment from UCLA (they have a great program that offers lots of services for fost/adopt kids locally) which should be complete next week or very shortly after the 4th.

Long story short we are looking at 'J' moving in at the end of July. He is 13, and a great kid! He also lives about an hour away.

I'm sure there will be some stressful times, but at this point I feel great about it all. I want to thank each of you that listened to me whine, and so many provided advice without knowing about it- I like to lurk-


Thanks again,
Robin

[Mkuhlmann06]

Congratulations!!! It's such a crazy roller coaster when matching... keep us posted on your first visit and the transition!

[MilehighDad]

CONGRATS!!! That is awesome. It is a bit dizzying in how you go from nowhere to 90 miles an hour. Enjoy the ride!

[mynewhomeiowa]

wow lots of good info in this thread..... never thought of doing an out of state adoption but something or someone may have changed this. Thank you for all the info....