[Lumpkin]

I am looking at a relative adoption of my brother’s child who has been taken from him by DHS for neglect and abuse. Currently the child resides with our mother who was originally given temp custody by the courts, and later received shared guardianship with the state – presumably because adoption of the 2 year old child is pretty likely.

TPR proceedings have taken place for my brother, and his rights were terminated. The mother could not be found until about a week later, so now the TPR hearing is scheduled for next week for the mother. The mother plans to contest, but there is more evidence against her, and she has not attempted to contact the children (or provide support for them) in over 7 months, so we’re hoping the courts just terminate.

I live Iowa, so I’m told by DHS (who knows I wish to adopt, and who has named my family in court as potential adoptive parents) that I must take a PSMAPP class and have a home study done before I can adopt. Of course, I just learned this (as everything has happened so quickly, and we were not truly certain that it would come to this), and I’m struggling to get the agency moving along to get things done. It’s looking like 3-4 weeks for the background check, then probably 3-4 more weeks to have that reviewed and approved (I already know that I will have one DCI hit from a 5th degree theft charge from 25 years ago when I was a stupid kid. That shouldn’t stop the process, but I’m told it goes to manual review when there is a DCI hit, and it could take 30 days).

They will not let me start the PSMAPP classes and the home study until the background checks are approved. And then they have to find a class for me and get me into the classes which will take another 10 weeks. So best case scenario is that we’ll have 16 weeks until we are done with all of the classes. Yet there is only probably 1 week left until TPRs are done.

With all of that background, my question(s) is/are this – should I get an attorney to draw up adoption paperwork now, and submit it on the day (or next day) of TPR? Should I wait until after the TPR to hire an attorney, so as not to waste money if TPR does not occur (in other words, how important is it to get that paperwork filed quickly)? Can I even file for adoption if I have not gone through the approval process?

Also, any advice on moving the process along more quickly? I would like to get the child in our home as soon as possible to get him used to our family and help him through the adjustment stages before he gets much older. My thoughts are that the longer he lives in the spare bedroom of my mother’s house, visiting me only occasionally, the more he’s going to start to realize that he’s not living a “normal” childhood. If we were to get him into our home soon, he may have an opportunity to never “remember” this stage of his life - yet if we wait another 6 months to a year while this process plays out, he’s going to be over 3 years old.. and he’ll be well into the stage of being able to remember these times for the rest of his life. ( Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to hide the adoption from him, but I would like for him to adjust to the family and learn about the adoption when he’s capable of understanding better.)

[LoViN_LiFe]

is very difficult. We are adopting my great-neice (who is 18months we have had her since she was 3months). We have had an attorney since before TPR occured. Mostly because we wanted our voices heard in court. We wanted the judge to know what we wanted. Also CPS/DHS can speed up a background check. OUrs was done in a day. We had our lil girl with us and then CPS did the rest of the paperwork and homestudy. In Texas the homestudy is a little different for relatives...also we are not required to take classes. If the court decides to place child with you they may put him with you asap because here the adoption process after termination is at least 4-5 months. And that is if there is no appeals. Is grandma wanting to adopt? As far as lawyer fees ours is a straight $500 fee. But hourly based on TPR and pre-TPR trials, mediations, and phone calls and meetings...its not been cheap AT ALL! Well worth it thou. Having our attorney has left us in the loop so much more then we would have been without him, although CPS and GAL were wonderful...he got us through all the logistics. We were told "speeding up the process" depended on us. The faster we get paperwork in the quicker the process. Good Luck!

[Lumpkin]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement!

The grandmother wants to adopt, but realizes that being in her 70’s would make it difficult for her to raise the child and would make it difficult for the child to have the same benefits of a child raised by parents in their 30’s (we already take the child several days at a time, in order to give her a break and allow her to rest and catch up on household chores/etc). She realizes it is selfish of her to want to adopt, but vacillates between wanting to keep the child due to the bond that she feels with him, and wanting to adopt him to family members that would allow her to remain as a grandparent. Honestly, the grandparents would not pass the background check, as the grandparents have a history of abuse (physical and sexual) of their own children, which DHS does not currently know about due to the fact that they did no background checks on them.

As far as being represented in court before the TPR, our situation is different than yours, as we are not actually a party to the CPS/DHS plan as of right now. The Grandparents have an attorney, but actually we are not allowed to talk to DHS or the court directly since we are not part of the current process. The courts are closed to us, as they are held in chambers, and the only parties involved are the parents of the child, the grandparents (as guardians), the attorneys for parents/child/grandparents/DHS, and the guardian ad-lietem (also the child’s attorney, I believe). So far, we are bystanders waiting for our chance to be heard (although it is our understanding that our names have been mentioned as the desired adoptive family in the last TPR hearing). DHS has spoken with our family once after the last TPR since we were caring for the child during the court hearing, and DHS wanted to check on the child after court.

As far as attorney costs, I am hopeful that the expense is not too tremendous, but we have saved back about $15k since the beginning of the year in anticipation of various adoption costs. Of course I don’t want to just toss good money out the window, which is why I wonder if I should go ahead and start plopping down money for attorney fees now, and have the paperwork readied by the time the court is over for the 2nd parent’s TPR (realizing that there is a chance of TPR not going through as planned), or if I should wait. I’m wondering if they will accept my petition for adoption without the accompanying home study/etc, as that could take quite some time. I know that DHS can move things along a little quicker, but the indication is that they are rather busy, and this case isn’t a priority for them since the child is placed with a family right now.

Our wonderful experience, so far, has been to sign up for the required classes. The class administrator sent us a packet of info and said that we were to turn it in on the day of orientation for the class. On orientation day ( 6 weeks later, and a week before actual classes start) , they take the packet and double-check everything. Then they say, oh yes, we don’t do the background checks locally anymore, so we’ll send them off today and hope they are done in time for the class since we can’t let you start the class until the background checks come back. Guess what? They didn’t come back yet. And when they come back, I found out that they have to be sent back out for another several weeks for review, due to one minor DCI hit that we all know is coming.

Since the child is involved with DHS, I’m not sure that I have any other options than to go through their program for adopting the child. If I thought plopping down 5k with an agency would get us immediate attention (i.e. get our background/homestudy/psmapp courses done in a few weeks time), then I’d go that route. However, I doubt that there will be much that can be done outside the slow route we are following now. (you’d think they’d make a way to speed the process up once you have a “match” so that families would not get so discourage, and so the children can be placed and move on with their lives as soon as possible)

Today, I’m thinking that I’d best go get an attorney started. I have a family acquaintance who is actually an attorney who works with family court in another city who offered to help us through the process, but I feel awkward asking for his assistance since we barely know him. Thus, I’ll probably see about getting an attorney locally, who is familiar with the local courts, and maybe even one who works for the same firm as the one that the Grandparents use (hoping that some familiarity with the case will help). I suppose if TPR for the 2nd parent fails, it’s only money wasted

[Hadley2]

Please don't take this post negatively, I think you are trying to do a good thing and that if grandma agrees, it will probably work out. I'd just hate to see you throw money away, though.

I don't see much point in hiring a lawyer to file a petition for adoption of a child who is not free for adoption--and if grandma has guardianship, I don't see how the child could be free for adoption.

Also, no lawyer from the grandparents' law firm should take you as clients. That would be a terrible conflict of interest--even if she changes her mind and agrees with the adotion--and could really muck up the works.

It is not clear whether this child is actually still in the foster system or not. If grandmother has taken guardianship, then you may end up having to work out a private adoption with her. Not the best thing, really, at all, for the child, as the state could wash its hands of all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the child.

In my experience, as soon as the state can wash its hands of a foster case and call it "closed," even if the legal custody case is still open, it will do it, leaving the relatives holding the financial and legal mess.

In any case, it does sound as if the permanency planning has already happened, and the permanency plan is grandma unless she is asking to disrupt or DSS is going back on the plan it got the court to approve once and is asking for a change.

I don't know why DSS would bother with a shared guardianship arrangement with grandma. There is no point to it and it creates an ambiguous legal and financial situation for the child--if DSS is keeping legal custody, then grandma is foster or kinship care. If grandma has guardianship, then she has legal custody and the state is out of it (meaning grandma is left to her own devices to get a TPR against mother, etc., which doesn't sound as if it's happening, so I tend to think grandma is only caring for the child). There is no allowance in federal foster care law for shared guardianship with the state--it actually goes against the spirit of the law which is to ensure optimal permanency for the child--but some states tend to ignore the details when it benefits them for some reason. Still, it doesn't really make any sense that I can think of.

If the child is still in the legal custody of the state, and not the grandmother, then you should, if DSS puts you forward as the adoptive resource home and the court approves, be able to adopt the child out of foster care. That would be good, because if the child is Title IV-E eligible (likely), then the child would most likely qualify for continued subsidy and services from the state--most especially you want to keep the child's Medicaid, even if it is supplemental to your private insurance, because most state children's Medicaid will pay for many, many, things that private insurance won't or have unworkable caps on--like weekly therapy.

Title IV-E money can also be used to defray the legal costs of adoption to you, upwards of a cap of about $2500, I think, maybe $2000, for the lawyer's fee to file and do the follow-up work, etc. We are told that a lawyer in the state with which we are dealing will actually do all that for about $1000. I am not sure, but I believe in our case when the time comes, the lawyer must invoice DSS directly.

If you want the lawyer to get you court standing, represent you in foster care review and permanency planning hearings, negotiate your adoption assistance agreement, etc., that would, of course, be more. I don't know if any part could be paid out of Title IV-E, but I doubt it--I think that money is intended for the routine costs of adoption.

In the meantime, if grandma actually has guardianship, she can certainly give you physical custody. Or DSS could, or DSS and grandma together if required, long, long, long before any adoption. Most states require a fchild to live with you for a certain amount of time before approving an adoption, anyway. Most states also have waivers for kinship care that will allow placement before you have taken classes (I'm betting grandma didn't take any classes).

Talk to lawyers, consulations are usually free (ask ahead). Get a list of GALs who work in your court district and talk to a few. They will give you a better idea of the process and what they can and can't do for you. Talk to a few before deciding what to do. It will probably take hearing explanations a few times, anyway.

Be very careful to avoid accepting guardianship. Again, if you do, you can be in the middle of the ocean alone. Check out the foster care and adoption boards as there are many relatives doing the same thing over there (including me).

Good luck. I hope all works out well for the child.