[henderfive]

Redanly,
Good Luck to you, remain very presistant and don't be afraid to talk to supervisors. I have a cousin with me he is now 11 mo. It took me three months to get custody. I bugged and did alot of paperwork and calls to make it easier for the S.W. It can get very overwhelming for the S.W. to get any extra work done. With budget cuts they have more cases and take at least one day off a week. It should not take much time, mine took 3 mo. because we had an issue with getting an approval on something that came back on the fingersprints. We are kindship and do recieve financial aid for him. Since you are taking him out of the state I am sure things will take a little longer. Don't take anything personal, my S.W. sounds like she is trying to get off the phone just as soon as we start taking and we get along really well. If you need anymore advice you can private message me I may have a number of someone you can get advice from. Again good luck in your journey, you and your partner are doing a wondeful thing.
Henderfive

[redanley]

Hello friends,
I wanted to update you on our situation and ask for any additional advice…hugs and prayers are needed as well!
My partner’s nephew has been in foster care in Sacramento since June. The birth parents, my partner’s brother and girlfriend, have been on the run the entire time. They have not seen the baby (he’s 18 months) since April. They have not kept jobs, refuse to complete drug tests, have used methamphetamine, have not kept in contact with their case worker, did not use a FREE bus pass to visit the baby, refuse to submit any contact information because they have not kept a residence for more than a few weeks…and the list goes on and on. The “father” has lost his parental rights. The “mother” still has her rights and is convinced in her coo coo head that their “family” will all be together soon. She is due to deliver my partner’s niece on September 27th. All surrounding county hospitals have been notified and have been instructed to take the baby into protective custody immediately. She will then be returned to Sacramento CPS and placed into temporary foster care.
We have taken all of your wonderful advice and have been very proactive. We applied for our foster care license and will complete all home assessments and trainings classes this month. Our goal is to be licensed by September 30th. We stay in CONSTANT contact with the baby’s case worker/supervisor and follow any directions they give to us. We have made it very clear that our intentions are to foster/adopt both children. The ICPC has been completed in CA and will arrive in IN tomorrow. I have already left messages and will call the top person in charge and explain that this is an emergency situation. I will jump on their backs and ride them every day until it is complete and sent back to CA.
On September 30th there is a hearing set to evaluate the “mother” and her efforts to be reunited with the baby. The case worker is motioning to terminate services/parental rights. We do not expect the “parents” to show up to court. We don’t even know if her lawyer will show up to court. There is 0 chance that the baby will be reunited with his “parents”. At this point we do not plan on attending the hearing because without knowing if we would be able to take the baby/babies home with us, we cannot afford to take off that much time off of work or travel twice$. In a perfect world, the court would terminate services/parental rights and they would give us the go ahead for placement in IN. We would then travel that weekend and pick up at least one baby.
The questions that remain (as of this second) are...
1. How long can we expect for the county to complete a home assessment, submit a modification to the court, and the court sign off on it?
2. Could they use our foster care home assessment information?
3. What is the process once IN sends the ICPC back to CA? What has to happen?
4. If no one shows up to court, will they have a continuance or will they make the decision in her absence?
Thank you in advance for all of your “warm and fuzzies” and support! I have been so very thankful for all of your words since day one.
Looking forward to hearing from you!

P.S. No abbreviations or acronyms…I don’t understand them! )

[hkolln]

Originally Posted by redanley

The questions that remain (as of this second) are...
1. How long can we expect for the county to complete a home assessment, submit a modification to the court, and the court sign off on it?

Depends upon your SW and how fast he/she moves with taking it in front of a Judge. The Judge will have to sign off on it. I would ask the SW how long til it can be approved. I would think the 1st step is your foster care license as they won't be able to give you disclosure (the case file info) until they have you licensed. In our case we were licensed in 3 months and that had to be sent to the other state thru ICPC before placement could even be decided. I'm not sure how they could make a decision to place the child with you without your home study?

2. Could they use our foster care home assessment information?

That will be added to the case file and given to the judge. It's what the SW will use to make a decision.

3. What is the process once IN sends the ICPC back to CA? What has to happen?

It has to be accepted by CA at the capital and then sent to your local office (county) for approval. At least that was how our ICPC process worked. If something is missing then it's resent all over again which takes ALOT of time. This means the entire ICPC process has to restart and it happened to us! That's why it took us 10 months. UGH

4. If no one shows up to court, will they have a continuance or will they make the decision in her absence?

This would depend upon the judge. In our case the Judge just signed off on the case placement with us. This was all done there while we stayed here. The CASA and SW took care of it all and mailed me a copy. Once we got approval to bring her home with us we planned our transitional visit (but she was also 7 at that time too). This was because there they have CPS and the CASA make the placement decisions. The Judge really doesn't get involved and normally takes the recommendations from CPS as far as placement goes. He just formalized it. If she doesn't show up and has a good reason there is the possibility the judge will give her more time. It just depends and I believe every case is different.

GOOD LUCK! Let us know how it goes in court.

[Hadley2]

Originally Posted by redanley

1. How long can we expect for the county to complete a home assessment, submit a modification to the court, and the court sign off on it?

How long it takes for your licensing worker to complete your home study in your county or district depends on how soon he/she can get to you and how efficient a worker he/she is. A motivated, well organized worker in our state could get it done in a month. What the child's cw in the sending state does or does not do with regard to getting court permission to move the child out of state depends on state law and how alert the parents' attorney is. Depending on the original custody order, the agency may have complete authority to place the child without seeking court permission.

Originally Posted by redanley

2. Could they use our foster care home assessment information?

In a nutshell, if you've already done or will have done the home visit and anything else required for relative placement as a part of your foster care licensing, then yes, absolutely, it can and will be used for the placement before you actually get your license. Your agency would not initiate a second home study when they've already started one. That doesn't mean stop getting licensed--more good things for the child and you will fall out of being a licensed foster home fostering this child.

The key here is that the sending state will not do the homestudy or anything else that requires a local presence. Part of the ICPC is to request that your county or district ensure that the placement will be appropriate. The sending state can put its own requirements on that and the receiving state can also. In our case, the sending state said it would accept whatever satisfied our state.

By starting the process to get your licensed, you have jump started the home study you need for placement. If you hadn't gotten it started during the licensing process, then it wouldn't have gotten started until the ICPC hit a licensing worker's desk in your local agency. You are probably at least a month or two ahead in the process already.

Originally Posted by redanley

3. What is the process once IN sends the ICPC back to CA? What has to happen?

A. Child's cw sends ICPC request through her local chain of command. The local agency, in turn, sends the request to its state ICPC admin office
B. If it approves the ICPC request, the sending state ICPC admin office sends the request to the receiving state's ICPC admin office
C. If it approves the ICPC request, the receiving state's ICPC admin office sends it on to your local agency
D. Your local agency fulfills the request and approves/disapproves the placement
E. If approved, the ICPC paperwork goes back the way it came, through all the same hands, to the sending state's local cw
F. At that point, believe it or not, the sending state local cw must now send a request for services back through the chain to your local office. This request will include things like having your local office make monthly visits, facilitate face-to-face visitation if needed, enroll the child in Medicaid, etc. This last piece goes through much more quickly than the ICPC

You should receive notification from your local agency when it approves the ICPC and from the sending state's local cw when she gets it back and is ready to place the child with you.

Calling each daisy on the chain once a week to see if they have received the thing or sent it on is what we did. State ICPC admin offices are listed on the ICPC administrators' association website.

Originally Posted by redanley

4. If no one shows up to court, will they have a continuance or will they make the decision in her absence?

Depends on the judge. Some will keep the case moving and some won't. The hearing you refer to is most probably a foster care case plan review. It is an intermediate hearing--a pulse check on how well or poorly the case plan is going. It is unlikely that the goal will change at that point. That kind of decision would not be fair to the parties since that is not the purpose of the hearing. Permanency hearings, in which a final goal is chosen, typically aren't held until nine or 12 months in (depending on the state)unless there is some really extreme reason and legal basis to accelerate the case. For termination of parental rights, there must be a petition filed to hold a trial, the judge must grant the petition to hold the trial, and there must be a trial unless the parents are allowed to relinquish their rights. Even if they want to, however, not all judges will allow them to relinquish voluntarily.

Generalized sequence of events in a case (some variation among states and jurisdictions):

1. Removal following investigation and hearing for cause or ex-parte removal in emergency situation

2. Preliminary hearing to decide whether child should remain in temporary custody; sometimes children are returned to the physical custody of their parents but remain in the legal custody of the state

3. Adjudication and disposition, essentially a civil trial yielding a finding of "true" or "not true" of the allegations; disposition is usually decided at the same time, that is, whether the child will remain in the custody of the state indefinately or will be reunified as quickly as possible (in the event of a "not true" finding).

These first three events are Child Protective Services' (CPS) show. The rest that follows is handled by the child's caseworker (cw).

4. Initial foster care case plan hearing to set out the services for the parents and child intended to help the parents change the conditions that led to removal and to care for the child's identified needs such that the family can be reunified; an initial goal, usually of RU or RU concurrent with adoption and/or placement with a relative is set at this point. In extreme cases, the goal may be adoption from the outset.

Concurrent plans provide RU services to the family while at the same time establishing as quickly as possible an adoptive resource home and/or relative placement for the child.

5. One to three, sometimes more foster care case plan review hearings, usually three to six months apart

6. Permanency hearing at usually the nine-month mark to review the outcome of the foster care case plan, the success or failure of the parents' efforts, and set a final goal; some jurisdictions get around federal timelines and build more time in for the parents by bumping out again to a second permanency hearing. They aren't supposed to do that, but they do.

7. Permanency plan review hearings, like the foster care case plan review hearings, are meant to update the court on progress and barriers to the final goal. Also usually held about every three months until the goal is attained.

One bit of progress that would have to be made if the goal is adoption is for the agency to file a petition for termination of parental rights and for there to be a termination trial. The trial is, oddly, treated separately in many ways from the foster care case. That is, foster care or permanency plan review hearings continue in parallel with TPR proceedings. If the trial does not result in a termination, then the permanency plan must be revisited. This is where some kids end up lingering in foster care--not enough evidence to meet the standard for termination, too much evidence of risk for the court to order RU. That can happen, but more often the child is RU'd I think, based on what I've read here over the years. Another solution some agencies will use when relatives are involved is to close out the foster case by transferring custody to the relatives.

Federal timelines are not actually binding on the states. "Enforcement" is tied to Title IV-E funding, which comes in the form of block grants. So there is no oversight or recourse in federal court for individual cases that I know of. Still, nearly all states have the same or nearly the same language in their laws and nearly all comply, at least in writing, with the 15/22 rule. This rule says that if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months, the social services agency must file a petition for termination.

Unfortunately, the law can't make them mean it or make the judge grant the motion for trial or make a judge grant the tpr. All social services is really compelled to do is file the motion.

In all things, the sending state retains jurisdiction over the case and custody of the child. The receiving state, however, must concur in any final disposition other than RU, adoption, or aging out. That is, if the sending state wants custody of the child to transfer to a relative/guardian or for the child to have another planned living arrangement (appla) such as group home or residential treatment center, the sending state must concur in it.

This is probably too much information at once, but I always found that it helped to have a road map and in my case to have it explained to me several times over the course of the case. I hope this is helpful to you and other relatives new to the system.

Good luck with everything.

[hkolln]

And another note:

If you are doing an adoption subsidy (which you may get to if you do adopt) the sending state is the one you work with to get it from. You won't get that from your state (the receiving state). We receive our adoption subsidy from Idaho when we live in Florida.

And DO NOT let them forget to send an ICAMA "Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance." This will setup the medicaid for this child throughout their life til age of majority. Our SW dropped the ball on this and never sent it so now we are battling with medicaid to keep her medicaid until the ICAMA is received here. It has to go thru the ICPC process too and it's now 2 yrs later! It sucks cause we never were told about this until now and her therapy is being paid by medicaid. We have been told it may be an additional 3 months to get it all worked out.

We had our adoption finalized in Florida however Idaho would not allow the jurisdication to be changed. This sucked cause she lost out on the 4 yr college education she would have gotten if jurisdication was moved here! We had a choice...we could have flown to Idaho and finalized there or finalized here so we chose to do it here which was easier.

I suggest you keep on the ICPC people too...every step of the way. Get contact names/numbers and keep calling them and the SW. It certainly can't hurt!

[mommytoEli]

Originally Posted by hkolln

We had a choice...we could have flown to Idaho and finalized there or finalized here so we chose to do it here which was easier.

just to keep you on your toes and confuse you more...lol....for us, we were given the same choice...and for us, it was easier to fly back to the sending state, in this case, CA, and finalize there. if we would have chosen to finalize in our state, the receiving state, it would have dragged on for many more months, and we would have had to find, obtain, and pay a lawyer. it was cheaper and faster to pay to fly to CA to adopt for free. so make sure when you get to that point, you really research both options.

[Barksum]

We had to finalize our adoption in the sending state, but we were able to do this via a telephone conference with the judge and the cw in the sending state and Dh and I at home in our state.

[hkolln]

Our attorney was free because my company reimbursed me for it all...so it really was free to us to stay here and finalize. If we would have flown from FL to ID it would have been expensive!