[juli714]

Hi,

Our agency has decided to limit us to applying to three inquiries on children. They will not send additional homestudies on anymore than three children (either individual or sibling sets) until they receive responses from the first three.

Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems prohibitive to me.

Any information anyone can offer to assist us with this type of restriction would be most helpful.

Thanks for your time and attention.
Juli714

[lambeausam]

Ask for a copy of the agency's WRITTEN policy. Sounds more like to me that someone doesn't want to be bothered.

Sam

[Lorraine123]

Sounds odd to me. We had dozens of homestudies out at the same time. What is their reasoning?

[bjolly]

wow. that will take a really long time if they do it that way.
if they're sticking to this policy, I'd suggest you call first on each child to make sure they're still accepting home studies. Our agency required us to do this, and it saved us sending out some home studies needlessly.

[Lorraine123]

You know what else - most of the homestudies we sent out, we never heard a response from. So if they will not send another one out until they hear a response, you will be stuck. I would definitely look into this policy.

[Original Mike]

When I was sending out homestudies, I used the "more is better odds" approach. During my first round with C, I think I had about 7 inquiries out and I had at least a dozen out when I was matched with J. My worker had no problem responding if she was contacted for more information.

Remember, if you send out 10 homestudies, my experience is that you may get 3 responses. To say "no more than three unless we hear something back" sounds like a case of an agency not wanting to do the job. I would ask for a written copy of that policy.

Mike

[ajjhmf]

I have to agree, it sound's fishy. I'd ask to see it in writing. I know that we have about 9 inquires out when we were matched with J. Most agencies don't respond unless they are interested, so limiting you the 3 until you get a response will basically stop your search. I'd also ask to speak to a supervisor and ask for an explanation of the policy. It really just sound's like someone doesn't want to do the work.

Blessings,
Jenny

[juli714]

Thanks to all, please keep those responses coming, I want to see I am am expecting "too much". My agency said that they cannot my requests for more than three children because their volume is too high from so many different families, that I should consider other people too.

Please, let me hear more.

Thanks.
Juli

[ajjhmf]

Are you using a private or public agency? I can't imagine a public agency turning away families. Last I heard, they were looking for families.

Jenny

[aMarylandfamily]

We have had four adoption placements over the years and participated in each search along with our caseworker ... most welcome the help ... and generally had anywhere from 15-20 inquiries out on children (siblings being counted as 1 of the 15-20 ... not by child count themselves) at one time along with letters to the different DSS offices in and out-of-state wide introducing ourselves ... some we never heard from at all and others requested our homestudy and then were never heard from ... waiting for responses is not realistic before submitting more inquiries ... as some workers rule you out ... i.e., if there child is allergic to dogs and you have three you are immediately removed from consideration or sometimes they place a time limit on their homestudy acceptance time before staffing it for presentation to a committee for family choice ... and that in itself can take months ... so your being limited to three inquiries at one time is both unrealistic and unfair ... no matter what the agencies workload may be - not only are you losing out but the child meant for your family is also in limbo aging by the day and possibly even gaining negative baggage to bring to your family vs. the positiveness that comes with each day of love and caring for ... and that in itself is a shame!

Keep us posted.

[bjolly]

we had at least 20 inquiries out when we got chosen. I know it's a lot of work for the agency to keep sending your homestudy out, but that's part of their job.

[tybeemarie]

Oh, my gosh, fire these people! It will take FOREVER to get your child if you have to wait to hear responses. There are some states where we never got a response. In fact, some states pretty much let you know they are not going to respond unless you are under serious consideration. The wait for waiting children is insanely long, unpredictable, and maddening, after you hear so much about the thousands of children who needs home. Okay, then why do people have to wait months on end? Add to this frustration an agency that lets you know, point blank, that they are overwhelmed and do not plan to respond to your needs? I would be howling at the moon. Fire them. Find some place else. That's my two cents. Good luck with your search!

[leenab]

We're only allowed to have one out. So three sounds amazing to me. It's going to be a very very long process for us. We were just out on a 12 yr old girl in state and are back in waiting to be sent out again. And you wonder why NJ is in a state of shambles.

-Leena

[missw005]

3????? That is ridiculous. Sometimes I'll have my worker send out 5-10 in ONE WEEK.

The others are soooo right. I cannot tell you how many times I've wondered if my worker even sent my study out, because I've received NO response from the child's recruiter or worker. Right now I have 4 studies in FL - haven't heard a word from any of the workers, and they've had my study from 2-5 weeks by now; I have 2 in MA - did speak to one worker initially but haven't heard from her since then, no response from the other; 1 in TX - no response, but I've NEVER got one from them; 1 in WV - no response; 3 in CA - no response..........I could go on and on.

It is LUDICROUS for your agency to insist on 3 inquiries only until you receive a response. It just doesn't work that way.

AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!! You must be soooooooo frustrated.

Can you speak to a supervisor? Maybe your worker is just lazy. I agree with also asking for this written policy. If it's true - jump ship. Life is just too short.

Sandy

[wenrl]

Can you get a copy of your homestudy? We live in RI and our worker let us have our own and copy and send it out ourselves. We brought it to adoption parties and gave it to workers and everything. We were only matched after sending our study to the same worker four times because she kept losing it. If we didn't have this access to our own study, we'd probably still be waiting for our first child.

One could argue that you could cheat and change your study to make yourself into an award winning parent with a degree in social work, millions of dollars and an attachment therapist living in your house on call 24 hours, but once a child's worker is interested in you, she or he is going to make some phone calls and talk to people anyway. You couldn't really get away with manipulating your homestudy and who would want to anyway? Who wants a match based on lies and exagerations?