[Hokte333]

First, Thanks to those who responed to my first post. You have given me some great info to think about. My next question is how much info can you ask for about the children you consider? Can you talk to past foster parents, doctors? The more information we get the better prepared we can be....I want to go into an adoption with eyes wide open. Thanks!!

Tammie

[AmyAnne]

We were able to speak to the current foster family, we were given the information the DSS had on my son, as well as information from a psychological evaluation.

[Barksum]

When you initially inquire about a child you may not be given access to more detailed info. If your family is being seriously considered as a match and your homestudy is one of a few that they are considering then you will probably be given access to more child history, dr's reports, etc., and contact info for the foster family. Once your family is matched with a child the whole case file is (should be, depends on the state and agency you work with) given to you to review. Often (sometimes) there is a review period during which your family goes over the expanded info and decides if this child is, after all, a good match with your family.

Generally you will be in contact with the child's cw and getting more info as it is updated. The cw is supposed to have some personal knowledge of the child and be able to give you some feel of what kind of personality the child has, their temperment, etc. This isn't always the case, of course, since some cw's haven't met the child other than very briefly. (Plus there seems to be constant changeovers and the kids seem to be always getting new cw's who've 'just taken the case' and thus don't really know much.)

Of course just because you are given all the current infomation that the agency has doesn't mean that you will know all that much about the actual child who arrives in your home. Each professional who met the child sees some fascet, but probably not the whole child. Foster parents see most of the child but may not tell what they see or what they tell may not be recorded by the professional they told. There can be all kinds of reasons for missing pieces of information, and sometimes the missing piece can be relatively vital.

[aMarylandfamily]

If the child's cw refuses to allow contact by you (once you are in the final matching phase as an above poster noted) with the current caretakers, medical professionals and school then you need to run and not look back as they are guarding something which may not be "important" (that's a hard definition at this stage of the journey) today but could be down the road - i.e., onset bi-polar history in the family which may not appear until a 6 year old you are having placed with you begin puberty which kicks it into action.

Each state has its procedures for when things are reviewed - often you do get a general history at the inquiry stage and then more information if you are presented to committee for choice and then hopefully all they have at decision to determine if you still feel its a positive match for your family so keep that in mind and ask when you can have the records, contact with those in their lives, etc. etc.

Hope this helps!

[Lylac]

I agree with what the others have said. The only thing that I will add is..there's no way to get 100% of a childs history. Even if they were taken at birth..you may not know the prenatal stuff. You won't find alot of stuff out until the child has been in your home..and even then you may not know it all.

[ajjhmf]

Before we were matched, we were given a breif description of our son's case, his history and mendical background.

After the match we were able to see his complete records.

On our case though, our son's foster parents did a less than stellar job and he went through a revolving door of case workers. So, while the information we have was accurate for what was known, it did not actually reflect what was happening.

J has been in my son for 5 1/2 years now and we are still learning new things. Just be prepared to not know everything.