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Originally Posted By Ellen

I have a question for all you Indiana people out there!
Since our son came from Indiana and we were more than unhappy with his foster home situation of 7 years and continue to become even unhappier as he shares further info, we were just wondering if Indiana has any checks and balances and requirements of foster parents at all????
Are foster parents supposed to take their foster children to the doctors and dentists at least once a year?
Don't caseworkers have a monthly/qtrly checklist of things that should have occured with the children?
Should caseworkers speak with all adults in the home or only the foster mother?
Are foster children allowed to share bedrooms with foster parents (single) or adult biological children??
Are all foster children kept in the system for 7 years, with 5 years of birth parent trying to get them back?!!!!
Wouldn't you be concerned as a caseworker if your foster parent did nothing for the children but allow them to go to school (no other extracurricular activities or allowed to participate in many if any school activities)

Ellen

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Originally Posted By Indy

I actually have a visit from my "homefinder" on a quarterly basis. When I had foster children, I received a visit from the case worker and therapist once a week. I have a therapeutic foster care license. However, I cannot vouch for the system as a whole. I belonged to a private agency. They stayed on top of the health and educational requirements for each child.

They do have requirements, but the system is in need of total overhaul. It does not support the needs of the children, or for that matter protect them. Many case workers (all over the United States) are lucky they cannot be sued for mal-practice. Some of the children that are removed, go into situations that are not much better than the one that they left. Your son was one of the lucky ones.

The best to you and your family.

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Originally Posted By anotherMarylandfamily

The foster family that had your child may not have been the best by any means but you must remember how very much this child wished to join a family/your family and that quite often the horror stories are stretched to make sure they are not returned ... a simple "sleep in my room tonight" when it is thunder-storming outside and the child is frightened can quickly become "you wouldn't believe it - they had me sleeping in their room" or even a situation where a current child placed with them may have background behaviors that require a child sleep in or with the parents to verify nothing is going on during sleep time. This doesn't mean I'm saying your child is not telling you the truth - much of what he is saying may have truth to it but just be careful - a child will do and say anything to protect his security and safety net.

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Originally Posted By po

Speaking from experience. When we fostered from the county on some kids we hardly saw the caseworker. It was impossible to get a caseworker on the phone. We had kids that were being abused on home visits and when we reported it were told we were reporting too much abuse and contaminating the case. It is against the law to not report abuse. When fostering for a private agency they are required weekly visits for so long and then bi weekly. We have had kids that yes during a storm would make a bed beside ours. One kid woke up from a terrifying dream and my husband held her in his arms all night. The next time it happened he put her in bed with me and then he laid on top of the covers. She was shaking so bad and had to touch both of us. Several nights she slept on the couch while we sat in the living room with her. If he was in a county home, it would have been a different situation. they do not check on the kids. Private agencies you have to get physicals, dental and eye exams every year. It depends on the foster family on whether the kids are allowed to be in things. Mine were always involved in a lot of activities. I felt it might be the only time in their life they would have the opportunity to do it. I also fed my kids 3 well balanced meals and lots of snacks. I also knew of foster parents that only fed tv dinners. We had one foster daughter we got at the age of 8. We had her 4 years, she aged out of the system. We had another sib group for 4 years and fought to adopt them. They were kept in care at least another 4 years before allowing them to be adopted. Indiana needs to get their priorities in place. They say they are doing what is in the best interest of the kids. We were willing to adopt the last placement of 16 months, but they moved them last week. If they keep them in care they keep getting the money. Otherwise they loose it. Its all a money game. There are a few good caseworkers, but there are also bad. They are not the best paid people.

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Originally Posted By Mike

My experiences with the State of Indiana and the adoption/ foster care system have been pretty negative. Now, my local worker was a DREAM to work with and I give her 100% of the credit for helping me bring my son home from Ohio.

As for the rest of the system,it SUCKS! For example, I got a call at the office last week about a boy in Indiana I had placed an inquiry on in MARCH, 2001!! His worker said "We're starting to call interested parents..." OK, I inquired on him 10 months ago and he has been listed in the Photobook since then. As opposed to Ohio, where they contacted me right away.

In my humble opion, the entire foster/ adoption system in Indiana is in need of a giant enema!!

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Originally Posted By Shelley in Indiana

We tried to adopt thru Indiana for 8 years. We never met our case worker. Our county has only one case worker. And like Mike we too have been contacted from childrens case worker months and years later past the time they were in the photo book. It seems that Indiana keeps the child in care for as long as they can to collect money on the child.
I inquirred at the state level and got the rig-a-ma BS! In Indiana each county does things there way and they DO NOT work together nor can you go out of county to get help.
When we were foster parents for 16 months no child came into the countys care...and to top it off we were licensed and didn't know it because our license came after it had expired.
Indiana does not care, they have a backwards system. The GOOD OL' BOYS run it.

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Well I think all us Indiana people need to get started (LOL). I just sent a letter to our agency wanting to know how this family we know even got approved to foster 5 kids. They don't even need to have 1,but now they get a 2nd chance, if they get the house cleaned up and get some things in order they get to keep the kids. I thought that only happens to bio's not foster homes? They even have sexual issues between brother and little sister, they said it was all solved.......they hung a bell on the door. What about therapy for these kids? We were asked to take the kids but now it looks like they are going to stay in this home. We also found out that 2 haven't went to TPR yet and don't know if they ever will. So what happens to the other 3? And they won't split them so they will probably just age out without a family. O.K that is my venting about the Indiana system for the day!

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Originally Posted By barki

I know that these things DO happen, but in our county (notice I'm NOT in Indiana!) we have to have things like dr.'s appts, dental exams, vaccinations, bio family visitation, cw contact and CASA contact all in and documented on various timelines. It's all to be done and documented because there are judicial reviews every 3(?) months and also a citizens' watchdog group that meets every 6 (?) months as well. If you don't have your ducks in a row it gets pretty hairy.

That said...there are still kids who haven't seen their cw in awhile, nor do they even KNOW who their cw is. There are lapsed appts for dr's and dentists, etc., so one does realize that even the best system is only as good as its weakest link, wherever that link happens to be.

Oh, and here's my latest pet peeve: if you are a foster parent, do not have drinking parties in your home, particularly in front of the foster children. Do restrain your penchant to watch NC17 and other X-type movies. IMO there should never be a child in care who has to see porn movies in their foster home, nor be subjected to drunks wandering the hallways. Ok, climbing off my soap box now.

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Our 4yo DFD saw a beer in the refrigerator that had probably been there for a year and said yuck - you don't drink that do you? I said no that it had been here for a long time and why don't we throw it in the trash. She was very happy when it was gone!

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We are in Colorado and this is only our first set of foster kids so I only have one caseworker to go by.

Our agency come by every week or two at the most, our caseworker comes by once a week and if we call her - SHE CALLS BACK!!! Amazing, but true. We have had problems with the case-aids doing visitations on the weekends and she always checks her messages and tells us everything we need to do.

In turn we fill out monthly paperwork including every doctors appt and physical therapy. Incident reports for every time our 4yo spins in circles to much and falls and bumps her head. I keep a daily diary just in case any questions come up or if they need to know any of the things our 4yo DFD has reported about her past.

I hope we always work with this caseworker or someone like her. I know here in CO alot of them don't return phone calls or check in at all. Ours is rather young and is still gung-ho and not burned out.