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Hi. My husband and I are currently thinking about switching to the State Foster-To-Adopt Program from a Private Agency. Last August/September we started the process of searching for an Agency. We were told by the agencies that going through the State was not a good idea because they were overworked and will not specifically work for you in getting the child you want. We were told the agency would be able to find the child and give you more "personal" attention. We were approved at Christmas and have been waiting. We are looking for sibs or a child ages 1-5. We are being told to move our age range up to 9-10 and take a child with more "issues" than we would like. I know we have not been waiitng long but we are having other issues with our agency that we are not happy about. I happened to talk to somebody who told me to contact a State case worker about a child. After talking to a few State case workers I was told the same thing....that the younger children are usually adopted by their foster parents. I was also told that the State will look to their State licensed families first and only after exhausting all efforts do they let the private agencies know of these children. It is because the private agency actually charges the state a fee when the child is placed so the State is saving the taxpayers money. I was so frustrated when I heard this because our Agency did not tell us this. Had we known they get the "second pick" of kids why wouldn't we go with the state? We are now seriously thinking of switching to the State in their foster-to-adopt program. We have done all of the classes, etc., as we were getting licensed with our private agency. All we need to do is re-submit basically the same paperwork and the clearances. The process will take us around 60 days or so. I would love to hear from anyone on their experience of going through the State of WA for foster-to-adopt and if it was a positive one or negative one. Thanks!:)
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We are in Oregon (hi neighbor!) and we went to the state as a straight adoption family because we did not want to do foster care. Our homestudy took a little while because the system is overloaded. But once it was finished we were matched within a few weeks and our children were placed a little less then one year after we started. We have adopted siblings a girl just turning 5 and her brother who turned one 3-days after we brought them home. It is true that Many foster families do start fostering with the hope of having an infant placed and then being able to adopt the infant.....however more often then not the foster families have had several little ones placed before one is adoptable. Our experience working with the state was great--the biggest complaint would be how long it takes to get things done...but, in Oregon it is also true that the families who are willing to do stright adoption do get to look at children often before they are even officially placed on the waiting list. Our state does show state approved adoptive families the newly listed children before they are placed on the state wide or national waiting lists..... Oregon however has a huge shortage of adoptive families and many of our children are being adopted by people in other states...which is another reason you might want to switch to a State Office for your homestudy because then you can look nationally and the paprework is usually easier to understand from one state office to another. Personally, I was learly at first of working with a state agency--however by asking for straight adoption I feel our whole case was handled very well and there was not one time during the process where I wished we had done things differently. Good luck!
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We completed a homestudy with the state and a week later 2 boys were placed with us. It was simular to an emergency placement since these guys, 2 & 4 YRS., had a failed relative placement. It was somewhat overwhelming but now we are ready to petition for adoption. This whole process has been about 6 months. They boys were in care for 19months prior to us. It's a very long time for kiddos but for us the whole process has been good and quick. The only good/bad is that we seldom hear from the state. Frankly, I want to be left alone but I fear that this is why so much abuse happens!! We haven't had a single dime of expense and yes, the workers place the kids with their people first. It's somewhat political in that your licensor has to really like you and work on your behalf! Best Wishes
My husband and I are doing foster to adopt. We are licensed through the state for kids 0-9 and working directly with DSHS. As soon as we were licensed, we started getting 1 to 4 calls per day asking us to take young kids. The children they were calling us about originally were mostly new to the system and had just been removed from their homes. We told them we were interested in taking longer-term kids, as we were hoping to adopt. After accepting two wonderful 5 year old girls (twins) that they expected to be in our home for a long time, we were contacted about taking a sibling group of 3 kids, ages 3 to 8 that were already in a foster home and were looking for an adoptive family. We turned them down because we could not send the twins to another family and risk that they would be bounced from foster home to foster home. We are sticking with our girls as long as we can (if they become available to adopt, we will). My caseworker has asked me from time to time if we, or anyone we know, is interested in adopting because they have young children that are ready to begin the adoption process. Our girls are now 6. When they started first grade, they were behind academically. After just a couple of months, they are catching up by leaps and bounds. (They needed some individual attention that they didn't get at home.) These girls are more perfect than they would be if they were our natural children. I think that going directly through the state is a good option. We haven't used an agency so we have no experience there. Please let me know if there is any more information I can provide you with.
So do you have to do an entirley new homestudy if you have already completed one with an agency? I am currently with an agency but am getting really frusterated. The only time I find anything out is when i call them or email. Then its just bits and peices. Although I know WA is way over ran and SW are overworked, but I want something soon. I have been approved since June and haven;t recieve info and one child yet. And I was told by a wa state SW that if I was in the system with them, i would be placed by now because I am trained in special needs. Sorry, don't mean to vent. I'm just so darn tired of waiting for the phone to ring
When you say you are approved, do you mean you are a licensed foster home? I remember in PRIDE training someone asking a similar question and they were told that if you do a homestudy with one agency and decide to change, you have to do a homestudy with the new agency. This is because the private agencies may be more lenient or strict than the state with their homestudies. But, if you are already licensed, there might not be as much paperwork to do. Waiting for paperwork to be processed was the longest part of our wait. Our homestudy only took about two hours in our home. If you've waited this long (which seem ridiculously long to me), you may as well start whatever process you need to through the state. You might end up with a child must faster even if the process takes a couple months to approve! To find the office near you so you can speak to a licensor and they can answer your questions better, you can visit [URL=https://fortress.wa.gov/dshs/caoffices/internetapps/offices/general/OfficePick.asp]this website[/URL]. I wish you luck! This world needs more foster and adoptive families.
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We researched agencies and even went to a few meetings, but decided to go through the state (WA). The day we became licensed foster parents, we got a placement of a newborn boy from the hospital. Two weeks later a 4 month old girl joined us. They both only stayed five months and it was incrediably hard to see them go. The day after they left, 3 month old twins were placed with us and were only supposed to stay one month. One year later we are waiting on an adoption court date. It hasn't always been easy, but we attended foster support meetings and got to know other foster parents and made sure that our placement coordinator knew we were looking to adopt. I know the state needs homes right now, so I would encourage you to go through the state. Our range is two, ages 0-5. Good luck and let me know if I can answer any questions for you!