Adopting pre-teens any faster?

Well, you'd think that the "harder-to-place" children (those over 5, minority, boys, part of sibling group, or special medical/emotional/psychological needs) would be placed faster, but this depends on the placing state. If you are adopting from another state, the sending state and receiving state must agree on placement terms and your home study MUST meet the sending state's requirements. Getting all of this together can take up to 6 months. Remember, too, that it will depend on whether the children already have TPR (termination of parental rights) or if they are legal risk (still awaiting TPR). Being legal risk could slow down the placement, and some states do actually post pictures of children who don't have TPR, yet, but they may not place them out of state without a court order. (This would take more time than an in-state placement). Our own experience has been: --Foster licensed by a private agency in Aug. '04 --Would only take legal risk foster/adopt placements As of today, still no calls for placement, but we have inquired about sibling groups from all over the country and we feel we are getting closer! ;)

[font=Arial]Thanks for the info albeit slightly discouraging. Im trying not to be overtly aggressive but, it is almost unbelievable to me that there are so many databases, non-profit agencies and facilitators that are dedicated to hard to place or special needs children and 6 mos. is a, ғshort amount of time to simply become eligible for a placement. These kids get older everyday with no definite path or security yet it takes longer to get a home study than a Top Secret government security clearance. IԒm sure the majority of these SWs are under paid, under funded, and over loaded so I donҒt fault them. I just donҒt understand the resistance to interstate adoptions. It seems to me that a perfect placement would be the most important factor.[/font]

In our case it isn't a resistance to interstate adoption from either state, it's just the amount of paperwork that has to be done before a child can be placed. :rolleyes: For an in-state placement, they can often place a child with you as soon as you are licensed and work out the details later, but interstate placements have to follow Federal mandates (the ICPC process), so they have to have all their ducks in a row. But I agree, it's so very frustrating how long it takes. There are some great Federal and state regulations for permancy planning (when it should begin), but apparently nobody is enforcing these laws! :(

[font=Arial]Don't get me started on Federal laws and mandates that don't get enforced by the states. The most common excuse is, "The Feds didn't fund it". I know that's true of some programs but, government cooperation, be it Federal, state, or local is an oxymoron. Its about funds, control, and power. Whoever has the funds controls the power. Well, I feel better now.[/font]

Welcome 080to132. I'm not sure I understand your anology regarding Top Secret Clearance, and a Home Study. A Home Study is only part of the process. It's not the Home Study itself that takes 6 months (at least!!!), it is the whole process. In our case, we are going through the county, we had to go to the orientation class first. After that we could sign up for the 10 week foster care class. After completing that we could sign up for the 4 week adoption class, and begin the licensing process. After completing the adoption class we could start the home study process, but not until we were licensed. The home study required three visits/interviews. There were other various interviews in between. We were fingerprinted by three different agencies (they don't share information, and I needed a fourth set of fingerprints to be able to volunteer at my child's elementary school). So yes, there is much to go through. And I hear many potential parents whining about it all. "I have children", "No one needs to tell me how to raise kids", "I'm already a licensed Social Worker". But I think it is an acceptable process. I learned quite a bit in our classes. It's amazing how having tools helps work with the special needs these children come with. Yes, it would be nice if things flowed better and faster. But resources are limited. Getting children into a home faster does not benefit the child when the placement falls apart because the people are not capable of handling them. The children we are fostering had 4 placements before us. Two of them fell apart because the foster parents simply could not handle the kids. Our two children are a bit high energy, but I do not think they are excessive for their age. It was a bit of a shock taking in a sibling set of boys (age 3 and 4, now 4 and 5). There were times when we wondered if we had done the right thing. And we were "prepared". I would recommend you discuss and understand the timelines with the various organizations you work with. Much of it will rest on you. Don't miss your classes, get all your paperwork done and turned in as soon as they will let you. Form bonds with everyone you can. In some cases, such as private organizations you hire the home study organization, so you would have some control there. In our case the county paid for it and it was done by a county employee, but it went fairly quickly. Not as fast as we'd have liked, but reasonably quickly. Oh and things don't necessarily click into place. After finishing our first class we were put on a waiting list for the next class... it's not like just because one class is over you can move right into the next class. It took us about 9 months for placement. Which I think was pretty fast for our county. And that was with some consideration during parts of the process because of our interest in "older children". But let me say this... It was worth it!!! I can't even remember what life was like before our two foster children. One thing they should check on, but didn't, is storage space... I can't believe how much room you need for toys!

[font=Arial]My analogy of a TS clearance and a home study so far is relevant to me, especially seeing that you were fingerprinted four times!! I absolutely understand the need to insure that a child is never placed in a home where there is even a tiny chance that someone may have nefarious intentions. However, the process, particularly with the state system, is lethargic at best and highly inefficient. You have good parents and good children that are waiting to meet, or worse good parents that never get to meet good children because they get too frustrated with the layers of bureaucracy that do nothing to help the children or would be parents. [/font][font=Arial]I can appreciate that classes are helpful, as is sharing experiences with other adoptive parents. But, when you have to wait four months, to get into a six week class, to start your six month home study? It really all comes down to funding. The state worker in my area told me that they are two workers short and backed up for several months. So Im pursuing private companies that are actually contractors for the state. ItҒs sad to think that it all comes down to money, but you can only get so much production out of two or three individuals that are probably responsible for two or three other programs. Im sure the SWҒs work incredibly hard. But Im also sure that there can be cooperation between federal, state, county and private agencies that can make this process safe, timely, effective, and affordable. [/font][font=Arial]I donҒt pretend to have all the answers, but I do know that there are a lot of children waiting for good homes while paper work sits idle on someones desk. [/font]

My husband and I adopted a sibling group of 4 (ages 5, 7, 9, 11) four yrs ago from the state. I found the process to be extremely quick and rather easy. Perhaps because we were open to taking older children and a sibling group. We actually had to turn down 2 other sets of siblings. Our children were listed on our state's website of waiting children. I was extremely proactive in making calls and completing paperwork. I would contact SW of children we were interested directly instead of calling my agency and waiting for them to do the contacting. I was faxing our homestudy to SW's from my job! I had my children within 6 months of our very first information meeting and the adoption was finalized 6 months later. PR had already been relingquished so we did not have to deal with waiting for that. I do know that the other couples that were with us during our pre-adoption classes all became very frustrated and a few gave up. I do believe for us the difference was that we were open to race, age and wanted sibling group which opened the doors to many children. (I'm in PA in case that matters!)

[font=Times New Roman]Thanks very much for sharing such a positive story. I have appointments in the next two weeks with private agencies who also work through the state. Both seem significantly more receptive, especially when we tell them were looking for a sibling group in the 9-12 year old range. Even though Ive heard a lot more, ғIt takes forever stories, my wife and I are still very positive about the whole process. Unfortunately, itԒs like a lot of things in life. If you want quick and good results, youve got to throw money at it. It just frustrating that we pay confiscatory tax rates for Federal state and local government, then when you actually need to use a service you pay for, itҒs well get back to you when we can. It makes me want to send a note in with our state income tax return saying. ғIm a little short and then weҒre going on vacation and, oh yeah, Im not writing anymore checks until August. YouҒre family sounds beautiful and thanks again for the encouragement. [/font][font=Times New Roman][/font] [font=Times New Roman]One more question. Did the state or a private agency do your home study? Ive heard some folks say they canҒt get a copy of their home study so theyre at the mercy of their agency to send it to other SWҒs. Thanks.[/font]

We are in Ohio and unable to submit our own homestudy. However, our worker is johnny on the spot normally about sending them out WHEN I REQUEST IT! I do the initial contact with the childs worker, provide agency name, worker name, address, fax# and children. I don't know that she has submitted our homestudy on our behalf without our asking her to. We are not paying for a private agency and so we are having to do much of the work ourselves. I can only forsee things to worsen as federal and state budgets are cut. I know here in Ohio Childrens Services took the biggest budget cuts. Kids can't vote!

[font=Verdana]Thanks for the info. It seems the only consistency in this process is there is no consistency. Not only from state to state but, county to county and, worker to worker. The agency were using has been great so far and moving things along at a very good clip. I recently asked about, ғGood, and ԓBad, states to work with and Ohio was on their good list. I have a good bit of family around the Cleveland area so it would be great to find a match somewhere close to them. Take care and best of luck with your search.[/font]

While abit delayed - welcome to this board - the folks here have a wealth of wisdom, knowledge and experience to share ... don't get disheartened by some of the "sadder" posts - there's alot to this roller coaster from initial decision to adopt to red tape of homestudy and associated training, approval and then placement makes all that seem easy ... but with lots of support, encouragement and venting you too shall get there! I pulled your profile to see which state you are in - WV - that is one of the states that we always received quick responses to our inquiries and found the social workers very easy as well as pleasant to work with. The biggest hurdle we had with WV was that if they could place in-state they did ... and often used our homestudy as collateral in their decisions to making sure they had a family (if that makes sense). If you work with a private agency - make sure they are open to working with state and public ones ... most agencies will share your homestudy directly with you ... if they send it out-of-state and you are a chosen family then they often request reimbursement for its preparation and that's fine ... most states (other than Massachusetts and California) pay for post-adoption services including one-time incurred expenses. Time frame all depends on when your homestudy is processed and approved (generally 6-12 weeks for background checks and finalization) and your willingness to participate in the search with your worker and go the extra mile to help her/him when needed. Good luck - this experience is all worth it (even from one member who has experienced a disruption of one placement) ... just remember it helps if you are not alone and there's plenty of us here who understand more than you'll ever know until you find yourself answering a post and thinking "hey I know that" or "hey they need to hear this". Keep us posted :D

[font=Times New Roman]Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. Its been so far so good with our agency. They contract for the state and, other than apparently having to wear a lot of hats, theyҒve been very good. Probably the hardest thing right now is being patient. We see so many great looking profiles of waiting kids but, until our home study is finished nobody will really even talk to you. I understand the process but it doesnt make the waiting any easier. [/font][font=Times New Roman] [/font][font=Times New Roman]Our two biggest fears are a disruption (for me) and, the birth parents tracking the children down and taking them or convincing them to leave (my wife). [/font][font=Times New Roman] [/font][font=Times New Roman]The good news is that we realize what a blessing this will be and for that reason it will all work out. Thanks again for the welcome. Take care.[/font]

Just to show you how quickly things can move (or reverse), I posted on March 15th about how we thought we were "getting closer" to getting children, and I'm pleased to tell you that we met the sibling group we were selected for just this week (in Massachusetts), and the ICPC paperwork was sent to the Boston office on Wednesday. Since our home study and criminal/child abuse clearances are current, our state's ICPC office said everything could be in order (ready for placement) in just a few short weeks!!! Woohoo!!!! (Can you tell I'm excited?!)

That's awsome news!! I hope all goes quick and well the rest of the way. Our home study is progressing very nicely and we hope for it to be complete the first part of June. Best of luck again and keep us posted.

We adopted a girl age 11 who had a TPR when she was 7 1/2 and been in foster care from 6 1/2. We signed up in October, took classes from November through January, had a homestudy in January, and were placed in late February. We almost had another placement a few weeks before but it didn't work out. That was over 3 yeards ago and we are so thrilled and blessed with our daughter. How she didn't get adopted before perplexes me to this day. She is absolutely a dream. Remeber to not blame all behaviours on the result of foster and adoption. Sometimes preteens and teens behave in odd ways. I have a 22 year old birth sn and let me tell you...when he was a teen I never thought it would end. Our daughter only has issues with completely opening up when she is sad or scared that we may be upset with her. She will probably always feel uneasy with that since she was given back by two families who decided that they didn't want her anymore. From the paperwork that I read, nothing like that was warrented. She just needed time and reasuurance that we were always going to be there. She graduated on Friday from Junior High and she has a 3.85 gpa and is the coxswain on a crew team. She has been accepted into a very prestigious private school and is a complete joy to be around. All of her teachers cried at her graduation because they were touched so deeply by her and her story. She is a true success. All children deserve to feel wanted all of the time. Kids act out and try our patience because they are scared. We have to go into these things like we would go into giving birth. I would never give back my birth son so how could I give back my daughter. It all just take time, patience and sometimes help...good luck and much joy!!!