kids moved around?

In NY, there's no rhyme or reason. First placement was in October; next one was December. Then May, Feb., and 2 in May.

We became licensed in December so we could foster our grandson. We told them we wanted to foster/adopt other children as well and still havent' had any calls, let alone placements.

Tiada - Yep. What region are you in? We're in 8, Texas. I still don't get why some folks here seem to get kids within hours (no joke) or a few days. That is how it used to be for us a decade ago.... I don't know what's changed.... Now it seems to take 3-4 months! They're yelling for more foster homes for the "tons" of kids they have, yet reading here and listening to friends, there are many foster homes sitting empty. We've had 2-3 calls, but they went elsewhere even though we said yes. One call was for 2 brothers, we thought we'd be perfect. Of course we thought we'd be a good fit for the other ones as well. I still find it hard to believe that our "distance" may be a factor. We still take the kids to their appt's in town, to their visits in or outside town, etc. We had a problem with one child because we'd find out about a hearing the day of or AFTER it had happened. Hello? We just can't take time off from work at the drop of a hat (in this case the same day). We certainly can't make a hearing that we find out about AFTER the fact. This kind of expedited our teenager going back to her mom. We were told two reasons. Officially she was moved quickly (before school was out, the original plan was to move her back to her mom as school ended) because our son was a teenager as was the foster child. Uh, he was a teenager when she was placed here. Did they just notice 4 months later? They each had their own room. Then her CASA worker mentioned that we were too far out because we'd missed so many of her appt's. Uh, excuse me? She had a total of I think 5 in the 4 months she was here, she missed 2. One because we had no notice until the day of. Hello? My spouse was at work...and I had another child in school, obviously I couldn't leave I had to stay to do the pick up from school. The other one missed was the one we found out about AFTER it happened. Since when is 20 minutes deemed "too far out?" IN town it can take 30+ minutes to go 5-6 miles. We used to live IN town. It's just mind boggling that 20 min is too far out.... millie58 - Congrats! Looks like you're getting lot's of placements. We've only had 2 in 16 months. Each stayed for only 4 months. That just seems like a very low ratio for us. Our first came Jan 5 or 6th? Either just before or just after school stared. Our second came in late August (almost Sept), just after school started....

Are you with the same agency you were with a decade ago? Is the agency you are with aggressive about answering referrals/broadcasts?My agency is very good about making sure people stay as full as they want to be. I don't know if every office of the agency is, but ours definitely is. With y'all being able to take a fairly broad age range and two kids, you should be able to have kids fairly consistently. Do you have a worker you can email?

Are you with the same agency you were with a decade ago? Is the agency you are with aggressive about answering referrals/broadcasts? My agency is very good about making sure people stay as full as they want to be. I don't know if every office of the agency is, but ours definitely is. With y'all being able to take a fairly broad age range and two kids, you should be able to have kids fairly consistently. Do you have a worker you can email?

servnjah - we're with the same agency as before. We feel a certain loyalty as they facilitated our adoption of our (almost ) 15 year old back when he was 17 months old. Our pride and joy, with a mouth! He'll be 15 next month. However, the individual we worked with has since retired. The new "guy" seems OK.... Pretty casual like us I guess. We have had 3 diff SW (the guy from the decade ago ran the agency, and the new guy was our SW for a few years, but got promoted...). The 3 SW's : the first one got a better job, the second one had a baby and left, and now we're on our third. I've also heard we're one of only 4 houses here. She/they're certifying "a few more" homes right now. Are they aggressive? I don't know, they tell me ('cuz I bug em about twice a week) that they're checking every day for a poss match for us.... Is there more they can be doing? Can they call other workers? Other agencies? You would think we'd have kids all the time - that they'd keep us full too. I just don't know what's going on? Our classes are up to date so far as we know, out house is good, etc. Our paperwork is up to date... I just can't figure out what's wrong? Why we're not getting chosen for a child. Yes, I email / call our SW and her boss (the man mentioned above) EVERY week. Do y'all have any other suggestions? We're scratching our heads with puzzlement over here.