State & Private Agencies

We're with a private agency. For us, we like the support of like-minded people. We work through a Christian organization. We have intermediaries to help us work out stuff we need help with, access to very good therapists who work through the agency, and the comfort of knowing that we share a bond together with the staff. When things got tough, we were offered as much help as you can imagine. When our baby was abruptly moved, they were wonderfully supportive. On the down side, we are only allowed to accept children through the agency. We have extra social workers to deal with and we are one step removed from the CPS worker. Our experience has been that the CPS cw only wants to talk to our agency cw. Our paperwork for everyone has to go through 2 sets of agencies with their attending beauracracies. Things can, and do, get lost. For instance, we live close to the state line. I wanted to take our fd to a little zoo about 100 yards across into the next state. We had to file directly with our agency to get permission to travel. I filed a week in advance. As the next weekend approached, I had to call our cw and see if I had permission. She had to track down the CPS worker. CPS cw told us she didn't have time to get to that because she had 1000 other things she felt were more important to deal with. So, we never got to go. An aquaintance of mine works through CPS. She told me all she has to do is appear in the CPS office and fill out the paperwork herself. As with everything, I suppose both sides have pros and cons.

I think Greenrobin said it well..... there are pros and cons to both. A private agency will have better support systems in place, more personalized service to you, the foster parent. Whereas CPS tends to be a little more bogged down with caseloads. (there are exceptions to every rule, but this is what I've seen)

It may be easiest for you if you think of "the state" as being just another agency. You will want to speak with each agency that interests you, whether they are private or "the state". Each will have their pros and cons, and those pros and cons will be different in each state, sometimes each county, and sometimes each city. When I was searching for an agency, I called a bunch and asked for mailed information. A lot didn't respond, so I dropped them off the list. I read the mailed information, and discarded some more - that was when I found out that agencies can have specialties, like dealing only with infants, or only with medically needy children, or only sibling groups, for example. I also learned that each agency not only has their own orientation or training, but that they charge different amounts and require different things. And I learned that each agency could set their own requirements for the home study, as long as those requirements were at least as stringent as the state requirements. I attended the orientations of the agencies I was still interested in. I listened to everything they said, and asked all my questions. I was interested in things like whether they had a way to answer emergency questions after hours, how much hand-holding they did on paperwork issues, whether they offered special training to foster parents placed with special children. I also asked about the process of placing children once they were removed - did all agencies have the same chance at each child, was there a priority system for some agencies, etc? And once I had all those answers, I could choose my agency. The one I chose was ultimately the one that was most up-front with their information, providing everything at the orientation including a 6 month schedule of optional trainings, the full home check requirements list (a 70 page book, BTW), the medical forms for my physical, etc. I didn't have to sign with them in order to receive that, like some other agencies. So, just some things to consider.

The other thing to consider is how many referrals do they get. Where I'm located there are several agencies to choose from but they don't all get referrals at the same rate.

We did our training through the state, and the day we got licensed, we got a call from a private agency. We took the placement and although our license is with the state, our stipend checks come from the private agency. The social worker & everyone involved is with the private agency. It has worked out fine, and it wasn't really designed. Good luck.