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But apparently I don't. I thought that being licensed to foster to adopt meant that you could agree to foster a child that was on the photolisting for six months and then you would adopt them. I knew that there are kids out there who's parents still had parental rights who weren't on the photolisting yet and that those kids would be available to be fostered as well. If TPR happened, then we could adopt them. Well, I just found out that the kids I asked my homestudy to be submitted on are straight adoption. If we agree to adopt them, there would be no fostering....we would just start the adoption process. Just when I think I have everything down, something else comes and surprises me. Now I am not sure which route to take. We were just licensed last Friday and we haven't gotten a placement call. Of course, it hasn't been that long and we may get a call any minute now for a placement but until then, I am left obsessing about these two precious little girls that I know are available to be adopted and who have been split up into two different foster homes.
Does anyone have some input? I would love to hear from people who have gone either route.
Thanks!:roadblock:
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hi,i know in our state even if the kids are legally free,there is a waiting perid from the time they are placed in your home until you can adopt.so you need to be licsensed as a foster parent.because the time during the wait they are considered foster.i have know others who did this,it still gives you sometime to learn more about the kids and to be sure they are a good match for your family.we did foster-adopt a legal risk child.when he was placed with us,it was pretty certain we would be adopting him.a year latter adoption was final.
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Here in MA, I learned that they do not have Foster/Adopt per se. You either Foster or you do straight adoption. With the Adoption, once the child has transition from his/her FH to your home you will receive the foster rate BUT that is until the legal adoption takes place. You go thru the TPR and such but if all of that is done then once transition takes place it's a matter of just legalizing the adoption and that's it. Does that help at all?
In my state (MN) our workers won't start the adoption process until the child has been successfully living in your family a minimum of 6 months sometimes double that depending on the child.
Every state is different but I wasn't aware that anyone could start the adoption process immediately anywhere.
chevyjewel
In my state (MN) our workers won't start the adoption process until the child has been successfully living in your family a minimum of 6 months sometimes double that depending on the child. Every state is different but I wasn't aware that anyone could start the adoption process immediately anywhere.
With our son. he was an out of state adoption..from the photolistings. Once we got icpc approval, he moved in. Now normally most states..not all require a 6 month waiting period before finalizing the adoption. In our case it was just 5 months, but it still took another 4 months to get things worked out. Anyways even though he was here as an adoptive placement, legally he was still a foster child. So technically he was a foster to adopt. Now when you get licensed for foster to adopt in your state, what that means to the state is..they'll place a foster child in your home and IF..thats a BIG IF that child becomes adoptable, then you will adopt them.BUT, you can also adopt kids that are already TPR'd, such as most kids on the photolistings, or other TPR'd kids in your state/county. But of course you have to be matched with them first. I hope I made sense.
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We live in Texas and are adopting. J had TPR in May and placed in our home this September as a FOSTER placement with intention of adopting. We are with CPS, no agency. What was told to us was he has to be in our home six months before it becomes finalized. They like to keep the children listed as "foster" children until we get closer to the finalization date, then they switch it to adoptive placement. They do this so if the adoption does not happen, the kids do not have failed adoption on their record. So the six months starts as soon as he is place in our home, then they switch it to adoptive placement the very last month, then we finalize. That is the way they are handling it with us at least, and we are certified foster/adopt.
I am in KS and we looked at adopting a little boys whose TPR had taken place. He lived an hour from us and we would have done visits that would have gotten longer and more frequent till we were ready for him to live w/ us then he would be adopted. Not sure how long that would have taken though, but we didn't get to foster him before we made a final decision that had to be done before we got visits. In another situation there is a sib group of 4 and 2 have had TPR's while the older have not due to bd missing in action for years, but the would move in w/ us until bd was found and TPR happened then we would move forward to adoption so it must just depend. I am always confused w/ the way the system and after 3 years have given up trying to figure out how it will work or guess what will happen w/ a foster child we have.:rockband:
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Here in CA, the child lives with the new family for 6 mos. before you can petition the courts for TPR. CA refuses to make legal orphans (their term). So, when we get placement, we live with him for 6 mos, then tell sw we want him forever... sw takes the request to county sw (we're using an agency) who takes it to judge, who determines TPR. THEN bio-parents have 60 days to appeal[/FONT], THEN if no appeal, we go to court to finalize.
In CA there is no "no risk", because bio-parent rights are terminated last thing.