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I have a little one at home (6 weeks); the goal is reunification with a family member. I would love to adopt him but it probably will not be possible. He is my first placement.
Here's my question. My county said that PA does not have a foster to adopt program. However, after I was approved for foster parenting, I received matching profiles of babies available for adoption from SWAN or the PA Adoption Network (I'm not sure which now). I called and they said my county sent in my approval for adoption. They knew that I also wanted to adopt but never told me my homestudy would approve me for adoption as well. I'm thrilled about it but wonder if it is accurate.
I'm really confused. How does it work? My husband & I would like to adopt a waiting child and continue to do fostering....I starting looking on the website. But, when I went back to look at my certificate it only stated foster care. I'm so confused...can someone enlighten me.
Is there a foster care/adopt program in PA? They told me they are now approving for both...in case of adoption of a placed child.
Any experienced foster parents out there that can spell out the ABC's of foster parenting and adopting in PA?
I would appreciate it.
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I like to know too. My sw told me that I was approved for foster but not to adopt. If a foster child ended up being TPR'd, I have my homestudy updated. We were interested in adopting form SWAN (in addition to being foster parenst) but was told it would be a conflict of interest.
Still waiting and hoping for a placement.....
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Where in Pa are you from??? I'm in Lackawanna County, and when we began the process they told my dh and I they no longer add people to the fost/adopt list. We are curently awaiting our first real placement. Close yesterday, but no cigar. Sorry I couldn't help you with the adoption situation.
M
We are from Chester County. And, they also told us that there was no longer a foster/adopt program. However, after I received the matches from the state....I contacted the county to ask why I was getting these and they said the state was trying to approve for both because so often foster parents adopt there foster children. The term they use now is Resource Family and they are approved for both. This is what I was told. But I wanted verification since I have been told things that didn't pan out from some of the social workers.
I was told that subsidies for daycare is a one-time wait and then you don't have to wait (even if the child goes home) when you have a second placement. That isn't so. Does anyone have any creative solutions to daycare...since it's really expensive for working moms.
We were approved through a private (non profit) agency, not the county, as fost to adopt - which means our training and homestudy meets both foster and adoption requirements/regulations. We have both fostered and done a straight adoption (through SWAN). As for the daycare, in the county Im at, there are approved facilities to take the child (specific ones); however, there is a four month wait list and you can't get on the wait list until you have a placement. Our agency said they may have been able to help us cover one month worth of expenses, but that would be it. We could always use the daily stipend to cover the cost. Since both my husband work full time, we asked to only be placed with elementary school aged kids. We're in dauphin county (harrisburg).
I'm in PA (montgomery county) and we have fostered and adopted our daughter who we brought home from the hospital after birth.
We have also fostered six other children in the 0-5 age range.
There is no "official" fost-adopt program, but if no bio family is identified or suitable the foster parents are next in line to adopt the child should TPR happen.
So we did straight foster and got lucky our first time round. Then we went on what is called the "legal risk" list at our agency. That's when they call with placements which are more likely to lead to adoption due to a variety of circumstances. However, we got tired of waiting so went back on the foster (hoping to adopt) list. We got a call that afternoon for a six month old boy. He is likely to be reunified, but that's great by me (I like his parents, they're working hard, etc.). In the meantime our daughter loves being a big sis.
So you can request legal-risk kids, but it's a longer wait - and had we done that at the beginning we would have missed out on our daughter.
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