Private agency vs DSS (or DCF)

I decided to go with an Agency. They offered all of the training & classes, they also provide 24 hour support and transfer the child to and from the bio. I like the idea of working as a team. Even the therapist and other personnel that the child needs (except medical) are located in the same location. Not only do they place children, they strongly believe in the fp to use respite on a monthly basis. You call and let them know when you would like to use it, and then they find a respite provider for you! They even take on the extra costs of the respite and so it doesn't come out of your monthly stipend. But, if you are hoping for an infant or toddler, I think you would get a faster placement through DSS. In my state it is (usually) the harder to place children that the agency takes care of. Which are the children that I prefer to deal with. I would recommend talking to both DSS and an agency before you decide which would work better for you.

we are with an agency. we have had more training, more support, and get paid more. but we get older kids, mostly.

If what you say is true, I'd be inclined to go through the state just so that you wouldn't be limited only to the "harder to place" children. Since my experience is that ALL kids in foster care have some pretty big issues, to me, "harder to place" gives me some scary ideas of full-blown RAD and other such nasties. Now, obviously some people do really well with those kids (as the above poster was saying), but I don't think I would want to be limited only to "extreme parenting" ;-) My kid was coded "Severe emotional/behavioural disordered" by the school - moderate attachment disorder, PTSD, Anxiety, ODD, Depression....and a couple others I can't recall right now. BUT...according to Children's Services he was a "level one" - NOT considered "hard to place" (other than for his age) and not eligible for extra funding and such. I hate to think what their level 2's and 3's are!

We would foster any child younger than our son, but would hope to adopt any minority infant...that's why I'm torn. In my state (MA) minority children ARE still considered hard to place (amazing!) but I don't know if that extends to infants, or if it is only minority children that are over age 5 or part of a sibling group. I've had great DSS/DCF social workers that I loved and I've had bad ones that I wanted to throw out of my home. That wasn't while part of the foster care/adpot systems, but I'm sure the same is true. Anyone start out working with the state and them move to work with an agency?

We have both options here as well. All of the children are referred through the state/county first, then the ones they cannot find homes for are referred to private agencies. Some children, based on need are directly referred to therapuetic/private care but those are usually ones leaving residential treatment factilites. The training for both agency and county are basically the same here, agencies have 2 hours more than the county, so both are similiarly prepared and both have on-going training opportunites. Support from an agency is supposed to be greater, and I do believe it is because they limit the number of children they take where the county has to take and overview them all. Reimbursement rates from an agency are greater here than from an agency, significantly greater. However, the agencies get less information about how the case is run, because they are basically subcontractors. The case will still be staffed by a CW from the county. The county attorney will also still be handling the case. So, an agency only gets some of the information, and the foster parents get even less. We chose to work directly with the county because we didn't like the idea of things being filtered through a bunch of different people before it got to us. We were a part of every meeting and court hearing and encouraged to be. Agencies here don't encourage that. I agree with allena, take to both. There is probably more than one private agency in your area as well. See which place is run in a way that you feel most comfortable with. I was most at ease with the county. They answered my questions clearly and directly where the agencies hemmed and hawwed a bit. It is not a perfect system, and although support for us is a bit lacking, support for the children and getting services to meet their needs is generally readily available. That doesn't mean there aren't hoops to jump through, but we received every service for the children we asked for, it just took a little time and most of the time that wasn't the fault of the county, but of the rules and regulations of other depts. like EI and the schools. Good Luck!

We went with DSS simply b/c we had never heard of private agencies. If was a rough road. Sounds like we had similiar experiences. Some good cw's and some not worth much at all. But there was always some kind of drama/friction between me and DSS. However, they did give us the most beautiful son so there was some good there too...just not enough to continue with the hassle. We transferred to a private agency and have been very happy! They are quicker to get the children the specialists they need. They pay A LOT more. They also have more support for the foster parents themselves, whereas DSS didn't have anything but a shrug and a handshake.

I went through an agency. the fc rate was the same as Dss rates. Once the child was in my home for a month I was transferred to DSS. I thought it something wrong because I didn't want to work for DSS. I personally think that the agency that suppose to RU family should not be the same agency that places children for adoption. I think it is a conflict of interest. I found out later after working up the nerve... that is how things work in my area. I think the agency recruit adoptive parents for DSS. I was trained as a pre-adoptive parent. If I wanted to just foster there are specialized foster parents that are paid $50.00 per day. I am glad that I am working with DSS now because it is the direct route to my first two children. My fc was placed with me because someone thought of me. They calculated the case would move to adoption. My worker was on vacation at the time. I just had a failed infant placement and I believe being linked directly to DSS brought me my son.

We went through an agency when we lived in CA, they did get us licensed a lot faster, the stipend was higher, the social workers were more accessible and I adopted three of my foster children that were placed by the agency, our first sib set came to us at age 1 & 2, and our youngest came to us at three weeks of age(she was considered medically fragile). All that said, these agencies are still overseen by the state so you have two SW coming to your home, the county worker comes monthly and the agency SW comes weekly. In our new state Washington, we are through DCS and it has so far not proven to be a positive experience, but we are hoping it will improve the longer we are foster parents here and learn to navigate their system.

I'm all for private agencies. My experience with DCF workers has been either excellent and horrible. My son's CW was the greatest. She truly had my son's best interest at heart. My daughters' CWs were nightmares. One was a racist. And the current one is high off the power her position gives her and has no common sense. I thank God for my private agency, they fought for me when the current worker was trying hard to take my daughter. Court dates that I have to go there my SW has been by my side, even coming to the finalization hearing. My agency filters the types of children they will take. They accept children with moderate to severe medical issues or emotional issues, etc.. ALthough it was hard, but my agency removed my friend's foster son because birthmom during a visit scared the living daylights out of the SW and my friend at Starbucks with her behavior and threats. I love that my SW gets back to me the same business day, usually within hours. I love the developmental psychologist that have on staff that meets with us on a regular basis. "Hard-to-place" children are usually minority boys, along with older children, and children with special needs, whether you're working with DCF or a private agency. When I asked after my last foster class the wait for infants, I was told if I was open to a minority or biracial boy I would bring a baby home from the hospital. I didn't bring my five-day-old home from the hospital, but my friend who had been anti-boy for the longest time got to spend the last two nights in the hosptial with her son who had been in NICU. Best of luck with your decision.

I am very glad we chose to go with an agency - yes the wait for a toddler was longer (2 months for first placement, 8 months for a placement that lasted longer then a few weeks) - but we have had 5 young kids placed with us so far (2, 4, 5, 3, 4 yos) - two of these were special needs, four in sib groups (two and two), one a minority child ... we don't do babies so I don't know what the wait for a baby would be ... The support we have through the agency is great. The kids also have a county worker - when I call her it takes her at a minimum 2 days, often a week to return my call. My agency worker calls me the same day, or takes my calls late at night, weekends, holidays etc. The stipend is actually lower for us then with the county but the extra support, help w/ transport etc, makes it worth it.

We are in Texas. We're using a private agency and we are fostering a newborn. Our wait from license to placement was only a few days. HTH

In our county in FL we don't have a choice. All we have is an agency. All info has to go thru 2 levels of people before it filters to us (so I just go to the jr's myself). I work directly with the CA DCF and the OR DCF and found it to be more "relaxed" and have never had a problem getting info. We only do toddlers and babies. We've had much more luck with our chosen age group (we are foster only) via working directly with the counties. Good luck - and welcome!!