Can anyone help me??

Generally speaking, you can adopt from the foster care system in any state using a current homestudy. It doesn't matter who does it for you. However, it is easier to become a certified foster parent first. To do this you would need to contact either your state agency or a private foster agency in your state. The state and many agencies do have a stipulation that in order for your homestudy to be sent for out-of-state children that you need to have looked in-state for a minimum of 6 - 12 months first. I would recomment checking with your local agency to find out what their requirements are.

OK, there are a couple things to consider... First. Your local DCF is supposed to be looking for homes for children. This is regardless of where the child resides. However, that's not an actual law that I know of, just the philosophy behind things. So sometimes DCF gets a little lost. They are paid by tax monies to do homestudies, so that part is taken care of. But they know very well that many homestudies they do will take a child off the list of cases that someone in their office has to deal with. Meaning their own case load has a chance of getting smaller, or they have a chance of getting help from their coworkers. So when someone comes in and right away wants to bypass all the children in their own state and adopt from somewhere else, they see their chance of getting a child off their own local caseload disappear. Oh, they're still paid for their work, but all the people who apply after you who might dcrease their own caseload, are now in line after you. Plus, many DCFs are funded from local/state taxes, so the DCF employees feel a need to give the local taxpayers what they want - a home for a child who lives in their own community or state. So, in order to OK a person's desire to adopt a child in another state, some DCFs put restrictions on their cooperation. Some say that you have to seek for a child in your own state for a specific period of time - like 3, 6, or 12 months. And if you don't find one, they will OK sending your homestudy out of state. Others say they will send your homestudy out of state right away, but only if you pay for it. You'd be charged the typical cost of a homestudy, so that the taxpayers aren't out money since all the local children are still needing homes, and then they will OK sending your homestudy out of state. So first, you need to find out from your local DCF what their policy is on sending a homestudy out of state. Then you can decide whether it's a policy you can live with. You will probably have to attend their "adoption from foster care" orientation session in order to get face time with the person who can answer that question. The folks who answer the phones won't know. It'll be a one or two hour orientation session, and at the end of it you can ask your questions - believe me, everyone will have some. If their policy is that you try to find a child in your home state for 6 months first, is that OK with you? Really think through your reasons why, and ask the orientation instructor any questions you have that relate to that. If their policy is they'll send it as soon as you pay for it, is that OK with you? You can also find out at the orientation whether there are private agencies that hopeful adoptive parents can use to adopt a child from your state's foster care. If there are, then *those* are the agencies you can talk to about adopting a child from the foster care in another state. Being "non profit" has nothing to do with it - being licensed to place children from foster care into adoptive homes does. Most will happen to be non profit, but there will also be a whole list of non profit agencies taht have nothing to do with foster care and aren't licensed. **The foster care homestudy is very different from a regular adoption homestudy. It requires special classes, for one thing. So a "regular" homestudy from a "regular" agency won't cut it, and won't be accepted.** Then you can call those agencies and ask the same question, and get their answers. They may be the same as DCF, they may be different. And while we're discussing cost, see if your state (or any state you may adopt from) offers a reimbursement for non-recurring adoption expenses. Most states do. In my state, that amount is up to $2,000. Meaning my state will pay an adoptive parent up to $2,000 once that adoptive parent submits receipts showing that much in non recurring adoption expenses. The cost of the homestudy is usually around or a bit below that much. So someone from another state who adopts one of my state's children could easily have the cost to buy their homestudy from DCF reimbursed after the adoption is final. But not every state offers this, I don't think, so be sure to check. Good luck to you!

Gosh, this is good information! It explains a lot. I guess our first step would be to attend one of the orientations, armed with our questions. We are not against adopting from our state, but I was thinking that in order to have more opportunities, we would need to look to other states too. Thanks so much for your help!

Thanks Diane,Your post was very informative. I had inquired about a child out of state and told my DCF Social Worker. She didn't say i couldn't go out of state, but definitely did everything to discourage me. I even found a child within my own state but in a different county and i was discouraged from this too. Hmmm. So now i'm just back to waiting to be matched. Very frustrating.

I am in IL and my DH and I knew we most likely would not adopt from our own state. We also knew from other friends that adopted that DCFS would resist sending our homestudy to other states/workers and that this could delay things. So, we did our homestudy privately (in our case, thru Lutheran Child & Family Services). We paid for it out of pocket, but when the adoption was finalised, the placing state (IA in our case) reimbursed us for the cost. I just had to provide receipts. They also paid the lawyer fees. This worked very well for one simple reason - the LCFS worker had no vested interest in where we placed from. We paid her organization to do our homestudy & to provide it to the contacts that we supplied. (LCFS does not place children or do matching). If you are not aware, it is very rare for anyone to give you your homestudy - you have to tell them, each time, who to send it to. This puts a DCFS worker in too much of a position of power (IMHO) over whether or not to send your case study. I took this out of the equation & it worked. My HS typically went out to contacts within the days or a week of each request that I sent. It took two years from start to finish to get our placement, but that was not due to anything related to the speed of the HS delivery.

Sundara, I have been asking around, trying to find out if there is any agency in our state (SC) that can do a homestudy for us, that will work for foster care adoption. No luck so far. I thought it strange that DCF would hold a homestudy "hostage", since of course it's nothing like that in private or IA adoption. But I guess it makes sense, since they are providing the homestudy for free, they want to benefit from it. Guess I'll keep searching for an outside agency. I think there is a LFS in SC, so I will check them out. Thanks!

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