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I won't go into all the details, it would take way too long. Basically my dad and step-mom have my step-brothers children (one his bio and 1 his girlfriends child that noone else wants) through kinship placement. They cannot keep them long-term. There has not been tpr however they have been told that things don't look good and they need to consider finding a permanent placement if they can. They go back to court for 6 month evaluation in March but neither parent has made any progess so far. My husband and I are wanting to foster to adopt both of the children if it comes down to tpr. One is an infant, the other a toddler. Both tested positive for meth, one at a high level, one at a critical level. I have been told we would be given kinship conservatorship and during that time take PRIDE classes to become liscensed to foster and eventually adopt. Has anyone been through this? What are the chances the parents rights would be terminated if there is no progress at 6 months. This would be through the state. The cw has already been contacted so we can start on paperwork but haven't received it yet as that was just last week. Please let me know your experiences. Also, I guess I wonder if we were approved to foster and tpr had taken place is there any reason the adoption would fall through. I guess my mind is just racing. We are both stable in our relationship, been married almost 13 years and both have stable jobs. We have 2 bio kids of our own, 7 and almost 9. All the children, our bio and the other kids are girls.
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We adopted our daughter (on kinship) after there was TPR. I've never seen it done in 6 months though. Typically, a judge gives a year for the parents to follow the plan. My daughter was in care for several years because when the time would expire, they started working on the plan so they got an extension. THey would stop and start again at the end, another extension. There is really no way to predict, unless the parents will sign TPR now. If you are approved to foster and TPR has been granted, the only thing I can think of is someone from the family stepping up. Good luck!
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First of all, the state should place them under kinship foster NOT conservatorship. If you agree to be the conservators the state will step out of it and all responsibility falls on you. These responsibilities not only include basic care in raising them, but medical and court to TPR the parents. I think it is unlikely that the state will pursue TPR themselves unless the state remains the conservators. They have no reason to spend the money to do it, otherwise. Aside with being left to see it all through yourselves, the children will not be eligible for any adoption subsidy, college tuition, or medical benefits through the state after you adopt. That is only available if you adopt children who have remained in the conservancy of CPS. Since they have had significant exposure to at least one illegal drug inutero I would absolutely NOT allow the state to do this to them. There could be major medical/emotional issues as they get older and the adoption benefits will help your entire family get through those obstacles. Agree that you would be the kinship placement with an intention to adopt after TPR. You can still do classes and get licensed but if it happens as fast as 6 months, you'll probably be in the process of adopting before you get licensed! :) You don't have to be a licensed foster parent to be a kinship placement. You don't get a monthly stipend unless you are licensed, though. Beware of the word conservatorship!
You are right. I was able to confirm tonight that is would be kinship foster not conservatorship. I'm still new to all the terminology. I haven't actually spoken to the case worker myself but they are aware of our intentions as we are already approved to help with the kids now and have already had our background checks. My step-mom and dad have already told the case worker we were interested. Also, they were saying that we should do the fostering classes because it would help us out finacially with the kids until we are able to adopt if it does indeed go in that direction. We are looking at contacting them within the next few weeks and possibly transitioning the children within the next few months. They are happy and stable with my dad and we want to make sure this is going toward being permanent before we uproot the kids and move them again. They do have relationship with us and we see them almost everyday. We were already doing that but were told by the state to continue doing that and possibly even have overnight stays so it wouldn't be such a shock and a different environment when they were transitioned to us. Thanks everyone for the info. I am so new to this and learning more as we walk through the process.