Any others frustrated with Florida's foster care & adoption process?

The last thing I posted was an update that we were going to get to bring our son home soon. Well that was weeks ago. We were told by the caseworker she was trying to expedite everything. She told us that we should have him home before the 1st of August. Well it is August 2nd, and I am upset. My son is in a behavorial facility, and 4 weeks ago we were told to wait for the Treatment team meeting on July 22nd. That came and went, and he is not home. Then the cw told me she was going to talk to the judge herself that friday about getting a court order to have him discharged and home. That never happened. Then on wednesday last week, she told us he had court on monday (today). I called and left her a message and emailed her to see if there was any way we could be part of it via telephone (We are in LA, he is in FL). NO RESPONSE. So this morning I left her a message to please call me after court to let me know what happened.. Yup you guessed it. NO PHONE CALL. Seriously. We have been approved since July 1st with ICPC. School starts here August 12th.. and we wanted to get him starteded at the beginning of the school year. We have made it painfully clear that we can and will drop everything at a moments notice to drive to FL to bring him home. I just want to cry. .

rescue, I would say "welcome to Florida's system", however, they are all like that. I dealt with the Florida system before, but now I am not there anymore and this system is the same. Nobody works very fast. The system is broken. Very broken. Everything is on there time!

Well I got an email this morning. The judge is the one prolonging him coming home. We have to hurry up and wait again for the next juditial review on November 1st. Yup I said it, NOVEMBER 1st.

I think everyone is but a smart mama told me this when we first started fostering: You can't go into this thinking you are going to fix the system. It is very broken and has been for a long time. Its hard to remember that sometimes because we become so involved with the kids we care for. But I learned the only thing you can do is advocate for the child. Do it as much as possible and work your way up the chain of command until you get the answers you need. :)

So I contacted the supervisor's supervisor at our agency. I have been keeping ALL the emails that have been back and forth from our caseworker (#3 in 5 months), and a list of all my phone calls to the CW that went unanswered, or took 2 weeks to return my call. She had me email everything to her. Hopefully something will happen. I also asked her, that if our son can't come home officially until November, can we have him here for a home visit. She seem suprised that the CW has not arranged this already. She is having a staffing for him on Thursday August 12th. Hopefully they will schedule a home visit. They are looking at Labor day weekend. Keeping our fingers crossed. I just have to ask> How is prolonging a 14y/o from being placed in a forever home in his best interest? Every day that passes, he gets more and more discouraged and feels like he will never get home. We just try to encourage him, and let him know that we are doing everything we can to get him home soon. FYI: Everything was approved as of July 1st thru ICPC. The agency has all the paperwork, but they told me that FL has 6 months to place the child. So in reality they have until the first of January. WAY TOO LONG in my opinion. Again. . . whose best interest are they looking out for?

We are still waiting for the Fl courts to get the ICPC done. We don't have to take MAPP classes due to the kids we are trying to adopt are our niece and nephew (5, 8). The social worker in IA is getting just as frustrated and now they don't know if the kids will be able to stay where they are because the foster mom is not renewing her license. We need the ICPC done yesterday but the FBI checks and the slow social worker here in Fl are delaying things..I wish there was something I could do!

There is!!! Call the Florida Govenor or email him. Calling is faster.

We had an ICPC done in May. The Florida social worker is still not done and its the end of Aug. We keep asking the social worker and her boss How long and they never give us a straight answer. I guess it goes to Orlando then Tallahassee and then to IA. Has anyone had an ICPC and how long should I think it should take? They finally sent the FBI checks up to IA but not sure why because IA needs everything

Ours took 11 months. Ours went from our office in Duval County to Tallahassee then on to Boise Idaho and then to the local office where our niece was. We had to call and call and call Tallahassee and Idaho to get it moving along. It was sitting on someones desk in Tallahassee and calling them helped alittle bit.

We did this but called the sending state's Governors office. Didn't do much good but make the SW angry! And after we got back from bringing her home here we received a letter from OUR Governor's office (we had written them beforehand-like 6 months before!) saying if we needed any help to let them know!!! LOL What a waste of time it was doing that!

Icpc we are waiting for our worker to update our homestudy that was requested by WA, When i found out when the worker from the sending state sent the package to ICPC in WA, i waited about seven days then i contaced the ICPC here in FL by email And was responded to within 3o minutes he said that they just recieved package and ask me the childrens names who we are adopting and was forwarded to our local agency in duval county so i emailed them and they recieved it and was assigning us to a worker to complete our update, and it is the same worker that did our homestudy the first time, so we have all of the forms completed and now we are awaiting a home visit then she said it would take her about 1 week to type up and submit to supervisor then it would be forwarded to ICPC here in Fl, Fl ICPC said they will appprove it asap and sent it to recieving state ICPC then we can meet our kids :dance: So i would contact ICPC in Fl and tell them that you are waiting for approval and i think that will move things faster and be persistant, i keep up everyday to make it go faster and smoother so everyone is doing there job or you will be waiting forever. I hope this helps.

The social workers in Fl are worthless and will not give us any time frame on when they will be sending the ICPC to IA. The know about the foster mom not renewing her license but they don't care..I even tried to see if the social worker in IA could do anything because she is also getting frustrated, but she has not gotten anywhere either. They don't even answer emails!

Sounds SO familiar!!! Good luck!!!

Not sure if anyone here can answer this one. . . We are trying to get our son to have a visit here in Louisiana. Waiting on a court order. But I got an email from the CW today, basically saying that WE would have to fly to Florida (on our dime) to pick him up, and fly back to Louisiana with us/me. That the agency would pay for 1-one way ticket for him to get here, but we would be responsible to pay to fly him back, escorted by myself or my husband (again on our dime). Now I will do what ever I have to do, but he is still in the custody of the State of Florida, why are they telling me I have to pay for all of this? I thought/have been told that the State of Florida and the agency are responsible to transport him... this would be his first pre-adoption visit to our home in Louisiana. Hubby and I have made several trips (once a month) to FL to visit him. We are just waiting for a judge to tell the agency to place him with us. Home study and ICPC all approved. This child is almost 15... what the heck are they waiting for?

I am in Fla, and just starting the Fostering process, and it seems very good compared to the PA CYS....They will communicate with me if they need information from me, but if the shoe is on the other foot...they dont get back to me...its VERY frustrating, someone said they have a big turnover every year there, and I am sure they are over worked, but...they need to hire more people then...something to help these kids