Who's Waiting for a Placement?

I have had two emergency placements. 1) 5 month old for 3 weeks and 2) 2 yo for 4 days... I am still waiting to be matched age 0-4 male. Sometimes the waiting is so hard!

I am waiting also,,, but think of it this way, if they do not need us then children are not taken away and are able to stay with their parents.

SO, so true!!!!

Hi Irelady~ I actually spoke to my resource worker about this yesterday. I explained to her that there are so many homes in other counties waiting for placement. She was very shocked! So I asked her why couldnt placements be made from county to county. She stated that if would be difficult for the caseworker to travel so far and handle the affairs of the case appropriately. My resource worker stated that the ideal situation is if one county can not find a home for a case it would be nice if they could transfer it to another county and that local office picks up the case. But that is not allowed. It has to be an emergency situation and all foster homes on the roster for the county has been exhausted with reasonable excuses as to why they could not take in the child. And she said that people who rejects placement the least are the ones they call first when they have a placement available.

I am thinking it the placement wait has something to do with the county as someone else has mentioned. My worker advised me some counties are flooded and some counties are not in high demand for foster parents. What counties you guys in?

I'm in Passaic County, my only placement has actually been from Bergen County. We are waiting for a placement!

Hi all. We're in Essex, and haven't had a placement yet (though we've only had our license a month). We were told there was a 'desperate' need in our county, yet no one from our class (with the exception of the kinship people) that I've spoken to has even been contacted yet... *shrug*

All three of my foster/adopted kids (siblings) came one at a time from a county about an hour away.

Ruth824: you had a placement from Bergen County? That is INSANE. i'm in Bergen Co and they are telling newly licensed foster families they will likely wait A YEAR for their first placement! Which means basically they have more homes than they need, at least for younger kids. In fact, we were shocked when we got a call 6 weeks after being licensed (it fell through) and we got our first actual placement about 10 weeks post-licensing, because we were told that was unlikely. Irelady10: i find it's useful (and have been told so by other foster parents) to stay on your worker's radar! Call or e-mail periodically just to say hi, remind them your home is open, etc. For instance, I called to remind my worker that I'm off for the summer so it would be an ideal time to get emergency placements - Turns out she had never added me to the emergency/hotline list! So she did, after that. And shortly thereafter we started getting non-emergency calls. So i think that it's good for you to stick out in their minds as someone who has a certain niche you can fill. For instance, they thought of us for one baby [who ended up in kinship instead] because she probably needed a stay-at-home parent for a while, for example. And for our current placement I think they felt we stuck out as people who could handle a child with emotional and behavioral issues.Also remember it varies wildly from county to county.We have been told that our county isn't as busy as it used to be because they're having a lot of success with the new initiatives to keep families intact by providing services in-home. I support that fully, as long as kids are being kept safe, so not getting a call for a while was hard but it also made me happy that kids were able to stay at home. I'm glad the state is getting better at not removing kids at the drop of a hat.

So, I got a call at 4 am Sunday morning for a 2 year old girl. I didn't even know I was on the SPRU list (ironically, I was planning on calling my RW Monday morning to be placed on the SPRU list). Her hearing was today and she will be staying for awhile until they can work out an interstate transfer to a PGM. She is a sweet little thing. She is doing pretty well, all things taken into consideration. My son and her are getting along (other than the frequent "mine" whine that is completely typical for 2 year olds!)

We're waiting and officially ready to get back in the game! Our two little girls left at the end of June. To be honest, it's been nice to have a bit of a break with just my family. Our two little foster daughters were one and two year olds and both had health/developmental issues. We made it through, but at the end of the day, we were all running on empty. It was a great experience because I think it helped us figure out that two kids are a bit much for us. We have an autistic son who does great with the little foster kids, but caring for all three was a challenge. My husband, who was initially resistant to fost/adopt is now pestering me- he wants another baby now! Good luck with the new placement!-Kate

Irelady, I'm glad to hear you have a placement! Enjoy that little one while you have her and fill her full of love!Sandy