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One form for our homestudy is really bugging me. I accept the total invasiveness of the homestudy process as necessary, but one of the forms we have to provide is a notarized statement from the person who will be our child's guardian if we die with their income on it. We have had our children's guardians (we have bio children) in our will for years, but the idea of having them have to disclose their income to a stranger seems to unnecessarily invasive to them. I understand that it is necessary to show the children will be provided for if we die but we are already disclosing life insurance and other finances that should demonstrate that our finances are enough to provide for them without asking their guardians to support them financially.Just wondering if this is an agency specific form or one that's required for everyone. I'll feel better about it if it's standard across all agencies.
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Mine also only asked who, not income; they just wanted to make sure I have a plan. It could be an agency-specific thing or a requirement specific to your state. I think, though, that even if it is just your agency, the only way around it would be to have your homestudy done by a different agency. How far along are you in the process? Is it an option to start over with a different agency?
Thanks, that makes me feel so much better, I thought I was being unreasonable. There's only one other agency locally so I may look into them. Unfortunately I didn't find out about this form until I'd already paid the $300 application fee. I really can't see myself asking the people I've asked to be my children's guardians to do this. I'm in California, if anyone else from California cares to comment on California rules.
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Dear Curiouser,
My husband and I live in Minnesota, so I can't directly help with California law. However, we had an issue with our agency demanding that we get therapy for our "clutter" problem. We didn't agree that we needed therapy, and we thought that the agency had no right to demand it.
Long story short, you can contact the Department of Human Services in California and ask if disclosing the income of your chosen guardian is standard procedure in the state, or if it isn't. If the State says that it isn't, you can tell the agency that you don't agree with that portion of the application, and have something to back it up.
Home Studies are invasive, and it can feel like the agency holds all the cards. If something strikes you as wrong, it probably is. We didn't even have to disclose if we had a will or not - I think they're asking for too much.
Jennifer
Thanks everyone. I did call another agency in another county and they stated it wasn't a California requirement, so now just to decide what to do. I'm not sure the prospective guardians would sign or disclose anyway, so it would be sad for a hypothetical (hope we're not going to die) to keep this from happening.
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We were asked for names, and we obviously consulted with the potential guardians. Our HS included this information as standard for where we live but I think the state in which our agency is located didn't need it as I don't remember seeing it on their HS checklist form (we did have to include a couple of things that were not in the original HS because of state requirements).
I'm in CA too, and our child(ren)'s guardians did have to disclose income this time around. They didn't in 2005 when we started our first adoption. I didn't like it, but didn't feel like fighting it. I'm a big believer in picking my battles. However, you could always just ask your agency/sw about it. Tell them that the guardians don't feel comfortable disclosing that kind of information. See what happens.Good luck on your adoption journey!