Several new Laws taking effect July 1.

Libby... I feel the same way.. Adams County is crazy slow and they seem like they try to place with relatives enough if that is not the best choice.. I don't know maybe I am just frustrated...

Now I know why I felt this nagging urgency to take our family off hold. Dh wanted to wait until after vacation. We have 2 openings. I guess I should say one opening.

In our region they are close if not already out of homes. My MIL had 4 foster and 1 adopted in her home and they called to place 2 more in her home this week.

I was just talking to a cw about this new rule. I asked her if there were loopholes that cw's could take advantage of when there are homes needed but everyone is technically filled up by the new standards. She said there are!

Well that's good news!! Is that Mary you were talking to? I haven't talked to her since she went to the meeting to learn more about the new laws. I hate the idea of our home closing completely knowing there are 2 siblings currently living in home w/biomom... Silly me, I need to be the back up plan just in case..

website is good looking, but clicking on an image goes no where, you cannot highlight the name of the case worker to send an email. uses Flash, I am a Mac user, not a good combination.

Apparently the loopholes are only for those with foster kids making you over the limit. We have 6 kids (bio/adopted) and just spoke to the LW. We have to voluntarily close our home immediately- no way around it. :(

ironically enough, i just got a call for 5 siblings that i had to turn down, because a, there was not enough room here for them, especially since i am only licensed for 6 and have 2 of my own, and b, i don't take children older than the ones i have and 4 out of 5 of the siblings were. i figure that rule will definitely be bent when its convenient for THEM, lol....just not for us. this is the first call i have had in months. its frustrating because in hamilton county, i can no longer be contacted by marion county directly, it has to go thru them first. *sighs* which means they can selectively decide who to call and when based on whatever "preferred" list they have. this whole thing and all the new changes....really grates.

Is that true of all counties, do you know? They have to go through your county of residence???

From what I understand it's only if you are licensed in the county of residence. We got licensed outside our county and deal with Marion Co. directly.

you know....i'm not too sure. i was licensed in marion county and was always so full i never had a chance to be asked by another county. when we moved to hamilton county at first we were able to still go thru marion county, but then hamilton county changed their policy and now requires everyone to go thru them first. i don't have a problem following their rules, but what i can't understand is why i can't get a call directly from marion county and then let them know i am taking a placement???? since when do you have to have permission to take a placement when your home is empty????? the way we used to do it was we got the call, and the homefinder let the licensing case manager know. i usually sent a follow up email letting them know as well. it just seems like now its so controlled, like they want to keep certain types of placements out of hamilton county, so they filter every call before you ever get it. i dunno.....makes me almost want to leave hamilton county and move back to marion.....almost, lol. i love my neighborhood. ;)

and i have heard thru the grapevine from a dcs atty that it was exactly that. the rules were changed to keep certain types of kids out of hamilton county, but its nothing i was ever able to prove. don't know if its a race thing, don't know if it's a class thing, but there is definitely something up. which is stupid if you ask me, because the bulk of these kids are not coming from the lap of luxury here. these are kids coming from broken homes. we're not dealing with kids born with a silver spoon in their mouth, so what exactly is the issue???:(

I talked to my CW about this quite a bit during last visit. I have some mixed feelings about the changes. I foster for Marion Co so you would think we would be crazy full all the time ... but that is not the case. We've been licensed 2 years. Our home is large enough for 6 now 5 but we have never had more than 2 at any given time and have set empty for months at a time. I stay at home full time. We have found that there are several large homes that have been fostering longer and they get most of the calls. So there are homes with space that sit empty or have openings but are not known as well with room. If newer homes are not used how will we ever get to be known as good homes. She said that DCS was aware of that and the changes could help even things out. Sibling groups will be excluded from this rule. If the home has room to take whole group then it will be allowed. Homes that already are over new numbers will be grandfathered in and no children will be moved. There is now a new standardized amount of time for visits which could make visits a full time job with more than 5 kids. EX a child 9 mths would have a minimum of 6 hours a week over 2 days ... so it would be either two 3 hour visits or three 2 hour visits. Which could mean if you have 5 kids all with plan of RU, visits could be juggling 30 hours a week and if both parents get visits seperatly double that. This scenerio alone may help those understand the limit on number of kids. I once had a sibling group of 2 that bmom got three 2 hour visits a week with both kids, FS had three 2 hour visits with his bdad and FD had three 2 hour visits with her bdad. So with just these 2 kids we were juggling 18 hours of manditory visits a week broken up over 9 visits. It was grueling and the kids had no routine. I know that some of the 5 include biokids and some kids don't get visits with bio. Just though I would share my CW and my convo. CW is concerned with changes and resourses also. Only time will tell. I'm excited about the fact that I may have the opportunity be used as a resource more. I want to be a fosterparent and love it even the RU process but I still sometimes feel like I am trying be one even after being licensed for 2 years.

Dalynn, was this your licensing worker that said they go to certain homes? I'd love to know who. I think that Gail and maybe Paula are the only people in licensing who have been there longer than we have. I went to their training on The Placement Process. Officially, they are supposed to put all open families on a spreadsheet with the number of openings, ages, etc. And go from one family to the next in order. No preferential treatment.

We set open for months last time and found our own placement(family member). Supposedly it doesn't matter that we are a mile over the county line in Morgan Co., but I wonder. We're back to being ignored again. Last time we were waiting for a placement our licensing worker ignored my emails. She is always replies within a couple of hours, but it's been over a week and she hasn't answered my email. That's not like her. Oh well.

Today is the last day.

Marion Co. peeps, I talked with my licensing worker today. She said they are losing quite a few families because of capacity changes. She also said they will always be in need of good foster homes.

i also want to apologize for the tone of my previous post.