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Hello to all of you wonderful people. I have been reading for a long time now. I am in MO and in the process of finishing up. I get the feeling that there will not be a lot of placements in the St Louis area. I dont offer too much info but I listen when I can to those who foster (we are foster only) and I only hear of no placements. Im sure I am like most that I get excited to be a part and provide. Is there a site that gives stats. I have heard of some waiting 2yrs. Im confused because when I called I got a diff vibe. We have talked about this for two yrs and wanted to be sure. Any input?? I know things change day to day but some around are waiting a long time. We are 0-7.
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I am in southwest Missouri, and they are overflowing with foster kids right now in my area. One of our placements has a sibling placed over three hours away, because they can't find enough families here. And I have heard of several kiddos being placed at least an hour away right now.
There is a report out there on the DSS website with foster care stats, such as how many new kids per months, how many ongoing cases, how many adoptions, etc. by county.
Here is a link for the April 2010 report: (They don't update very timely though :) )
[url]http://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/csmr/0410.pdf[/url]
The Children's Division website does have quite a bit of info on there, I check it out sometimes just to see what updates are going on in the offices. (I read the Memorandum's, etc. that the CW get.) There is a link for that on there.
[url=http://dss.mo.gov/cd/]Missouri Social Services, Children’s Division[/url]
Good Luck!
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Thank you for replying! All of you have helped so much by me just reading and taking in your advice. I will check out the sites and read as much as I can. People spoil when we tell them and it sometimes makes me question what we are doing. I know there are horror stories but its not their fault and I KNOW there will will wonderful times.
There are hard times, but there are also great times. Our current 9 year old is so easy right now! I know he is still honeymooning, but he has been better than any other honeymoon we've had so far! So I think (hope?) that even after the honeymoon is over, things will still be relatively smooth.
I think the people that have long waits are adopt only or have strict criteria. For a straight foster placement and the age range you are open for, the wait shouldn't be that long. I am in the KC area and it was less than two hours between the time when my LW informed me I was licensed and my first call for placement. Do you know how much longer you have before you are licensed?
We are on class 7, our second visit is next week, asked us to do fingerprints as soon as we could, paper work is turned in, med exams are tomorrow and need to get driving records. It seems to be going faster than we were told (which is fine), we have talked about this for a longggg time. Oh and CPR is in two weeks. At first we felt like maybe we would be called for respite or early placement because it just seemed there was a push (not in a bad way) but might just be my hopefulness. Because you cant do either without CPR or FP right? Thank you for your reply. This is a very exciting and cautious journey!
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Funny how things can vary so much from county to county (or even worker to worker). We did not have to provide driving records and CPR wasn't required. CPR training is just a training we can take if we want to, to count towards our hours. I think yes, technically they can bend the rules and place someone with you before you are officially licensed, but you aren't eligible for any reimbursements in those situations. That is just my understanding. I haven't experienced it, or known anyone who has.