What questions would you have asked when you get that phone call of a child in need..

My two main concerns were regarding level of legal risk (I only wanted low legal risk cases) and serious medical and/or development issues that the child might have, so my questions all focused on those two concerns: 1) Does the child have any medical/emotional/behavioral issues? (If the answer would have been "yes", I would have followed up with "What services are being received and what is the prognosis?") 2) What level of legal risk is involved and how close to TPR is the case? 3) Have all known birth relatives and families of adopted siblings already been ruled out? If a currently unknown birth relative shows up, will they still be considered once the child is placed with me? These are the only 3 questions that I asked and I was happy with the answers, so I preceded both times. I didn't even know the races of either of my children until I arrived to meet them for the first time and with my son, I didn't even know his gender. I'm sure the caseworker had told me these things intially, but I was too excited to hear it. I think it just comes down to what's important to you, and for me, legal risk and medical/developmental issues were my only major concerns and the only thing that would have made me say "no" is unsatisfactory answers to these questions.

Thank you sooo much...these are the exact type of questions I am looking for. :happydance:

List #1: [url=http://adoption.about.com/od/fostering/tp/fosterquestions.htm]Questions to Ask Your Social Worker Before Taking a Foster Child[/url] As example, for question 2, "Reason for Coming into Care", I would keep asking, "Anything else?" until the SW said, "Nope". (Which might just mean nothing they can/want to reveal.) List #2: [url=http://calledtofoster.com/10-pre-placement-questions]10 pre-placement questions | Called to Foster[/url] List #3: [url=http://ittakesanohana.org/2011/02/questions-to-ask-before-accepting-a-child]Questions to Ask Before Accepting a Child | It Takes an Ohana[/url] List #4: [url]http://www.adopting.org/uni/frame.php?url=http://www.fosterparents.com/articles/questions.html[/url] Why not read them all for different ideas, then create your own. There are good ideas on each. Important to me: Is there sibling visitation? What is the visitation schedule with parents/other relatives? Where are visits? Who takes the child(ren) to visits? (Kids tend to act out after visits. Separately, it bugs me to have a rotating cast of strangers taking children places.) Mentioned frequently at our fos-adopt support group: Phone number for current foster parent (if one). Because you need to get that beFORE the placement, when people are motivated to entice you to take the children. They can give you the real scoop on the child, and tell you what the child likes/dislikes, etc. I learned this the hard way, was promised in advance, then denied. And I *really* needed to talk to those people. [edited to add another list]

We didn't get a chance to make our list but we had discussed what kinds of things we knew we couldn't take on or needed explained. keep in mind that often times the case worker doesn't have a lot of information. I would also take the information and magnify it negatively by 20% for example trouble keeping hands to self-constantly hitting. Im not trying to discourage just giving an idea of how to read between the lines.One of our big concerns was sexually abused kids. We ended up with two. It goes to show you may change your mind. Read read read everything on these forums and blogs as they give you a real world picture of the types of problems and issues foster parents and kids come up against.

Yep, whatever you are told about behaviors or other issues, you can bet it is being downplayed. Not necessarily on purpose, but with just about every placement we have had, I could magnify it a bunch by what we were actually told. Sometimes they know and are looking for a placement, sometimes they just don't know. But the main thing first is to decide what your "dealbreakers" are for the children. It's different for everyone- and they may change for you as time goes on. Ask those questions first. Then once you have decided you would take the kids anyway, then you can ask all the "non-dealbreaker, but nice to know" questions- such as allergies, likes/dislikes, routines, etc. And as far as legal risk, if you are hoping to get all legal risk kids, count on nothing you are told as far as how low the legal risk is, unless TPR has already happened. This foster care world is just too unpredictable for that. Most CW can give you an idea of how they think it will go, but remember every case is different. Our CW was SURE that TPR would happen for our little girl after mom went MIA. But wouldn't you know it, mom showed back up at the very last minute and is trying (sort of) to work her plan. TPR may still happen, but our "sure thing" TPR has gone to very unpredictable now. Not every case is like that, just keep in mind, it could happen. Good Luck!

Haven't read the links yet and I think these came from one of them but I thought I'd go ahead and post them within the thread. 1. Age and Grade of the Child2. Reason for Coming into or Came into Care3. Placed from Where & Why4. Previous Disruption5. Number of Moves6. Race7. Special Needs8. Siblings9. Known Behaviors10. School Needs11. Visitation schedule We're in the final step to be licensed and I'm creating my list right now so I appreciate you starting this thread. Alys, thanks for the links, I'll be checking those out as well.