How Did You Get Started?!

Hi! Welcome. Basically, I requested information from two agencies that are close to me that handle special needs adoption. After requesting information, we selected an agency and completed the 20 hours of training required. From there we completed their application packet, and once that was turned in (Jan) it took us about four months to be licensed as a foster-to-adopt home (April). We were selected to interview for two girls in May and another family was chosen. Spent the summer looking for our children, doing some respite care, and then when we thought it would never happen we were matched with our daughter and son who came home on 11/11/11! We are hoping to finalize their adoption in May! Hope that gives you some information on how to proceed from Point A to Point B!

I would say Teacher's timeline is unusual and comparitively short. Just my honest opinion. Did you call the state or an agency. I would guess called the state, welcome to our world, it only gets worse to be brutally honest. There is the occassional Caseworker or DCS employee who responds promptly most of the time, but email works best. To adopt from fostercare you must be licensed to foster. The state's website/picture book is special needs children. If you are willing and able to parent children with those needs, then by all means, get SNAP approved after. I believe that allows you to view children that the general public cannot, you show interest and there is a determination of your fit versus others who may be interested. In general foster care most kids have not had parental rights terminated, so the timeline drags on and on. I brought my son home at 3 weeks(only infant I have been offered), TPR was done 2 years later and Adoption finalized, 9 months after that. Welcome to Fostercare and to the Forumns!

We've not adopted through foster care yet, although one of the kids we have currently seems to be headed in that direction.When we got started I called a few agencies. We decided to get licensed with the county to foster and see where that leads.We had to call weekly for 2 months before we got the orientation dates. After that we took classes, homestudy and safety audit as well as completing lots of paperwork.We got our first foster placement about 3 weeks after licensing.The route you'll want to take will vary based on age and criteria of kids that you are open to.

Thank you for the responses. I haven't contacted any agencies, just the state contact # listed on the Indiana website. We are considering fostering but I wasn't aware that we had to be licensed to foster in order to adopt from the system. One of the fact sheets for Indiana said "While fostering provides great parenting experience, it is not necessary or required prior to adoption." We certainly want to get more info. about the foster & adoption process. I hear fostering is very difficult but can be an emotionally rewarding opportunity.

There are different types of foster licenses....My husband and I have what is know as a "foster-to-apopt" license; basically we are a preadoptive home only and the children places with us have already been through TPR and are legally free for adoption..hence from the time the children are placed until the adoption is finalized they are our foster children. There is also the regular foster license; meaning in most cases the chidlren placed with you are short-term placements who will eventually be RU'd with birth parents; however, from what I understand in some cases these children's plans may change to adoption. I also beleive there are therapuetic foster licenses, and these homes usually care for children with more severe needs. Hope that helps...and from what our caseworker said our time line is "average" for families who are strictly "foster-to-adopt"' but every case is different and if TPR hasn't occurred the process could take much, much longer.

Hi, Our situation echos a lot of what the other ladies have mentioned here. We found an agency local to our area and contacted them. The agency suggested that we attend an information class. After that class we decided that we wanted to start the process. Though we went to information meeting in the start of the year and had to wait until late April to start training classes. Our license is for therapeutic so we had to do a little more training then other licenses. During the time of classses, we had lots of paperwork, home visits and just general homestudy work to be done. After the classes finished we waited for our licensing worker to present us to SNAP. Once our approval came through we were able to submit and interview for children. My suggestion is find a reputable agency. DCS county families are geared more towards doing short term care with reunification as the goal. We are strictly foster to adopt and found an agency that found that as an important goal. Good luck!:cheer:

You don't have to be a licensed foster parent to adopt. I would recommend it though because, if you are matched with a legal risk child (or fall in love with a legal risk child summary) and you are not licensed, you will not be considered for that child. You should contact the SNAP specialist for the area you live in (I agree, email is best): [url=http://www.in.gov/dcs/2747.htm]DCS: Regional Contacts[/url] IFCAA can answer general questions - [url=http://ifcaa.org/]Indiana Foster Care and Adoption Association[/url] Indicate to them if you want to become SNAP approved only or foster to adopt eligible and ask how to start the process. If we had your county, maybe someone here knows a licensing case worker they can give you contact info on. Good luck!

we are interested in foster to adopt as well. what is SNAP? thx

Special Needs Adoption Program

I'll just tell you how we did it and what worked for us. I started our journey by calling our local DCS office. They immediately sent out a packet of info and lots of paperwork to get us started. When we got the paperwork completed (which takes lots of time--- the whole family needs physicals, there are water tests, local police checks, FBI checks, CPS checks, fingerprinting and all adults in the home have to write their entire life down on paper, you get referrals from several people who know you, etc.) then you have trainings to attend, and a homestudy to complete. Once all that is behind you, you wait. :-) And wait. And wait. It can take several weeks to get the license in the mail. Then you wait some more. Some people get called soon after getting licensed and some wait for weeks or months. Agencies are slowly being phased out by the state, from what I understand. DCS is now calling local county homes first, then region-wide county homes. (Our region is 5 counties) Only if there are no homes available, will they call agency homes. Unless you are wanting special needs and/or older kids, I would not recommend getting licensed under an agency. We got licensed by DCS, later switched to an agency, but we never got calls from them. So, we switched back to county and immediately got lots of calls. Within 2 months, we were full and we've stayed full ever since.