Water test failure

Thanks everyone! I think I've figured out that we just need to shock the well, and then we should be ok from the sounds of things. It tested positive for total coliform bacteria, but not fecal or e.coli bacteria. We are on a well and septic - both pretty old as our home is over 100 years old. I've read that between 25% - 40% of homes on a well test positive for the coliform bacteria. We remodeled our kitchen last summer and messed with the plumbing quite a bit, and I've read that can knock things loose. Who knows. I just hope we can pass the next time. Thanks again all!

After you shock the well, avoid washing dark clothed clothes. I learned that the hard way. I never even thought about it. Also, you'll need drinking/cooking water from bottles for a bit before you'll get clean water from the well.

Wow that is interesting. We live in an apartment, and we don't have a well. However, I heard in our state (Illinois) that the water temperature cannot go past a certain degree and I would hope our apartment would have done that already. My partner has two biological kids, which I am the step-mom of. Anyone else heard of this rule? We also use bottled water, we don't ever use our tap water, because our area has had health problems that led to people dying from drinking our tap water.

Kat-L: Thanks for the warning about the washing machine! I might have done the same thing. Too bad you had to learn that through experience.Takeyouwithme: I have heard of the water temp. being tested by some, but our sw didn't do that. Just the bacteria test. Makes me wonder how long our water has contained the bacteria, and how bad can it be for us if we've been drinking it all this time? Still creeps me out. We don't drink straight from our tap (yucky iron taste) but we do drink filtered water from the fridge and that filter does not take out any bacteria.

When you redo your license every year, they are supposed to recheck it again.

Our water is bad.. what if we fail the bacteria test?

takeuwithme96... I'm from Illinois too. Our licensing agent didn't do a bacteria test because we're on city water and they already know the city's water stats.That water is the city's responsibility whereas a well is your personal property that you have control over. It would be really strange for them to prevent an entire area from fostering because of something the city doesn't feel is bad enough to have already changed. My licensing agent did the water temperature test though. I'm pretty sure it has to be about 115 degrees.I don't know anything about wells, but good luck Cinderella00

Ohhh, Annie thank God you have saved me some trouble. Since you are in IL - how long did it take you from starting training to possible fostering (assuming you are fostering at the moment)? Oh, 115 degrees. Thank you for your help!!

You're welcome. I'm still in training so I don't know how long it really takes yet. I assume it depends on a lot of things anyways though like your age group. My husband and I just finished our third class. It's 27 hours or 9 weeks of classes (except they did the first two classes in one day) that we have to finish. It may change in two years when you're ready though. We've done most of our home visits, background checks, finger prints, life story telling, financial disclosure, and physicals already because classes weren't offered for about 2-3 months after we called to start the process. I think usually the classes are done first, but I'm not sure. The home visits part didn't take very long and consisted mostly of chatting with the licensing agent in our house. Even the first visit was in our home. We're with a private agency instead of straight through the DCFS so working with them may be slightly different, but the basics are all the same.

When did you start training? What was the financial disclosure like? What about having a doctor signing off as a personal reference? People in Indiana and Wisconsin have said they had to do this. What about asking if you were abused as a child and how you were treated as a child? Some people have said they asked that too. Thanks for your help. :)

We started training March 3rd. The financial disclosure was just a sheet where we had to write out our income for the year & month and our monthly bills to make sure we weren't hurting financially. What they give you really isn't that much so you'll probably need a little bit to subsidize it unless you can fit like 5 kids in your life and house at 40 square feet per kid, but they mainly want to make sure you're not using foster care for money. [url=http://dcfswebresource.dcfs.illinois.gov/procedures/procedures_359/homepage.phtml?page=35#P10_78]Procedures 359[/url] is a site that will show you what they reimburse per child and what it has to go towards so you kind of know. They also want to know that you have working lights and access to a phone. The doctor signing off wasn't as a personal reference for us, but just as the "physical" which was just having the doctor basically write that we were physically capable of taking care of children on a detailed sheet they provided. We did have to have 3 personal references that knew how we are with children though. They did ask if we were abused as a child and how we were treated/disciplined, what our hobbies were and are, etc. They worry that abused children will repeat the patterns, but if you show that you're not irreparably emotionally harmed by it and that you know how to properly discipline a child (they ask that too... in detail... remember, not even spanking is allowed), it should be fine. I was a foster child for a brief time growing up so I was worried that he might use that part against me, but he said that I seemed very strong and he didn't seem phased by it so I don't think it's going to hurt our chances. They want foster parents. They have to make sure to the best of their ability that we're not serial killers or will otherwise harm the children, but they're really on your side as far as becoming a foster parent goes. After that, who knows, but to that point they're on your side.

Thank you so much for your help, but I am totally lost by the Procedure 359 website. Where would we fit in? Private Agency? (1b) We are going through Children's Home & Aid. And what is this Unlicensed care? Why would anyone be unlicensed?(1a) All I know is it's 400/mo for non-special needs children and 1100/mo for special needs children. (Per Children's Home & Aid) Maybe you have no help for me but any would be appreciated. Thanks again :)

The unlicensed caregivers are relatives as they're held to a lower standard because they're family. I believe they have to take at least the first two classes. You would be with a private agency because you're not working with DCFS directly. Either they're rounding off the 400 or they pay differently.

So we would be in 1b category, where it says licensed and relatives private agency then? Yeah, it's a little under 400 a month because we want an infant to 3 years old. Am I right, 1b category?

Yeah that sounds about right.