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Can someone tell me, in Pennsylvania, what is the process for the child to either return home, or have their goal changed? If a child has already been in foster care for over 6 months, when do they make the decision to change their goal?
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Hey Flood City Girl,What you are asking can have many answers and be full of court administrative procedures.I suggest you contact an attorney to see what can be done. Many attorney's offer a first, free consultation to see if there is enough evidence to go to court.This way he can provide some straight forward advice on how it should be handled. If you don't need him now, should you need an attorney at a future date you will know how to contact one.I wish you the best.
Thanks everyone. We are getting a 6 year old boy next week and he's already been in foster care for approx 7 months (I think). His family now has to quite fostering for personal reasons, so we are taking him. I just wondered because he's already been in the system for over 6 months. It's not fair to anyone when these cases drag on. In my opinion... if the parents don't have their act together within 6 months, the goal should be changed to adoption!!
More info... this boy has been in his previous foster home for 9 months, and from what I understand, another one before that for 6 months.... so this would be 15 months he's been in foster care. So a review hearing is Monday, will they make some "final" decision on him then? Parents don't really show for visits... 2 out of the last 2 months from what I understand. Dad was supposed to have a visit today (knowing the court date is Monday) and he didn't show. Why don't they just terminate their rights!!
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I agree with Chosenbylove who said PA is terrible. There is no clear system. I had a 3 year old that had been in 9 homes before mine and then I had the child for a year and a half. This child was RU for less than 2 months and then was put in emergency care 2 more times before I lost track of the child. I have come to the point where I hardly can think about it anymore. I feel like the system is part of the abuse cycle. There is a family in my foster support group who has 2 kids that have been in and out of foster care for 7 years and still they haven't been able to adopt them yet. Part of the problem is the decision makers (judges, CYS, CW, etc) are free to do whatever they want and often the children's best interest is totally ignored. When a child is RU even briefly, they start the clock over. So a child that was in care for 18 months is RU for 2 months then ends back up in care, they start over again. They have all kinds of ways of getting around the permanency law such as extensions after extensions. It is so frustrating, but even worse is the damage being done to all these precious children.
Bac, in 1935 I was born into a black market hospital for unwed mothers. I was simply a child ordered to fill a request. A replacement child for a mother who had lost a child 6 months earlier. The state knew the hospital was trafficking in children but allowed it to go on until 1938.In PA at that time, there were no home study courses or home inspections. When the time came, as a deliverable child. you were sold to a wealthy, childless, couple.Where you went or what happened to you as an adoptee was not important, although Irene Dunn and Carey Grant told the silver screen how wonderful adoption was. Children adopted into this new home would have more opportunities and advantages than most other children.No one gave much thought to the destroyed paper trail. The adoptee would forever be a ward of that family. Searching for b-family was out of the question. With all the adavantages provided by the a-family, why would you want to search?The media line was all about how wonderful it was for the children. They would be loved and cared for beyond their wildest dreams and never mature. But the media never investigated the quality of life of those children trafficked to the highest bidder, then sold into adoption.No mention that there could be a divorce and the child taken over by a single parent who didn't want them. Or that the motives of the adoring, adopting couple could be questioned when for the child there was every form of abuse that never ended. It was an ongoing nightmare.The recent Dan Rather article in the news media again focuses on B-moms and the things that happened to her to coerce her to give up her child. But what about the child? What happens to that part? What does it feel like to have your life be a part of a never ending quest? Or to remember abuses that underlined your status as an "outsider." I wish you the best.
BAC4343
I agree with Chosenbylove who said PA is terrible. There is no clear system. I had a 3 year old that had been in 9 homes before mine and then I had the child for a year and a half. This child was RU for less than 2 months and then was put in emergency care 2 more times before I lost track of the child. I have come to the point where I hardly can think about it anymore. I feel like the system is part of the abuse cycle.
There is a family in my foster support group who has 2 kids that have been in and out of foster care for 7 years and still they haven't been able to adopt them yet. Part of the problem is the decision makers (judges, CYS, CW, etc) are free to do whatever they want and often the children's best interest is totally ignored. When a child is RU even briefly, they start the clock over. So a child that was in care for 18 months is RU for 2 months then ends back up in care, they start over again. They have all kinds of ways of getting around the permanency law such as extensions after extensions. It is so frustrating, but even worse is the damage being done to all these precious children.