9 months before preferred family?

This is true across Missouri, BUT that 9 month time frame is the maximum time that has to go by before the foster family is given preference. If the team decides they don't want to interview other families, they may just go ahead and name you as the adoptive family even though 9 months has not gone by. It may depend on the worker and the child(ren) involved. We had our AD with us 4 1/2 months when they declared her abandonded and changed her goal to adoption. There was discussion whether or not to have us compete with other families and send her profile out as a legal risk placement. Especially since she was an infant (don't know why that matters). Anyway, they ended up deciding not to send her profile out. They team said they were going to pick us anyway as they didn't want to move her, so why waste the time and resources- and get false hopes up for the other families. We were still "staffed" and had to officially go through the interview, but it was just us- no other families. I think they recently even changed that rule- where if only one family is being considered, the formal staffing is no longer required. According the our CW, they changed that the day AFTER our staffing....of course. ETA: I am so glad we didn't have to compete, I know our CW would have been flooded with home studies and would have really dragged out the process and we would have been so stressed out wondering if another family might end up with her!

Thanks, elk134! We've been sent several recent notices about infants soon to be adoption-eligible in our area, and only one of them specified that the foster parents were interested themselves in adopting. Hubby and I decided not to put in for the one whose current fosters were interested specifically because they want to keep them. I would hate to be on the other end, hoping that I wouldn't lose a loved FK to strangers - it's hard enough thinking about them reunifying with their biological family.

I know what you mean, when we would see profiles where it specifically says the foster family (or even regular repsite provider) is interested. I thought why even bother, it would be just silly to not place the child with them! I honestly wish they would save the time and money and spend it elsewhere where it's needed and just let the foster family be the adoptive placement. Unless there is some extenuating circumstance that the family is truly not a good fit for the child. But I would think that would be soooo rare as the child would probably have already been moved from the family if that were the case. But I think Jackson county might be one that does send more of those out, I don't know for sure. Good luck!

That is across the state of MO. You cannot file for adoption until the child has lived with you for 9 months. So if you were adoption only and were chosen then you still could not file for another 9 months. If your foster placement becomes available for adoption and you have not had them for 9 months - you do not have preference. It depends on the caseworker and the child in how they treat the situation. Say it is an older child, they are harder to place, so they probably would not try to find another home. Even if they do put the child's info out for adoptive homes, it should say in the study that the foster family does not have preference, but are interested in adopting. For some people, they would then back away knowing that.

Thanks for the response, mamamac! In these cases, the children we're being told about are being fostered in other families, but DFS is planning to TPR in very near future, and want to have adoptive homes lined up before they file. They sent out recruitment emails to other counties in our area, which were then forwarded on to families who have expressed interest in adoption (including us - we are foster & adopt home studied). Per elk134's previous response, it appears that the 9-months is a maximum that the child needs to be with you before they automatically give you preference if it moves to adoption. Maybe it depends on the size of the county the child is in, how well the workers know the foster parents, or a hundred other little reasons why the counties do things differently in deciding who has to wait the 9 months. I was just surprised that in one of the cases we came across that the FPs weren't preferred. I'm still very new at this fostering gig. For us, today is actually our 9-month mark with our FD :banana: . Not that it is moving toward adoption any time soon but it does make me a little relieved that if it were to happen that we'd get that preference. I intend to ask our resource worker in our county (also the county our current FD is from) what their stance is on the 9-month rule - for future reference. Since Jackson county is SO big and SO busy - I can see why they would need to do everything the same way every time - hence, regardless of the bond between the FPs and FKs if it's been a day under 9 months there is no preference. I would be heartbroken to be one of those FPs, though. Hubby agrees, and we do not intend to put in for a child whose FPs want to keep them.

Am I misunderstanding something mamamac? I thought it was just 6 months that children had to live with the family before adoption could be finalized? One placement we had went on to be adopted by another family. They moved at the end of October and had the adoption finalized by beginning of May. Is this something new? I know this foster care stuff changes all the time? :)

It wa 9 for us - but it could've changed since we last adopted. Our last one was contested from a bio's family member after TPR. TPR was done at the 21 month point, so she was our FD for 30 months at adoption.

I was told that the social worker can initiate the beginning of the adoption at 6 months, so if not done would begin the TPR, if TPR is already done it would then move through court filings, GAL assignment, etc. She said if TPR is already done the complete court stuff usually ends up taking 9 months. If TPR is not done then that usually ends up taking about 3 months. I believe she said they had to give the bio parents 30-45 days to appeal after recommending adoption in the case.

How does one get on the list to get these notices?

In our case, our Licensing Worker forwarded us copies of the emails her office was sent from other workers in the state detailing the children with them who were expected to come up for adoption soon (cases moving to TPR). It hasn't happened again since a flurry of them around when I posted this thread originally, so it looks like it kind of goes through phases. It may also have to do with the age group we've expressed interest in (originally we were 0-10, now we've lowered it to 0-5 years) and what children are getting ready to TPR, or if we come to mind when the LW sees a child come across her desk. If you are interested in adopting, you should definitely let your worker know your preferences, so they can be on the lookout for you. And, checking in periodically with your worker might help - we see ours every quarter, and it seems like for up to a month after that we hear from her more often about possible placements.

I did a lot of talking with our worker today. She's new to this area though an experienced cs. She's just new to our region and is learning all the different rules and such that happen here versus where she was. She is very communicative though. Today she told me she'd be out of the office for a week or two soon, so after she returns I may ask about more detailed info on kids that maybe coming up for adoption.

I have been trying to find out how to see kiddos that are leagally free other than on the websites?