Anyone from San Diego County?

I am from San Diego county. We our on our 4th CW right now. Now the case has moved to adoptions. There were 3 different ones in FC. Each one has all been completely different! I had one worker who gave out all of my contact information to another family who had previously adopted a sibling of my FS. She wanted them to adopt and thought she would just initiate it herself by letting the family call me. Turns out they didn't even want to adopt. That really made me mad. There have been several delays due to reports filed wrong. A hearing was delayed due to the wrong hearing being filed which I had to contact the CW to let her know she scheduled the wrong type of hearing. At court once the judge said "due to the mistakes of the county... an additional 6 months". Anyway I do not like what I have seen and am extremely sad that my son is just sitting in limbo. That whole 6 month for kids under three thing seems like it was written with wasted ink. Just a bit of my experience with some CWs.

In my many years of dealing with SD County, I think that the vast majority of the caseworkers, intake workers, licensing workers, etc., are fantastic. I've seen them at work from several different perspectives as both a foster parent and as a consultant for their post-adoptions unit. I also used the County as my adoption agency back when I relinquished my newborn son in 1972. (Many of the "Girls Who Went Away" in the San Diego area went through the county, as there were only 2 other agencies back then...and no, our babies were not taken from us. I personally chose going that route so my son's parents wouldn't have to pay any money to adopt him.)There are always going to be bureaucratic mix-ups and problematic social workers from time to time. But on the whole, I think most of the SW's I've been honored to have known make up a great crew!

Thanks for your responses. I unfortunately have not had the positive experiences that you have had Raven. My experiences have been mostly like Mloves. I also have had hearing get held up, rescheduled and extended due to the CWs failure to know exactly where the case was on the timeline and filing mix ups. I have yet to meet other than 1 CW who actually performs in the best interest of the children. It's always in the best interest of the BP. However, I think this is often the norm in most counties...except in the state of Texas where it sounds like they know when to "cut the cord" on BPs. I do have to say that I loved our adoption worker. She worked her tail off to do what was right for the kiddos. It just wasn't enough to get us to adoption though.

BoysParent, I'm surprised you're having these problems with the SW's for SD County. Most of the parents I've interacted with in the past have had mostly positive things to say about their FC workers. There was a thread a few months back where people sounded pretty much positive about their experiences with SD County. Maybe they'll able to chime in here. Meanwhile, you might want to read the thread at: [url]http://forums.adoption.com/san-diego-california-adoption/397852-anyone-adopted-through-san-diego-county-going-through-process.html[/url].

Other than issues with our initial licensing worker we have had nothing but great CW's. We have a concrrent placement now and have had a few foster kiddos. All social workers have been great. I haven't had anyone screw anything up in regards to court but that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. My only complaint would be that the foster care investigators/social workers tend to really stick to their hours. If they work 9-5 they don't seem in a rush to place a child that has just been removed from their home if it's like 4:00pm. They will just stick them at Polinsky's and deal with it in the morning or worse when their 30 days are up. I know everyone wants to get home on time but one less strange place for a kiddo to go to would be so much better for them (and easier for me as they come to me a bit less stressed and confused)!

Agreed about the Polinski thing. I can't tell you how many times we have been called by the CWs in our area all in a hurry to get a child out of Polinski before their office is fined. Also, we must be from a totally different part of the county. At our foster parent support groups and classes, we hear a lot of negative feedback about the foster CWs. Lately I have been told that CWs are getting busted for ommitting negative info about the BPs in their court reports. Its just getting kind of scary how far they are starting to go to get RU.

BoysParent You sure were right about Texas cutting the cord! I was adopted from foster care in Texas. I got a copy of my case which included all documents (took two years to obtain). It is clear they wasted no time!