Need info from anyone that knows CA fostering/adopting info.

bumping up

Hi, I'm in California. I was also recently in class with a couple in your situation. You'll want to contact child protective services for San Diego County and see if he has been assigned a social worker/case worker. Ask the receptionist who you should speak with. Since he's three he should be moved out of the group home very quickly and into a temporary foster situation until a court date is set. The one problem that I see, and one you'll want to talk to the county SW about, is that the child wasn't present when she was arrested. You said he was staying with a friend yes? Well, she may not get child endangerment charges then. Definitely time to make some phone calls.

This is the best number I could find. They should be able to get you to the right place- 858-560-2191 I wish you luck. AND, yes, they would absolutely work with you to take custody should that situation arise. Of course they want family over others.

I am in Riverside County, just north of San Diego County and am going through the classes now in order to foster to adopt. I would assume most counties in California work the same in that they always work to find family to place the child with first. I can't imagine he would stay in a group home very long, especially given his age. It may have been an emergency situation where they didn't have a foster to place with right then but will work to get him placed into a foster home as soon as possible. From what I have learned, and of course this depends on the severity of your sister's situation; however, they will offer services to help your sister and give her 6 months to follow a plan in order to get her son back. In that 6 months, if she doesn't do anything they have asked of her or make any attempt at working to get her son returned, they will then look for a more "permanent" situation for your nephew. If you were local, I'm sure he would be placed with you asap. Since you are out of state, I am not certain how that works as far as how long before they would allow the child to leave the state and go into your care. I would Call San Diego Child Welfare Services at 858-694-5191 and see what you can do to get involved now. I wish I had more contact info for you but I'm not as familiar with the San Diego County program. As for the Skype/phone/email contact, I think you can probably arrange something with the child's social worker and the foster home in order to have some sort of contact like that. Best of luck to your family!

I'm guessing your nephew is being held at Polinski Childrens Center. If so, he will be assigned a CW from the office closest to where your sister has residence or most recent residence. Polinski is probably calling around asking for an opening at a foster home to take your nephew. I would recommend you contact Polinski and ask for his CWs phone number and get moving on getting him moved in with you ASAP. If he goes into a foster home, at that age, he is going to create an attachment to his foster parents and it will be traumatic for him to be removed and that bond broken months down the road. Why are you waiting? If I were you I would be on a plane to SD to start the paperwork. You are family and you have first priority. You will be required to pass a background check and you will be finger printed. No, I have never heard of them skyping with family.

Yes he was with polinsky. He was with them for about a week and then placed in a foster home. They did open a case on my sister and charged her with child endangerment because of the situation and people she left her child with. It's very hard to get anyone to call you back when you leave messages with the social workers. My older sister and her husband are wanting to gain custody of him. The social worker called her earlier this week and told her that they are giving mom and dad 6 months since he was under 3 when he came in. Since my sister doesn't want to move to our state so we can help her while fostering her son, they can't even think about moving him out here even to foster since they have to offer her services there. Us moving there isn't an option so we will just have to wait. We have asked the worker for phone calls or skype visits and she said that it should be possible and she said she will try and arrange it (that was tuesday of this week). She basically said that until they offer the parents the 6 months there really isn't much we can do. Since my older sister is wanting to get custody of him I warned her that she needs to at least get the ball rolling with our state while we wait so when the time comes she will already be approved as a foster parent and it will make it that much easier but she is hesitant to make any fast moves because her husband was out of work for an injury he had to his back and were waiting for his disability to be approved or denied. She doesnt think they will pass the homestudy without him having a job. They are both students and my sister works part time (she will be graduating this spring and can change to full time) but now that her husbands unemployment ran out things are really tight and he can't try and get a job again until he hears back on the disability SSI. I'm just worried if they wait too long then it may be too late. My nephews birthday is coming up my sister and I are trying to put a gift box together for him. We just need to ask the social worker where to send it. I'm making him a photo album of some pictures I have of him and all of his family as well as a couple small presents.