What would cause someone to "fail" a homestudy?

Yeah, they don't want you to to go all "Martha Stewart" on them, hehe.

ROTFLOL! Exactly! No "obsessive compulsive freaking out" on messes... hahahahaha...too funny...

We know of two relatives failing because of previous CPS history and were told that the judges here won't give kids to grandparents with CPS history. We also heard of a relative who is on disability and had some sort of reports against her ability to self care properly.

our gma failed for having one of her kids living at home with her that was a convicted criminal, she moved him out for the homestudy but when they returned for a second part of the homestudy the man was living there again......

A child was placed with me last year as a non relative child specific placement prior to completing a home study. I had applied prior to the placement when I became aware that her placement at the time was probably going to disrupt but they hadn't started the home study. The home study itself went well but the day before it was due, the supervisor decided to deny it. She was concerned that my history of depression might lead to burnout. They let the child stay with me for a couple more weeks and then reunified early. I don't agree with their decision and am in the process of appealing it but it was particularly unfortunate because I had made certain that all individuals involved were aware that I was being treated for depression so that they wouldn't place her, let her get attached, and then decide not to approve me and cause another disrupted placement. I hope that the appeal is successful because she did really well with me, if I were going to burn out it would have happened already and the child's mom knows she will be removed again soon and although I know there are many great foster parents (especially on this board) I think it is in her best interest to be in a definitely safe home with someone who has loved her since she was born.

It is possible for families to fail the homestudy if they don't seem to be able to comprehend the issues involved.To give a minor example - if you don't have a fire extinguisher, they will ask you to get one in order to complete your homestudy. If you don't appear to have a basic understanding of why fire safety is important, though, simply completing the step of buying an extinguisher isn't necessarily going to be enough.In theory (although not always in practice) the ability to comprehend how to keep the child safe is equally important as completing the checklist.

I know someone who failed because the bedroom they wanted to use could only be accessed thru their bio son's bedroom. I guess it's a privacy issue that they will not overlook.

As far as the state of your home goes...besides obvious safety issues (ummm...maybe prescription drugs accessible easily...knives easily in reach of kids...) and size constraints (square footage, bedroom availability) you really only have to worry about structural issues. Unless you are a hoarder, having a bit of a mess around the house is not going to be an issue. During a former HS (for IA adoption) I mentioned a couple of things I had planned on fixing up as we walked through the house. The SW response was "Yeah, well...we're really just looking for things like holes in the floor and exposed wiring. You wouldn't believe what we see in houses that are trying to have kids put in them." After going through four homestudies, I really encourage people just to do a basic cleaning of the house. There's really no need to dust the baseboards and scrub behind the toilet with a toothbrush. (Unless that's what you do for fun.) That said, let me basically erase all the reassuring things I just said and say that there ARE crazies out there who might think that your house is odd from just about any reason you can think of. Hopefully they are small in number, though.

How about a swimming pool with no fence around it.. Anyone see that?

Our dss meetings tell us to "clean like you would for people coming over". We take that to mean sweep, vacuum, mop, wipe surfaces (tables and so on) and clean bathrooms. Have the bedroom ready with sheets/basics and go from there. The only thing I see us having an issue with is our knives are on a magnetic rack high enough out of reach for our almost 4 ft tall almost 6 year old.

oops..meant to start a thread. sorry.

I was dumbfounded when Pumpkins grandmothers homestudy actually passed. Grandfather lives in the home and has 3 convictions of assault resulting in bodily injury in the last 8 yrs. and they have had 9 domestic calls where local PD were called and made a report. Not to mention the fact that the homestudy had a flag because of concern that bio mom (who is not supposed to be unsupervised with any of the children) is around with no supervision and grandmother is in a small house with 5 grandkids already. Point being, youre probably fine. lol

Thanks for saying this! We were supposed to have our first HS this last week, I spent the day cleaning and exhausted myself (and my patience) because my kids were uncleaning it faster than I could clean! Then she called to reschedule 2 hours before the scheduled time. The time we rescheduled for is on a day that I have my little niece and nephew over so there is no way I will have it as spotless. I'm thinking a quick vacuum and a quick wipe down of any surfaces and call it a day. We stay pretty clean here, but definitely lived in. The pressure of having it pristine was stressing me out! Kids live here, I can't (nor do I want to) erase the evidence :rolleyes:

Our SW told us a story of someone being failed when we asked why they did a 911 check.The 911 check is to look for evidence of possible domestic violence issues. So if you got mad at your spouse and called 911, even if no one was arrested, even if no one was hurt, no punches thrown, in our state you would most likely be denied. Our SW said she wouldn't approve anyone in that situation.

I know a mom who failed in two states. Failed in one state so she moved to get new homestudy and failed in the other state too. No real idea on how hard it was going to be to raise children who had been badly abused thought her kids would be fine as long as they were with her. Also said if they had issues she would just put them back in foster care. Could not talk to her kids without talking about them living with her which upset them. And child abuse charges in past and her current husbands crime background did not help....