Emergency placement ?'s

I had a emergency placement come last night, 2 boys, ages 2.5 and 4 and they came with a single plastic bag of clothes/pullups. The 2.5 yr old was talking from the beginning, the 4 yr old was very reserved. Imagine this, someone shows up and takes you from your toys, your friends, your family, your neighborhood, and drops you off with a complete stranger in another country who eats different food. That's what it is like. Kids are fairly resilient at first, but its still hard on them. The worst thing you can do though is not immediately set ground rules, as letting then get away with things you normally dont allow will only make it harder to get them to change later.

I just got an emergency placement 2 nights ago. They called me at 5 pm at night, the kids were removed by the police. Their biomom was in a car accident in another state. The adult that was left in charge of them, left them home alone. (they were 11,10, 5,4 and 2.) Not sure how the police become involved, but the house was filthy.They came with the clothes they were in, shoes falling apart, and nasty urine/feces/puke stained pillow. Whatever the kids were able to grab, the oldest grabbed his mit and ball, the others had nothing. Hence the report with CPS.

I'm not new to children but fostering I am. Some of these stories just make me sad. so much heart break. I'm hoping I have the strength to make a difference. Thanks for all I've learned from all of you. :popcorn:

Wow, I'm surprised the police don't grab a trash bag and shove all they can into it. So if you are open to emergency placements and obviously some come at night, what do you keep on hand? Do you only take some ages or do you have to be willing to take all ages?

My last emergency placement were 2 preteen boys. they came with their school backpacks, and completely filthy school clothes. That's it. They didn't even wear underwear. I thought they are biracial. Seriously. After they took a very long shower they were CC and blond:woohoo: We gave them some clothes of my husband..underwear, socks, jogging pants and shirts. they folded up their dirty school clothes for the next day. I told them :no, I'll wash them for you!! They were so grateful. That night my daughter and I went clothes shopping for them. All NEW stuff. The next day we went and bought 3 new sets of school uniforms. They were soo sad. So lost. My heart broke for them. they had no water /electricity /food for moth!!! The only food they received was school lunches. On weekends they starved. Once mom lost all her kids ( there were 4, we had 2) she realized what she has done. That she might lose them forever. She worked extremely hard on her caseplan and the boys ru after 6 month with us.

We've had two emergency placements. The first one had the clothes he was wearing plus the stuff that belonged to him that was at his daycare (CPS picked him up at his daycare). The second came with the onsie and socks he was wearing. What a crazy panic rush it is to run out and buy what they need. Good luck!

Our FFKs came as an emergency placement. Actually, they knew they were going to remove the kids in the morning (called us to see if we could take them), then picked them up after school and brought them to us with just the clothes on their back and their school backpacks. They were filthy and stinky and their clothing was stained and they were in total shock. It was awful and totally heartbreaking. It was two weeks before we got a few things from their home -- and then it was just a pillow for each of them and some filthy too-big clothes. Luckily we have kiddos the same age, so they shared clothes. And we spent a small fortune on lovies, toys, etc. The first two or three days were the worst. The boys needed to be bathed but were too little to do it on their own and didn't trust us. They didn't sleep very well for weeks. They didn't eat much for a while, either. They were desperate for their parents and we had to just keep saying that it wasn't safe for them to go home yet. It took DCF almost a month to finally set up visits. And it was supposed to be a two-day stay, which turned into six months before RU. I don't know how typical this was, as it was our only emergency placement.

My first little one came with the sleeper she was in and had a blanket and a bottle. DCFS gave me a voucher to get clothing for her. My second came straight from the hospital. She had a few items that the nurses had bought for her (she was in the hospital 2 months - they were pretty attached). I had hand me downs from my first for her, too.

I have had only one emergency placement. I ususally take kids that are transferring from foster home to foster home. My emergency placement came from a certified relative home. She was 18 months old came with what she was wearing. She had no coat or shoes and it was January. The cw did bring some items from the DHS office, but it was not much. She was scared and confused. She did not have any of her comfort items (including her pacifier which she was extremely attached to). I did finally get her things but they came slowly over 4 to 6 weeks. I took her to buy new shoes and the look on her face was priceless. She was so excited to have shoes. She was definately a girly girl. She stayed for several months until she moved to a relative as an adoptive placement.

I don't keep much on hand, I try to set back 5 or 10 diapers when I have a placement in them and I have a computer paper box for each size to keep a few clothes, but I don't ever buy for those, its just stuff that gets left behind as i have kids outgrow stuff in my home that i then organize in my shed. I also have a bottle and some formula samples on the off chance i get a call with a baby. Don't buy stuff for what if scenarios though as it gets expensive and takes up a lot of space, but like my 3 yr has outgrown clothes here, I pulled out 3 outfits for the box and sent the rest to a local charity. MY kids showed up at 7:30 last night with too small shoes, stinky bodies, and a grocery bag with 4 outfits and a dozen pullups for 2 boys. Be glad Walmart is open 24 hours a day! I was lucky that my kids were willing to bathe after we got home. One thing I will say, I always keep a stock of toys cheap ones like 2 packs of play doh, hot wheels, etc and every kid who enters my home gets a gift. It helps ease the transition, and can open up a dialogue about what they like to play with, what their favorite color is etc.

I've had several emergency placements-1st time entering foster care. I usually get a diaper bag or backpack of clothing, sippycup/bottle filled with every thing BUT milk. All my placements happen in the evening here. The worker spends a lot of time with the family trying to get family to step up and take kids first. The workers tell them to pack up 2-3 days worth of supplies. My age range is small (due to my daughters age). I've been doing this for 2+ years and have collected variety of clothes from 0-6x girls and boys. I suggest getting a couple packs of white undershirts and grey or blk shorts. That's gender neutral and gets you thru bath time. If you can't make it to store that night, you can wash their things while they sleep. I wait til court hearing ordering them into care BEFORE shopping.

It all depends on how the removal occurred. If the removal occurred at the home, and the parents were somewhat cooperative, the children might get a trash bag with some clothes in it. In our experience, that is rarely the case. Often, older kids are picked up after school and taken right to the CPS building until a family can be found. In that event, they will usually show up with their backpack and the clothes they have on. Generally, we would do one or two things the first night a kid came to us, no matter how late at night: We would take them to Wal-Mart and let them pick out a box of cereal, and then pick up at least one change of clothes.