8 Family members step forward and he's still in care.

It's possible the family members themselves are holding things up. Or, there are questions that need following up. In our case there were four sets of people willing to take the girls and all have been denied either by DHS or by the court. So, it can happen.

For our first kinship placement, it took over a month to get clearance and that was with a "quicky" background check on my 18 year old son who was about to come home from college. If they waited for the full check, it would have been several weeks longer. We didn't realize we had to report him since he was not living here at the time and found out during the home study. Here, if family is located before the initial court hearing, placement is done right away. If it happens afterwards, we have to go through all the steps and that can take a long time. With my second kinship placement, they were placed right away because I was called right away. It took about a month to start receiving the stipend though. Also, here all kinship families need to be on board for adoption if young children are involved. With 8 people, this process might take awhile. They won't want to move the child more than once to kin.

It sounds like the CW isn't doing her job or all 8 family members have "questionable" backgrounds. If any of those 8 family members are good for placement, it's extremely irresponsible of CPS not to get that child into their home..like NOW. Do you have some of these family member's names? If so, I'd do a little FB or Google time online to find out what you can about them. You may find out that the whole family is a big hot mess. OR, they all could be fighting amongst themselves and the CW is nervous about who to pick to place the child with. In any event, a decision should have been made by now on a family member or they should be telling you to expect to keep him for the term of the caseplan.

I reread my reply, not sure if I was clear. By initial hearing, I mean the emergency hearing done within 72 hours of being taken into care. It might take awhile to go through 8 homestudies to figure out who would be the best family for this baby. In our case, even though we stepped up as soon as we found out (within a week) and the foster family knew we were trying to get placement, we had them fighting us saying the 2 1/2 year old was bonded to them. I have never been so frustrated in my life. This process needs to be streamlined for sure.

In my two that went to family, the approval took a few weeks. In both those cases, there were more than one family member interested, but they came together and decided who was going to be the one to pursue it. Despite the quick approval, there was still delay on moving due to the relatives themselves. I have one a month and the other six weeks.

It does sound slow in your case. I bet if HS's aren't in by the next court hearing the judge will demand HS's complete by XYZ date. Our first FS was supposed to be with us only 3 wks to a month. He was with us 2 months - the HS completion was the hold up. Finally on a Tues court date the judge ordered that the HS be in by that Friday at 5pm. Wouldn't you know it, the CW called on Wed and said HS was approved for family member and they would be picking him up on Thurs.To note: With our current placement our CW told us that even tho several family members have stepped forward and even have positive home studies it doesn't mean he would go to any of them. Depends on the GAL and what he/she recommends and obviously the judge. Good luck!

We had one where the investigator went out to the house within a week of the relative stepping up, but there were "red flags" that needed to be looked into. Think open beer cans/bottles everywhere. Then when they were doing the cursory background check, one of them had had a DUI on his record. Coupled with the bottles, I thought it would be an automatic no. Then he lied on the stand about his record..... I couldn't believe it. This was the only relative who had a chance to get the kids, and he was shooting himself in the foot!And within 2 months the kids were moved to him. The CW said it would have only been a matter of a month if there hadn't been so many things to look further into, if they hadn't had to do a second home visit to see the alcohol had been removed from the house, etc. But still, at least a month is what they were saying it would take assuming everyone is clean and shiny.

They were so messed up in LM county they could not would not schedule our BG checks. So we paid to have them done in our county had them back in 24 hours. We also had interviews done within 2 weeks, time was all about county not us. But if you were on the other side you would have thought we had done nothing. Year later we got BG done in our county results back 2 days, other county 1 month. It took us 2 months to get LM because of LM county paperwork, vacations BS and more BS. We came forward the day they took him at 2 weeks of age- it never had anything to do with us.

One case we had, there were 26 kinship possibilities checked out and not a single one passed the homestudies. The only thing I know to expect in this system, is for the whole thing to be ridiculously slow.