Two bedrooms that open to each other

Honestly, I wouldn't even turn in the application until either someone came out & looked at the rooms or you sent in photos and got an answer. In my state, there is no sharing rooms with fk's of any age and I would definitely get the answer in writing. I would maybe stick with respite or emergency short term placements only until you move. It is great to want to help children who need a loving family, but 100% of those children will have to be removed before their 1st birthday due to the bedroom situation and that doesn't really give a whole lot of stability to the infants. You're probably right in assuming that you won't get called if there is another family available that won't have to disrupt at 1 year old. Just something to think about.

In our area, that would not be allowed. Even if you wanted to foster infants only, lots of kids are in care for over a year, so what would your options be once the child turned 1 year old? I would absolutely call the office and ask them if it would be possible for you to foster given your bedroom situation.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't want to foster if we would have to disrupt as soon as they're 1. I don't want the kids to go through more trauma. We aren't interested in adopting anyway, so long term placements would probably go to couples who want to adopt? We would definitely be a better fit for short term respite or emergency placements.I emailed the two people who were at orientation (specialist, and supervisor). They replied to my email, but didn't really answer the questions. I just had two questions, 1) would we be able to be foster parents with the two bedrooms we have, and if so, 2) what ages should I write down on the application? But all they said was "mail the application, and we'll see about the bedrooms when we do the home study".Surely they know their own rules? I don't get it. I even wrote down the rules from the booklet, so they'd see what I'm talking about. After their reply, I emailed to find out when they do the home study. No point taking so much time off work to go to the classes if we're just going to fail the home study.

I know each state & agency are different but for ours in IL, we sent in the application and then got a home visit to go over everything. If the home looked OK, they gave you the schedule for classes. Maybe you can email & ask if there is a home visit before classes start. Explain that you know they are busy and you don't want to waste their time training you if your home won't meet regulations.

Here it would not be allowed. You can't walk through the bedroom to get to the other. They won't license you for under 1 just to disrupt them either. Here they would say once you move you could do it

Here, you'd be able to take infants. At a year, they'd either give you a variance or move the kid or a little of both (like let you keep them until 18mo then move. All sorts of homes are JUST baby homes. My mom works with a fostermom who takes only babies. She has had VERY few kids past 12months old and they've been fostering for 30some years! That strong first year is most important. Also, at a year, if a child comes into care at a couple weeks to months old, the state will know which direction they are going. Those adopt-only families who want children under 2years old get those kids from someone! Just another way to consider it. Are you willing to move within the next year or whatever? We had planned to move at the end of the year we were licensed. It worked out wildly different and we moved a month, to the day, after we were licensed! But regardless, if you're open to moving "when your lease is up" or whatever, you could change what children you will take later. And it is an application, not a contract :) I would still put 0-4 even though you know that you can only take under 1 at first.Oh, one last thing. Was it the state's regulation that said under 1? Our agency says under 1, but state regulation is under 3. I have a 2½ year old and so cannot imagine her in our room. But if our agency really wanted us to do something, no doubt they would allow it.

We aren't licensed yet, but we have completed all of our training and one thing I can say for sure is that when in doubt instructors and even other professionals in the system (Home finders, DSLR/CPS and even a licensor came to our class) always said to refer to YOUR licensor and the child's caseworker for specific questions. They are afraid that you'll come back and say "but you said...." So, if you turn in an application I imagine you can talk to a licensor. Also, always get it in writing or better yet save emails. In our state under 1 can share a room. I hope you get the answers you are looking for, good luck!

We have a bedroom for our child that has a door to our room but it also has a door to the hall. We do medically fragile children so the door is very handy so we can hear equipment alarms at night. But we wouldn't be allowed to not have the other door to the hall.

We're doing this with the county (DHHS), so it must be a state ruleIt's not like the kids are sharing a bedroom with us, that was never the plan. They're going to have their own bedroom. Hopefully this will make it easier to get a waiver for the 1 year-old rule. And I'll definitely get it in writing. We're not doing this to adopt, so in the end, the kids will have to move anyway, 1-year old rule or not.I understand that they don't want the kids to be exposed to sex, and we wouldn't be comfortable with that either. If we thought there'd be lack of privacy, we wouldn't consider doing foster care in the first place. If we can't have sex in our bedroom even with the baby's bedroom door closed, so be it; we can easily find another spot in the apartment :eyebrows: We're both patient people who easily adapt to different situations.I got a reply to my email today. She said that generally, they try to do classes and home-studies at the same time, but that we can ask the supervisor to do the home-study and inspection before we start the training. (And I just realized I should be emailing him instead! So I went ahead and did that)We have a monthly lease, so we could move whenever we want. We've been living here for more than 4 years. The rent is very reasonable, considering the perks; we have a big living room, big office, a very large kitchen with room for a breakfast nook with a love-seat(!), one small bedroom, and one large bedroom. The kids would get the large bedroom. It's huuuuuge! There's room for 3 cribs and there'd still be room for a 12 feet area rug for them to play on. (No way we'd take 3 babies though, haha!)We also have a mudroom and basement for storage, two covered porches, and a small, private, fenced backyard. The neighborhood is very safe too.I always keep an eye on apartments on Craigslist. But I haven't been able to find a better place. The rent would be atleast $200 higher, not counting the initial $100 and $25 monthly deposit per cat. The place would not have an office, which we need for work. If we wanted an office, the rent would be $300 higher instead. The bedrooms, kitchen, and living room would be tiny. We'd have no basement or mudroom. The backyard would not have a fence. It would probably be in a busy main street, or out in the country without neighbors.Could we afford an apartment this expensive? Yes, we could, if we had to. Do we want to have an apartment this expensive, and lose the awesome one we have? Nooo way!If we wanted to adopt, I realize we would need to move to an apartment with two real bedrooms. The child would eventually grow up and need more privacy. But we are not adopting. We only want to do foster care. And again, the babies will still have their own bedroom. We don't have to walk through their bedroom to go to the rest of the apartment, but they'd have to walk through ours. But unless I'm very much mistaken, babies don't just walk around the house alone in the middle of the night :eek:@Servnjah, I'm amazed someone's been fostering infants for 30 years! She must do well with little sleep, like me! I do well with little/interrupted sleep, but I was still scared that I wouldn't be able to take infant after infant, after infant. but I have a gut feeling I can do it. I tend to do well with very little/interrupted sleep. Last summer was so hot and humid, and our house was a sauna. I could barely get more than 2 hours of sleep per night. That went on for two weeks before I cracked and bought an AC. But stores here were out of stock, so we had to order online and it took a week and a half to get here. Then my husband was at drill for the weekend, and I had to wait for him to get home to install it. But I managed it well, when other people would have been miserable and angry. I was tired, but happy and friendly. :happydance: I rarely ever get irritable. I hope this means I'll be ok with infants...

They are going to consider it "baby in your room." I know the terminology seems wrong to you because you see it as another room; but you may as well get used to it.Funny, our last house was five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Not according to the state! We actually had bought that house with the intention of foster-adopting a large sibling group. But turns out that we would have had to do major work to count any of the bedrooms or bathrooms! See, each bathroom was connected to or between bedrooms! So our 2432 sq foot house was really just a 1 bedroom 1 bath in terms of foster care! Crazy, huh? Anyway, now we have a four bedroom 2 bath home that we can count as a five bedroom because of the office.Would THAT be an option? To have the office be a bedroom and the bedroom be an office?

Wow, that's funny, servnjah...!But that's the way I see it too, if the two bedrooms are connected, you might as well count them as just one bedroom.You have to walk through the "office" (dining room that we use as an office) to get to the kitchen, so it won't work either. The office doesn't have a closing door either. The licensing supervisor is on vacation so it will be a while before I hear from him. Honestly, if we're told our apartment won't do, it will be a lot cheaper for us to buy a house than to move to a bigger apartment. So I might bring that up to my husband and see what he says. Though we aren't sure what town we'd settle in at. Definitely within this county, but not sure where exactly, because he might want to relocate for a better job in the future. It's kind of scary, buying a house might be cheaper, but I like the security of knowing the landlady will repair the house/appliances as needed. If that was my responsibility, I think I would be worried all the time that we'd have a huge unlucky emergency expense! And funny enough, that's also a fear I have about adoption. We decided not to have biological children, but we desperately want to adopt. But I'd be really scared to adopt and be fully responsible for that child (in terms of money). If we foster, we get to enjoy and love the children, knowing that we have financial support if we ever need it. We could afford to foster without a stipend, but it's nice to have that backup in case we need it. Without it, I'd always be afraid to have an emergency and that I wouldn't be able to provide for them. Maybe I just need to grow up!

Actually it sounds like you are growing/ have grown up. I think that's part of having an adult understanding of responsibility, is how scary it is and what might happen. I think most of us get those fears, but you find ways not to let them cripple you. Slightly OT, but if you do decide to buy a house, check into a home warranty. When I bought my house the sellers included one, and I renewed it for a couple of years. In that time they paid for some plumbing work, replaced my dishwasher and washing machine, and rewired most of my house. I paid under $1,000 for the home warranty and had a $50 deductible for each visit (plus we settled on me paying a portion of the rewiring because some of it really counted as "upgrades"). They probably spent at least $4,000 on my house, so for me it was totally worth it, especially for the peace of mind it brought.

We have a set up like that too, it depends on the agency honestly. We have enough room that it wasn't an issue, but our agency licensed us for 3 and using that room, while our daughters SW approved us for her subject to us not using that room.

Took a nap on the couch for two hours, now it's nearly midnight and I woke up. Thought I'd update before I head to bed. Ok, so he told us we could have babies and toddlers, but what they have the most need for is people who can take newborns. I work from home and can set my own hours, so that's fine with me. He did say that if I put the home study and fire inspection on hold, it might take two extra months to get licensed. I'm pretty sure we could pass fire inspection, I've looked at a lot of checklists (though I couldn't find one from my state). The only thing we don't have is grab bars on the shower wall. I hope that won't fail us, since we're taking babies, not older children. Now to set up those doctor appointments for the medical release form. Christmas consumerism is a PITA, and we have car repairs, so we want to get that out of the way first. Probably set up the appointments late in January. But I'm not from around here, and I never get sick :prop: so I never bothered to get a doctor here. I don't know how a new doctor can sign off on my health if they don't know me. :confused: If only I could send the application now, get started on the homestudy and fire inspection, and then do the doctor's visit later. But the medical release form is part of the application packet. Sigh! But it would sure help to get the fire inspection out of the way.

Had the same issue - had moved to the area the year before but never needed a PCP. Called around asking if they had opening to do physicals for our FC application. Actually ended up with the closest doctor I could, two blocks up the street. Being in a small town that in itself was amazing. The other docs were saying they had a 3-month wait list for 'new' patients. After that time I saw this doc once in the four years afterwards and called back for a new physical for our license renewal ... he no longer worked at that office but a new doc had picked up his patients. Here is was a routine-ish physical. The do some tests and ask about your lifestyle, med history, etc. You don't really need someone who had known you a long time, they just need to see/know that you are in basic good health and can take care of a kid. hope you got it all figured out.