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So my husband is in the military. We are currently stationed in SC. We did the initial orientation/application stuff at the end of last year. Then my husband got his official discharge date (July 23). Well there was a big to-do at his command and they lost a ton of staff, went from 80% staffed to 40% staffed. Anyway they extended him to December 23.
So when we thought it was July 23rd, we said nope let's just wait till we know where we land after discharge (either here in SC or go back to Texas). After the extension and me doing licensing testing for my job, we decided to wait until things calmed down. Now they have.
I have a friend who is doing fost-adopt here locally (same region, same parameters, etc) and she started her classes this past weekend. She relayed a situation that there was more than one military family in her class. Their situation is similar, that they (and we) may be moving shortly. The instructor here in SC said that they could transfer their training and just make up the gaps from each state.
So I called SC's training department and they said that if you are licensed, and have a child who is legally free or is going to have TPR happen within a month, you can get approved to remove the child from the state with you when you leave. However if you do not have a child you have to start over.
But I emailed Texas also since that is most likely where we will be heading. They basically said this:
Some of the training classes may be able to transfer, but it is hard to say for sure without seeing the curriculum. When a family who has had training in another state moves to Texas, staff looks at the details of the training already completed and compares it to PRIDE training, the foster parent training used in Texas. Even if most of the training transfers, there are still additional requirements specific to Texas that your family will have to complete.
I realize that there are state specific requirements and that's not a huge deal. I know we will have to do a home study and background checks again and fingerprinting. All that kind of stuff, but if we can have some of the training completed now, then we can have a jump start in Texas. We aren't considering this because we are going to shirk the training but because even if we have to repeat it we can be even more informed.
Any experience?
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jillianh
... even if we have to repeat it we can be even more informed.
Hold on to this, it's the most important part. It is highly unlikely that you will get any solid information on transferring your classes from one state to another before you actually move. Opinions change too often for that to happen.
My recommendation is to take the classes, get started, and see what happens. At best, some information will transfer to the new state and save you some time. At worst, none of it will transfer but you will still have the KNOWLEDGE you gained from the classes. Because the fact that children have been traumatized, and the fact that different parenting is necessary to help them through it, is universal.
I've been licensed in two states, and the training was vastly different between the two. Yet I use information from both on a daily basis. One gave me tons of printouts, one gave tons of addresses for reference web sites. One talked about healing trauma, one talked about moving kids along the path to independent adulthood. Each talked primarally about the types of abuse that were most prominant in their own communities - one was domestic violence and the other was prescription drug abuse - yet I've been glad for the information from the other area because I've had kids impacted by it.
As long as you have the time, I don't see a downside to just starting now and seeing what happens. Enjoy!
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