Kinship preference

Has anyone experienced a situation where a lot of kin have come forward for placement? Did they give preference to certain kin based on relationship? (for example prefer to place with grandmother vs distant relative) Our situation is that my 2yr old niece was taken into protective custody last year and placed with us. She was returned to her parents 6 months ago, but now she has been taken back in to protective custody. Unhappy When she was taken into protective custody this time she was placed with a foster family that has previously adopted a half sibling of hers. (Mom has an extensive history with DCFS) I have not been given a good answer as to why she was not placed with us again. We have a meeting tomorrow to discuss kinship placements, family of both parents have come forward as possible placements. I think we would still be considered the most suitable placement out of the family, but I am nervous that the state does not want to move her from the foster family. The caseworker keeps mentioning that the foster family are also legally considered relatives because they have adopted a sibling. Anyone BTDT?

Yay! you found us :)Sorry for the short reply early, i was on spam police duty.As far as when a lot of kin come forward.. The criteria for matching varies from state to state. In general, if there are siblings to the one in FC, they try to keep them connected whenever possible. i do believe everyone who come forward should get the background check/interviewIn our state, he parent losing custody may give their preference, but that doesn't mean they get to pick. (neither one in my case wanted me, but i was able to adopt any way :) )typically foster parent being given preference over family only happens if they've had the child for a year or more. There's actually a federal guideline that states kids should stay with their biological family if possibleget ready for a roller coaster ride, but please know.. its totally worth it.

I was not exactly in your situation because there were no siblings in care, but several relatives came forward at the beginning of Niece's case (one even before I ever got seriously involved, because bios were keeping information from me) but in the end, they all did nothing except put in their names. I fought tooth and nail for her and she is now with me.That said, we were all out of state. Had any of them been in-state, they would have gotten preference.

Thank you for your Responses.Our meeting was last week. They had everyone interested in being a placement come and then brought in each parent individually to join the meeting and give their 1st and 2nd preference for placements as well as voice any concerns about the potential placement. No decisions have been made yet, but my feeling from how the meeting went is that my niece will either be placed with us or stay with the foster family and her half sibling.The other thing that was made clear at this meeting is that they have no intention on offering reunification with either parent so this would be a permanent adoptive placement. This is not a problem for us as we are more than happy to adopt our niece as our daughter, but I think the one concern they might have with us is that we have a close family and would probably interact with the BD on a regular basis. I am going to start a new thread for this but do you have any resources that may help with dealing with Kinship adoption and family and setting appropriate boundaries. My wife and I have a good idea about how this would play out, but I would be interested to know others experience dealing with this.

Sorry in advance that I don't know how to create/start my own chat thingy. (I'm very new at this.)Just looking for some advice. I know someone who had their son taken away b/c of neglect. dSS called and asked if we could help. (BM knows us very well but we are not blood related.) There is just too much to this story to list but anyway, We passed the expedited home study and court is scheduled in a few days. My concern is that the home study was sent over to our county and we passed but not without a short problem that was resolved. Could this still look bad on us?My question is after our county DSS sends the home study over that says we passed, can the DSS people in the other county try to block us from getting the child? I'm sorry if I'm not clear on my situation or haven't given enough detail.. I'm just so worried that it might not happen and I've read a million forums but none are like my situation. I love this family and want to help anyway we can. We don't want to see the child sent to strangers. Any help would be greatly appreciated..

welcome to the rollercoaster that is kinship carethe bad news - anything can happenthe good news - there''s almost always bumps an short problems during the home study. if yours was resolved, it might not even make it into into the final report. DSS prefers to place kids with family over strangers. If you are being considered for kinship (btw - blood doesnt matter.. in my case, my DD is the half sister to my nephew.. the half being on her mothers side.. who is no relation to me), that is a good signhang in there... and feel free to ask as many questions as you'd like... when i was getting J, these forums kept me sane. there's no place that spells out the process. meeting people who ha been there made all the difference. unfortunately, the span is killing this forum. i dont come here as often as i used to. send me private message, if you dont hear back from me in a day or sobest of luck -w