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Hello all,
I have a complicated situation that I need advice about. My wife's niece has recently been admitted to foster care after her niece's mother became homeless as a result of losing Section 8 housing. As far as the courts are concerned, that is their official reason. My sister-in-law is heavily under the influence of drugs (unsure which ones, but presumably methamphetamines) and that is largely the cause of her downward spiral. Naturally, we want to foster (and potentially adopt) our niece to get her out of foster care. The biggest problem is that we live in Los Angeles County and they live in Ventura County. The other big issue is that we are trying to move away from California because my wife just graduated from college, and we want to make a home outside of the state.
I see other issues with this situation:
1. My niece was first put into foster care because my sister-in-law was under the influence of drugs while giving birth.
2. No other family is able/willing to help.
3. We are trying to pay off a massive load of student loan debt (100k).
We want to help out niece, but still want to move. Do we essentially need to stay in Ventura county for us to help or can we use the ICPC?
Appreciate the input!
Thank you
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I'm not in California but one piece of advice I can give you is to notify the agency where your wife's niece is that you want to foster her. Do this ASAP and stay on top of it. If you wait too long, your niece will bond with her foster family and the courts will be reluctant to move her and the courts will wonder what took you so long.
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I agree with the above post and well said as well also.What Ventura County is looking at is Negligence of both the Chemical Dependency and Risk to niece.With ' Kinship Care ' you will need a Home Study, and these are ' A Chunk Of Change ' !!With moving out of state. As long as both Mom and Baby are in State Custody.Then she can't leave our state of California. In addition to you would have to repeat the Home Study to accommodate where you intend to live as well also.I would contact and Financially Advocate Payment of 3 Adoption Attorneys, for both you and your wife's sister and Brother In-Law or the Baby's Biological Father !!Foster Care or ' Foster To Adopt ' it is going to be a 18 month plus . Involving the Courts' Systems process to Terminate Everyone's Rights as well also!!' Our State ' of California is also Positioning to Privatize Foster Care . Instead of Foster Care being run by the State of California.I would also be upfront with all ' Parties ' with regards to your Financial Position currently.I would position your Family to straight Adopt without Foster Care, but you are going to have to prove yourselves as a Family to get out of Foster Care!!
This is not California specific...ICPC is a pain in the butt. If you are in the same state, they can do a quick home inspection and transfer her to you in a few days. An ICPC will take at minimum 6 months (unless she is an infant, in which case, it can be expedited). You will not be able to move her out of state without an ICPC, but if she is living with you, in foster care, you can ask for an ICPC (or they can decide to just move her to local foster parents). A lot depends on what your sister in law is doing to get her back. If she is working towards getting clean and is visiting, they will try to reunify, so will resist moving her too far for visits. If SIL drops off the face of the earth, Niece will be allowed an adoption...or you can have something like our case, where parents dragged things out for 2 years, leaving Niece in Foster care and just doing the bare minimum. It's a roller coaster. Good luck.
Interstate Compact is for Families where the child has been declared by the Court System as ' Legally Free ' for Adoption.You have 2 different directions going here.The Baby is currently in Foster Care in the state of California as a ' Ward of the State of California '.You and your wife are going to have to do some heavy proving to the court as a ' Kinship Adoption ' . That you are able to Physically, Emotionally, and Financially Care for this ' Little One .' Besides staying on ' On top of the Agency '. I would also ' GPS Device ' Mom's Cellular Phone.
All,Here is an update:My wife has been in contact with her social worker. We are moving to Orange County in a 2 bedroom for simplicity. Our niece will need weekly visitation which makes out-of-state unfeasible. She is 9 by the way so she is no infant.The biggest issue we face is that my wife just finished an MSW program and needs to start her career, but it will be likely that we get our niece at the end of June, which throws a major wrench in our plans. To add to that, rent is astronomical and we have a massive student loan bill coming our way in November. We read that daycare is "subsidized", but the amount I keep seeing is a drop in the bucket.We are trying our best. Thank you,
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California probably within the next month or at least by the end of 2016 will be Privitizing Foster Care, and will have no Direct Involvement with Funding. I don't mean to be ' Judgemental ' as well also, but I would be careful with what you say ' Online or Publicly. ' To someone who is reading the Forums Professionally. You both sound like you do not want your Niece at all?? There are a lot or a ton of Foster Families who would immeidiately take her for who she is!!
I still also stand with the positioning or position as well also of .I would contact and Financially Advocate Payment of 3 Adoption Attorneys, for both you and your wife's sister and Brother In-Law or the Niece's Biological Father!!Foster Care or ' Foster To Adopt ' it is going to be a 18 month plus . Involving the Courts' Systems process to Terminate Everyone's Rights as well also!!' Our State ' of California is also Positioning to Privatize Foster Care . Instead of Foster Care being run by the State of California. State of California would have no Direct Involvement.I would also be upfront with all ' Parties ' with regards to your Financial Position currently.
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