The Foster to Adopt or Straight Adoption information packet families receive after contacting the state children’s services office should include information about orientation and training classes in the county a potential adoptive family lives. Sometimes this packet will include the Adoption Application which will serve as the foundation for your home study.
Most states require a certain number of hours in training before the foster or adoption application will be accepted. Generally, interested families will need to attend an information meeting and a set number of hours of training before the application can be submitted. The majority of your initial questions about the process are generally answered during these meetings. If you did not recieve your application with the original packet of information you may recieve it at the training or be told how to obtain it.
In some states these classes are sponsored and held in the local children’s services offices. Many states also contract with other private agencies to hold specialized classes such as special needs adoption training. If there are fees associated with the training classes adoptive families generally receive reimbursement of these fees at the time the child is officially adopted. Generally however there is no cost to attend the training programs for foster or adoptive parents.
The information families receive may also include support groups and other community resources interested families may find helpful. Most state adoption sponsored support groups are open to new families interested in adopting and often attending will provide a family with contact to people who know the system and have gone through it themselves. If your community has such a support group it is worth the time to attend and ask questions.
When you have completed the required training and still feel you want to adopt a baby, child, or sibling group it is time to complete the application. You may need to spend several days completing your application and usually both parents are required to complete a separate set of paperwork. Some states will ask you to decide which kinds of special needs you can or cannot see yourself parenting. Many states will also require you to provide a list of references, names, addresses and phone numbers of people who are willing to say you will make stable and loving parents.
Once the application is completed and sent to the children’s services adoption office the roller coaster ride is just starting and it will feel like the climb to the top takes forever. This is Normal. Remember the first priority of the state is to make sure the children they are responsible for are safe and in good care, adoption can fall low on the list of a stressed out county child welfare office. Especially during times of the year when large numbers of children are entering care. Be patient and if six weeks pass and you hear nothing make that call and ask if you can find out what the status of your foster or adoption application is.
Some states will not assign an adoption case worker until the references have been returned by those people you listed. So be sure and talk with the people you listed and let them know you need them to complete the paperwork the state sends them quickly so it does not delay your process.
We took the people we listed as our references out to dinner and talked about our goals and dreams as well as how we intended to parent children. We let our references know we were not crazy and that we did very much want to adopt children from the foster care system and we knew what we were getting into. This dinner party we had allowed our references to hear us personally say what our intentions were and also the kind of parents we hoped to be. This way when they received the documents they were asked to complete they understood not only how important this was but something about how we would be as parents.
Eventually, you should receive either a phone call or letter introducing you to the adoption worker who will do your home study and represent you during the whole process. During this wait it is a good time to make doctor appointments for health check ups and start gathering all the required documents you will need.
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For more information about parenting special needs children you might want to visit the Families.com Special Needs Blog and the Mental Health Blog. Or visit my personal website.