Foster Care

Question: Foster care? I'm intrested in volunteering for foster care how would i go about it

Answer: You could contact your local DSHS or CPS office. They could give you information on how they might need help. Are you looking to become a foster parent?? What kind of volunteering do you want to do?

Question: foster care? hi im sara i live in arkansas and i was wondering are there any websites for foster care in arkansas i have looked in various places and wrote down a couple of numbers any suggestions i've seached on dogpile google ask and yahoo please help i really want to give these children a home thanks

Answer: Check out your nearest child welfare office! They can help you. One piece of advise most of these children have been through the mill. They have been through more in their short lives than most of us see in a whole lifetime. Most come from broken homes and have no one who gives a dime for them. Many have been molested, some from a very early age up untill they have been removed from their home. Many have even been taken from these homes and then been sent back into them only to be taken out again. They need a lot of love and they also usualy need to learn simple life skills such as how to eat using a knife, fork or spoon! I ask that you please do this with your eyes, mind and heart wide open. Some day someone you take in might change the world and at that time you will come to realise, that you were the most important person in the life of that child! Good Luck and May God Bless You!!!!!!! Sign me Grand Pa to several foster children!

Question: Foster Care? I have been in Foster Care for almost 14 years now. i am 17 and I was wondering are any of you in foster care? If so what do you think of the system...if your not in care, i don't mind your opinion! I have been in countless amounts of foster homes and group homes and I am wondering how others have coped with their struggles. Also, i have started having a relationship with my biological mom, and i am happy with it, however i feel pressure to have one with my dad and i am not so sure i am ready, i sort of do and don't...i have a feeling my family will be against it if i do because he was very abusive... help?! tanks in advance!

Answer: If you don't feel like you are ready to have a relationship with your father, then don't feel like you should because of someone else, and don't feel like you shouldn't because of another opinion. I'm not and never had been in foster care, but for a long time I didn't get a long with my dad, there were times when i felt like you that i wanted a relationship but really didn't feel ready. Maybe try just writing letters/e-mails back and forth to start. That really helped with my dad and I. It got the ball rolling. And when you are ready, you'll know and don't let anybody pressure you either way.

Question: FOSTER CARe? well my grandma wants to get into foster care...taking care of babies. how does she get that set up.

Answer: Tell her to contact her local city council or social work department. Or there are also private fostering and adoption agencies who look for private foster carers. The private foster carers are paid more money, but then they have to declare their earnings and be self employed and pay taxes. If they work for their local council/social work department, then their fee (although not as much, differs from city to city) is tax free. The fostering process takes about 10 months of training which is basically common sense stuff, and then a panel will have to approve her, and her choice of age, but after that, she can then foster. They will also do a family check to make sure there will be no risk to any child, this is nothing personal, just procedure. Tell your granma good luck, its not an easy job but very rewarding

Question: foster Care!!? hi what is the negative aspects of foster care? thanx sophie

Answer: From a child's point of view: separation of family even if family has problems, some foster homes not good, adjustment to new people/rules/school. From a foster parent's point of view: lousy pay for 24/7 child care, dealing with some difficult behaviours, emotions when children leave, dealing with not always co-operative social workers/bio parents. From bio-parents: feeling of resentment that your child is being cared for by someone else, anger at system, having to meet requirements to regain children,.

Question: Is there any foster care companies that pay foster parents a salary other than just reimbursments? I live in Pennsylvania and my husband and I are interested in becoming foster parents. I currently work a very demanding job therefore I would feel it most appropriate to leave my current job however I would need to make some of that income up. Does any on e know of any foster care agencies that pay a salary adn not just reimbursments for clothing, etc.? Any information would be great! Thanks in advance.

Answer: Damn, people are so mean on hear. Shame on them! You can give a local agency and talk to them about it. They are pretty upfront with how much money will be given for the type of child you are looking to foster. It's not nearly as much as a job though. I wouldn't count on looking into fostering to replace the money lost in quitting your job.

Question: When foster care angencies require routine house checks, what is involved in the visits? I am writing about foster care, and I understand that agencies check up on homes where foster children are being cared for, and from personal experiences, can someone tell me, from a parent or child's experience what kind of questions are asked or what aspects of the home are looked at?

Answer: Gosh where do I start? Location of rooms, Fire safety Requirements for a safety gate Plug socket covers Windows & ability of opening Electricians certificates Security GardenSafety Pets Kitchen Safety Fire equiptment Whether the room the child sleeps in is safe & promotes a sense of safety & security. Check your Safer caring policies Although these are often just yearly checks. They also do regular unnanounced visits to see the children, planned visits to support you as a carer etc. Although this is just how a private agency works, local authority may be different. (UK)

Question: What exactly is the difference between foster care and adoption? Ok so i know what adoption is, but what exactly is foster care, like how is it different from adoption? and What is your opinion on which is better? I was talking to my husband about us one day adopting and he mentioned being foster parents so I was curious as to which is better, and how exactly foster care works so I can make a better decision when the time comes.

Answer: Foster care is where a family is qualified by the state to accept children in their home either on short-term or long-term basis. The goal of foster care is to provide a "safe haven" for the child while the birth parents work on their lives (if possible) to reunite the original family. In some cases this is not possible (as with mine) due to crimes or b-parents choosing or failing not to meet the recommendations of the state. In those cases, the children are made for adoption through foster care. Often called foster adopt. Adoption is different in that the children are not "removed" from the home by the state. Typically in regular adoption cases, it is the b-family who has sought out to make an adoption plan for their child and contacts an agency or lawyer.

Question: How long do infants spend in foster care prior to adoption? Particularly in the 1960s, how long would an infant have spent in foster care after being relinquished, assuming there were no medical or social reasons to delay adoption. I understand that today an infant can spend up to a year in foster care if not more. Are there any cases (UK) when an infant would be adopted immediately and by pass foster care or spend only a week or two in foster care?

Answer: It was about 6 weeks. I was coreced into surrendering in 1981 and depite it already being increasingly more difficult to adopt an infant and paps already chosen to adopt my son he was still in foster for 6 weeks which is fairly standard. It takes about 5 - 6 months for an adoption to be finalized, with older child adoption it can take longer. I have never heard of an infant being adopted immediately in the UK as it's proceedure for it to take 6 months to be finalized. I do know a mother cannot give consent for her baby to be adopted until he or she is 6 weeks old.

Question: What avenues other than the foster care system are available to couples who want to adopt a school age child? Around 5 years old. I know that adopting through foster care is one way. What are other possibilities? If you've done this yourself and have advice or experience to share it will be much appreciated. We live in NJ. I'm not at all against adopting through the foster care system. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the way to go. I just want to be aware of whether there are other options.

Answer: What I want to ask you: Why are you against adopting from foster care? Something must be bothering you if you state in your question "other than the foster care system," but still want to adopt an older child...... What is it?

Question: Foster Care Alum: What do YOU think should be done to screen foster and foster/adoptive parents? Some of you had less than pleasant experiences in foster care. Maybe someone should ask YOU. If you could have any screening process in the world for people caring for our most vulnerable (doesn't have to be realistic) what would it be? Peace.

Answer: I would suggest having foster parents serve their 365 days of actually having kids in their home on a probationary period. During this time, they should be checked up on much more regularly and given a lot more training than foster parents who have been at it a while and special care should be taken during this time and always to talk to the children in their care without the foster parents present to make sure that everything is ok. Foster children should fill out a report card for their foster parents to let the state know how they feel the foster parents are doing.

Question: What was the foster care rate in Ontario in 2005? I am doing a project on abortion for my English class. I have not had much luck in finding the foster care rate in Ontario in 2005. Does anyone know what it was? And if so, if you have a license or a degree of some sort, please give me that information, as well. Thank you.

Answer: go here::: ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2007/01/… www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/cs/sp/sdc/socpol/pu… www.adoption.ca/news/050415subsidy.htm www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/cs/sp/sdc… -

Question: How do you adopt through foster care? Do you have to be a foster parent to adopt through foster care? If you arent a foster parent but want to adopt a child in foster care, how do you go about doing it? Any info or advice is welcome!

Answer: There are various ways. First, you decide if you want to use an agency or go straight through DHS. You'd have to pay an agency for the homestudy, but it's not nearly as much as adopting an infant, or an international adoption. If you have DHS do your homestudy, it's free. If you decide to use an agency, you can find out which local agencies contract with DHS by calling either the agencies themselves, or DHS. Then, you decide if you want to become a foster parent first. If you choose to foster/adopt, then you need to come to terms with the fact that you don't get nearly as much information about the children before you adopt, and that you could lose the children with no notice. Some of these kids' stories are absolutely heart-wrenching, and it can be very difficult to see the child you thought was "yours" be returned to his/her parents, especially if you thought that wasn't the plan. However, if you don't foster, you could have a longer wait. (Personally, I'm all right with the long wait because I'm learning so much...I'd rather have this valuable self-reflection time, and time to learn about adoption, than to have a speedy placement and not be fully prepared.) Good luck! ETA: I guess it's different state by state. We don't have to foster before adopting. Check with your local DHS and ask them.

Question: How does the foster care system work? We've all seen things like 'Annie' where the kid from the orphanage gets adopted by the billionare 'Warbucks', but that was in 1933. What's it like for those millions of kids in the foster care system? How does it work nowadays? I've just been wondering for a while.

Answer: Tickled Blue gives a pretty accurate depiction, with the exception of the financial aspect. I personally had a daughter lose a child to foster care, and gain her back. She was charged $1500 each month(owed over 6k now) and the foster parents were paid $700. I had assigned visit and she came dressed in filthly thrift store rags. As she left, I see her get into a brand new van with people were not very friendly toned. So next visit I brought 3 new outfits(she was in dirty nasty clothes when she came) I would buy brand new outfits and send them with her each visit, but she always came in old clothes. I asked her where her new ones were and she said she didn't know, her foster parents only allowed her to have the clothes for that day, and she had never even worn the new ones. So I began cutting the store tags out, still she never got to wear them. After 3 months she was switched to a new family because they felt she wasn't a good fit(my grandaughter had told her social worker she didn't like seeing sex on tv and the next day the family said she "didn't fit in". The next family was better, however, again seemed to be in it for the money. I now work as a volunteer with several foster kids, and repeatedly I hear the same stories. These kids are a commodity. You rarely see someone just doing 1 child, its usually 4-6, which in california equates to 2800-4200 a month. Keep in mind these foster parents pay for no health care AND are given food stamps to feed the children. I'm not saying they are all corrupt, but the majority of them are that I have dealings with. The older children are used to watch the younger ones. Its a very sad situation, and there is not enough time for social workers to investigate unless there is phyiscal abuse going on.

Question: In what way is it difficult to adopt from foster care? I've been reading posts by Aps & Paps that its difficult to adopt from foster care but have read other posts that there are thousands of children available & waiting for adoption. How is it more difficult especially when a child is waiting to be adopted? Is it because some Paps have criminal records & are banned from adopting them? Are the children in foster care not the race or gender they prefer? Is it because they just want just babies or toddlers and don't want anything to do with children older than a toddler? And how is adopting from foreign countries any easier?

Answer: The foster care system is overstressed, underfunded, and overworked, and doesn't have the same level of "customer service" as an adoption agency (or sometimes even any helpfulness and basic courtesy.) The first goal of the system is to reunite biological families. Even when that has failed and the child is legally free for adoption, the system isn't always great at making that happen. By far, the most common difficulty you hear? Is phone calls to the department not ever getting returned, even after multiple tries to contact over a long period of time, and applications never being acknowledged. The foster care system loses a shocking number of prospective adoptive and foster parents due to just never following up with them. Not because social workers are indifferent, but because their caseload is far more than one person can reasonably manage. Even though it's not because of indifference, though, people are never contacted back, even if they try repeatedly over the course of months. Homestudy-ready families with open space in their homes wait for placements, and sometimes they give up. The second most common problem I've heard is that when an issue comes up... for example, the child has a behavioural or medical need... the department drags its feet. No help is provided. No additional training or therapy for the foster parents. Not even a word of encouragement. Many foster children have complicated needs far beyond parenting a biological child, and the foster parents may need some support to cope with it. Yet too often, the parents are blamed, told they aren't trying hard enough, or told that the child will be moved if they demand help. Placements break down, that could have gone to adoption if the foster parents had some more guidance, encouragement, or resources. Again... understaffed, underpaid, services provided to the children stripped to a bare minimum. There are SERIOUS problems with this system. It's not a system that always works to facilitate successful adoptions, even when the prospective parents are open and trying. I think you may be a little confused about the age request thing. It's different in foster care-- the average age of a child adopted in the United States is 7.5 years according to the Department of Child Welfare. Younger kids in the system are almost never already TPRed, and many people don't want to take legal risk placements-- and those placements wouldn't be adoptions. The kids who are TPRed may indeed be older than how people feel prepared to parent in some cases... but many times it's because they don't feel prepared to jump right into parenting a teenager with no previous parenting experience (which experts don't recommend anyway,) not that they expect to get a baby. While there are 130,000 children legally free for adoption in the United States, they aren't evenly divided between all areas. Some jurisdictions don't like to send children to other states, and some children can't be moved because they have ongoing contact with biological parents, siblings, other relatives, or former foster parents that must be maintained. While the country has a tremendous shortage of foster-adoptive homes overall, some areas have more open homes than they need, and children can't always just be moved to other areas. Before finalization (which takes 6-12 months even after TPR,) the child can be transferred to a different placement at the department's discretion. Sometimes this happens for a good reason, like a relative comes forward or a placement opens up in a home where a biological sibling lives. But some good foster parents have lost placements for no readily apparent reason when they hoped to adopt... which is understandably discouraging, and sometimes leads people to protect their hearts rather than trying again. A small but significant number foster children need to be the only or youngest child in the home when they are adopted. Sometimes this is because of violent or sexual acting out. Sometimes it's simply because the level of their special needs is more than a parent could handle if they have a large family to look after. And sometimes it's because they have developmental problems and are likely to become discouraged compared to a developmentally healthy younger sibling. This is typically assumed to be "just a few cases," but have a look at adoptuskids.org, and go through a couple of pages of profiles, and see how many kids this is a requirement for; you'll probably be surprised. That requirement stands in the way of people who already have children, or who hope to have a larger family than a single child. Some children have therapeutic medical or psychological needs that can't be met with the resources available in every area, or those resources exist but won't accept the prospective parents' insurance. It would be irresponsible for them to adopt a foster child knowing they can't meet the child's needs. Sure, some prospective adoptive parents have unreasonable limits on what children they are prepared to parent. Those people create their own wait or make it impossible for themselves. But that's far from the whole story. (A possible criminal record is an even smaller part of the story-- someone with a record could not become homestudy ready to adopt from foster care, so they'd be cut out of the process before adoption became a serious possibility.) I'm a huge advocate of foster care adoption, and even *I* acknowledge the system can be difficult and obstructive. From your question, I kind of get the feeling that you haven't looked into the truth of foster care adoption beyond the most superficial level. Do some reading, and keep an open mind (i.e. not assuming it's ALWAYS automatically the prospective adoptive parents' fault.) You have to actually do the research and be prepared to learn something that will challenge your assumptions. ETA: In case this wasn't obvious from ALL the above, in response to your added question. A summary: International adoption is generally a more predictable process-- pay the money, and eventually you will be allowed to adopt. There is no such guarantee with foster care adoption even if you meet the requirements and are working hard to make a successful placement. Also, an agency will at least return your calls when you're trying to adopt, because they want your business. With foster care, you may just never hear back no matter how much you bug them. With international adoption, you can generally assume you won't lose the child you have in your home once you've traveled. Definitely not the case with a foster-to-adopt or even legally free placement from foster care, when it will be months (and occasionally could be years) before your situation is stable and permanent even after the child is living with you. I still VERY MUCH advocate foster care adoption. But I'm not going to lie to people that it's simple and easy. Adoption agencies have "customer service" you will not find in foster care adoption. More challenging doesn't mean bad or not worth it, but it IS more challenging, and it has nothing to do with the qualifications the state requires or what type of children the prospective adoptive parents hope to have placed with them.

Question: What are the major misconceptions about foster care & foster care adoption? OK, let's do this. Some of the ridiculous things I've heard in the last few days alone are prompting me to question how far behind the general public really is on foster care/adoption issues. What are some major misconceptions you have noticed recently, either on this forum, or in "real life"?

Answer: Most recently the comment that 'Wealthy' Counties have no children in foster care so there's no call for foster carers! That was was just ridiculous. Money does not prevent abuse or any other reasons for kids to be taken into care! The other sad misconception is that nobody is 'equipped' to 'cope' with foster kids - this is often asserted by people who really haven't even looked into it because they don't want to. They seem to think they're entitled to a fresh-from-the-womb newborn, 'cos they're paying good money dontcha know

Question: How do I enroll in a foster care program? What are the procedures and requirements to enroll in a foster care program? I don't want to go through the extensive process of become emancipated. I don't have other family members I can live with. The relationship I have with my parents is very unhealthy. I have no idea what to do. I provided a lot of back round information in the other questions I've asked. Please post any advice or information you can offer.

Answer: Contact child services in your area and tell them about the 'unhealthy relationship' with your parents. They will help you.

Question: Would I be able to get together foster children under foster care and play ball? Upon analyzing what I want to do with my life, I came across this idea of getting together with foster care homes and introducing a game of baseball twice a month. We would take donations of either money for equipment or even donated equipment. I would organize a team of 12-16 year old kids. What do you think? Would this work?

Answer: I wouldn't focus so much on foster care kids....but on institutionalized kids....fosters have homes and 'parents' and get to do those sorts of things....kids who aren't in foster programs are often unable to do those things....I think foster kids aren't often allowed to be with their siblings, as they are often separated into multiple families....maybe you could find some way to help out with that....but it would really be up to DSS and the foster parents as to who could participate.

Question: How many children are currently free for adoption in the foster care system? I'm preparing a speech about adopting from foster care and can't seem to find the information about how many children are legally free for adoption in the foster care system. Can anyone point me to the information? Thanks!

Answer: That number changes pretty frequently. You might also try http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/ for some statistics. The OldWestMom http://foreverfamily.today.com

Question: How does constantly putting children into foster care affect the community in a negative way? More in the twentieth century, I'm writing a summative assessment on the how the Roe v. Wade case balances individual and community rights. I said having a woman being able to choose her abortion prevents putting kids into foster care... but my teacher said "How does not having as many kids in foster care benefit the community?" any ideas? I know its right because he gave me the idea to use foster care, I just don't know how to explain! Thank you soo much!

Answer: If I were to write an essay, I'd use the fact that foster children costs the counties, states, tax payers more money... I'd rather pay more money and see children go into adoptive homes, than have them aborted.