Question: How are pre-adoptive matches made in foster care? I’ve heard that families may even need to network with social workers to be noticed when possible matches come up, but I’m not sure how matches are made.
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Question: How are pre-adoptive matches made in foster care? I’ve heard that families may even need to network with social workers to be noticed when possible matches come up, but I’m not sure how matches are made.
Resources:
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily
Please leave us a rating or review RateThisPodcast.com/creatingafamily
Please pardon any errors, this is an automated transcript.
Dawn Davenport 0:00
Welcome to weekend wisdom by creating a family. This is our opportunity to answer your questions. And we're going to do it in five to 10 minutes. And along those lines, remember, you can submit your own question to info at creating a family.org. Send them in, I am truly enjoying the questions we're getting. Today's question is on how are adoption matches made in foster care? It's from Rachel, she says, How are pre adoptive matches made in foster care? I've heard that families may even need to network with social workers to be noticed when possible matches come up. But I'm not sure how matches are made. I say I am loving the questions you're sending in but this one is really hard. It's seemingly an easy question. But it is anything but it is a really hard question to answer because it differs by state and by county or parish. And honestly, many times by the caseworker. So some states have a state run foster care system where at least in theory, all counties in the state follow the same basic procedures. But other states have what's known as a county run system, where each county has their own procedures. So the bottom line here is that there's lots of inconsistencies. I'm going to try to answer this question generally, Rachel, but you're going to have to keep in mind that there are a lot of buts in this and it may not apply to you. So how are matches made. If you are a foster parent, the match is made because the child is in your home, if family reunification is not going to happen, and if a relative is not found, who is able to take the child, then usually, the foster parent is asked if they want to adopt. This means one less transition for the child one less trauma for the child. So that's how most non relative matches are made in foster care. But if the child's foster parent or relative placement are not able to be the permanent home for the child or the youth, then the child's or use caseworker, or sometimes in some places, it's not the caseworker there then shifted to another worker who may be called the adoption worker or something like that. But in a way, that person starts looking for a permanent home for the child through adoption, or sometimes guardianship, each state county and in many cases, the workers themselves have a different approach. Once the worker finds a family or several families that they think would be a good match for the child of the youth, then they will usually bring this before a committee to approve. And this committee could be called something like a permanency planning committee or it could be called an adoption committee. Or sometimes it's just kind of all put together with the child and family team meeting. But anyway, the big point here is that it is up to the caseworker to find and then bring it to the committee. So some states and counties have a process for tracking available adoptive families, you could apply to your county agency, but say that you are only interested in adoption and not fostering. And not all, but some counties will do a home study and they will train you that they'll put in the file that you're only interested in adopting, are only interested in legally free kids something along those lines. But many counties won't do that. They will say that their goal is family reunification, and they only work with families who are willing to be foster parents. In those counties, it's often left to the individual caseworker to find an adoptive family for the child. So there's a couple of things you can do. One adopt us kids is a resource in many states, if not all really have what's called usually called the Heart Gallery. So any child who is a permanency plan has shifted to adoption, and the foster parents are not going to be able to be that adoptive home. So any child could be listed on either adopt us kids or the state's Heart Gallery. But generally the kids that are listed are older or part of a large sibling group or have more significant special needs. One thing I'm going to mention as it adopts us kids as a call in number, and that's very helpful, you can call and actually talk with a person. So I would recommend that Rachel mentioned that she had heard that you may need to network with individual caseworkers in order to get a match in theory may be but the problem with this is that it's hard to get on the radar of these very busy caseworkers. And it's not like you're going to get on the radar because they're going to have an immediate need. So they may pay attention, you may send in your home study, and they look at it, but what are the odds that they're going to remember it. So unless your state or county has a mechanism for you to do this, or accepts families into their program who are only interested in legally free kids, then this is really not an effective approach because caseworkers don't have the time to meet with and vet each family that may want to adopt. And what we often hear is I'm sorry, you know, we're not an adoption agency, which is true, but it still makes it hard for somebody who is wanting to adopt. So usually your best bet. If you're sure that you only want to adopt from foster care rather than be a foster parent. Your best bet is to work with a private agency that has a contract with your state to We work with foster families to place children or to look for adoptive families, they will usually perform your home study and train you, and they should then be able to advocate for you with various county child welfare agencies. So that is what I would suggest is just from a practical standpoint, really your best bet. But another option, and it's a great option is to get licensed as a foster parent, but specify that you only want to do respite care. So as far as I know, all child welfare agencies are looking and need good respite homes. And this is a great option because it allows you to be known within the agency so that when they do have a need to find an adoptive home, they may well think of you because you're in the agency. Plus, it gives you the experience of parenting kids who have experienced various early life traumas, and it provides just a really necessary service. So it's kind of a three way win win win win situation. So Rachel, this is a very general answer. That may not apply in all states and counties, including yours, but honestly, that's just the nature of the beast is we have to answer very generally. Thank you for sending in your question. 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Transcribed by https://otter.ai