Adoption and moving out of state

[zombie]

We are waiting for our foster daughters to be reunified, then we are very eager to both adopt and move. We had been working on adoption #3 for a while, but had to put that on hold when we got our foster daughters, so I really don't want to delay getting started again any more than absolutely necessary. However, moving is a high priority too. Our 2 adopted children are AA, and we are currently in an almost all-white town. We need to move somewhere more diverse before our oldest starts school next fall. We are approved for foster-adopt and are also considering going with a private agency. What would happen if we got an adoptive placement and wanted to move out of state before the adoption was finalized?

[heatherdeg]

Eek. That's a good one. I wonder if they could do an ICPC to supervise the end of the adoption? Of course, unless you have a child with a goal of adoption, I can't imagine a state even considering that. So if you're in a fostering situation with concurrent planning (I think most states do concurrent planning now) and the goal is RU with a concurrent plan of adoption... notsomuch. If the goal was adoption, maybe they'd do it.

I'm not sure what a private agency would do. Do they even have the ability to do a ICPC with another state? I'm going to imagine they must...

[Polliwog]

I think Sierra's family moved before her DD's adoption was final. She might be able to give you information that may help. I have a friend who wasn't able to move with her DD until the after the petition for adoption was filed with the courts.

[MissinNYC]

If it's foster care, I know in my area they remove the child. Basically, no ifs, ands, or buts. For preadoptive, I'm not sure. It sounds like a huge headache, I know that! Good luck!

[Smithie]

If you are going with a private agency, I'd just pick one that serves both your current state and your target state and get the ball rolling with them.

[Sierra]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg

Eek. That's a good one. I wonder if they could do an ICPC to supervise the end of the adoption?

That was what we did...got an ICPC.

Of course, unless you have a child with a goal of adoption, I can't imagine a state even considering that.

Even with the goal of adoption, they usually need to keep on documenting parental visits up to the very end, etc. A move out of state, unless within driving distance for visits, will be problematic.

We planned our move when it looked like our case was coming to a close. Our social worker was supportive when we first talked with her about it, and also believed we were just a tiny distance from finalization, so we went in confident. Then there were a whole lot of delays (you know how typical that is with foster care), and dd couldn't leave because visitations had to be extended and the judge wasn't going to okay us seeking an ICPC. I had to start my job in the new state, so our family ended up separated for several months while dw stayed back in our old state with the kids. The social worker was able to get court orders so that the kids and dw could periodically leave the state to visit me, but it was still really, really, really hard for all of us.

Then there was a period of time in which visits had been stopped (termination may have been granted in trial by then), and the social worker was able to get extended travel orders, but the move wasn't official yet (can't remember the delay...it might have been the ICPC...which did end up getting delayed in processing due to staffing, etc. etc.). During that time we had to maintain our old home in homestudy condition. We couldn't finalize a pending sale on the house, blah, blah, blah.

Then, eventually, we were able to move and just have the case under an ICPC. That was such a relief! Because the case was under appeal, we weren't able to finalize the adoption for a while, so we had the ICPC for some time. It didn't really matter to us except that the new state didn't have a relationship with us, and the social worker was very slow to warm up...which was sort of a drag.

[zombie]

After our foster daughters go home, we won't accept a placement unless it is an adoptive placement. If we get a child, they will probably not be local (we are looking for AA and they only have white kids around here), so they wouldn't give us a kid that was still having family visits anyway.

We don't have a target state. We will move almost anywhere that my husband can get a good job and has racial diversity and decent schools.

Can we get an ICPC for a foster-adopt child without being approved as foster parents in the new state? Our initial training and homestudy here took about 9 months.

[Sierra]

We had to get foster licensed in our new state (a child-specific license) for the ICPC. Basically, our new state took over our license, including homestudy, agreement to the placement of the child with us, and monthly homevisits, etc.

The "agreement to the placement" thing was the oddest to us. By that point our dd had been with us for over a year. What would have happened if our old state had chosen us for dd but our new state had an issue? I have no idea. But I bet that comes up very rarely in cases in which a child is already placed.

In terms of the licensing, they try to rush things when there is an ICPC. I believe there are laws that govern how long it takes (??) or specifics in the interstate agreements. The social worker in our new state made it sound like she had a certain number of days in which to get everything done. That said, as I think I may have mentioned, there were delays with our ICPC, all of which came up during the homestudy/foster licensing phase of things. Not fun.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Sierra

We had to get foster licensed in our new state (a child-specific license) for the ICPC. Basically, our new state took over our license, including homestudy, agreement to the placement of the child with us, and monthly homevisits, etc.

Did you have to take the training classes again and have a new homestudy before you got licensed in the new state?

[Sierra]

Originally Posted by zombie

Did you have to take the training classes again and have a new homestudy before you got licensed in the new state?

Yes. Paperwork, interviews, homestudy homevisits, and all. It's a whole new license according to the new state's licensing requirements.

In terms of the training, we ultimately did not have to do it because the new state decided that the training we had in our old state was recent enough (although they almost said it wasn't recent enough) and that it covered enough of the same stuff (they were not the same training...some states use MAPP and some states use PRIDE...others may use something else), that they accepted the training we had already done. But technically, they required it.