i will be 18 in november and want to adopt my 12 year old sister. - Page 2

[APToddlerMama]

Originally Posted by queenjane 

The worker doing her homestudy, in her home state will be a lic. sw. That doesnt mean the CHILD's worker will be. But i call everyone a "sw" regardless just for shorthand.

There is a difference in adoption homestudies and foster care homestudies though arent there? The person who comes out to clear your house for fostering, measure your bedrooms, ask you questions....does s/he have to be a lic. social worker? I know that most people dealing with the adoption side of things will likely have at least a BSW.

In my state, all workers for children who are part of the formal child welfare system (ie. CPS investigations, ongoing workers, foster care licensers, and adoption workers) have to be licensed social workers.  Caseworkers here work frequently for agencies that offer services that support the family in other ways...ie. parent educators, mentors, etc.  I've had limited experience with ICPC cases, but all of those workers were licensed.  I don't know the criteria in all states though obviously and suspect there is variation.  I'm pretty sure when it comes to foster/adoption licensing, you must be licensed. For international adoption, it is definitely a must. 

[Polliwog]

We don't have anyone with the label "case worker" or anything similar. They're all called social workers. I have no idea if they're all licensed social workers. It really doesn't matter to me.

[nicolelynn]

I had a friend who got custody of his 3 little sisters as he was 18 when his Mom died and the rest of the family had serious issues. They weren't in foster care yet, but I guess it was pretty clear they could go to no other family. That was 11 years ago. I know tribal laws are complex, though. I wish you luck!!! There is lots of good advice here. 

[tiffani]

I just want to offer you support and encouragement, you are a great big sister!   I know that all of this legal mumbo jumbo seems really difficult to understand at first, but hang in there, you will soon be an expert!  Whatever happens in the end, your efforts to keep your sister safe are wonderful, and we would all be lucky to have a big sister like you.  keep us posted on your progress, or if you have any questions!

hugs!

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by queenjane 

In my area, it gets even more complicated. The adoption and foster units are TOTALLY separate (in the same office but the adoption unit doesnt do anything involving a foster child until TPR occurs and they are either recruiting for an adoptive family or doing an adoptive assessment on the foster family)

It's actually the same in NJ--fostering and adoptive units are separate.  They're not even in the same buildings; although the adoptive unit has a few satellite offices around the state.  The adoptive unit places children whose goal is adoption and the foster unit handles children whose goal is RU (with bps or with other relatives).  In the case where a child's goal changes, the case is handed over to the appropriate unit--there's not usually any overlap.

Originally Posted by queenjane 

There is a difference in adoption homestudies and foster care homestudies though arent there? 

I know in NJ there is a difference; but the same person can do the inspection at one time and write up two different homestudies since there is a lot of overlapping information.  They then send one to the fostering unit and one to the adoptive unit.  But this is only if you're licensing for both at the same time.  Many people don't realize you can do that, so the adoptive unit just comes out later (when there's an adoptive placement) and does a homestudy.  Most of the time, you wait long enough for a lot of the things to need updating anyway so it's notsomuch a big deal that you didn't do it up front.

As to who's licensed and who's not--I seriously don't know.