[MountainMamaGC]

I am curious as to what happens during a home study before you get your foster license. Please share with me.

 

[SundayCrepes]

I don't know about foster, but for straight adoption, the worker came to our house 5 times and spent 1.5 to 2 hours talking with us about ourselves, our family, our kids, childrearing etc. We had a great caseworker and it was all rather pleasant. We'd started with another agency and their caseworker just raced through everything. I really wondered how she could do everything so fast. That agency didn't work out for us.

 

[Polliwog]

Here in NC, foster home studies usually consist of two home visits with a licensing social worker- one to check out your home according to a checklist, and one to ask a bunch of questions about you and your family. You also have to take a 30 hour class.

Homestudies are usually relatively painless, although the licensor may ask you to talk about some difficult aspects of your past and your relationship with your partner (if you have one.)

Some people get licensed relatively quickly, others take months months. If you want Alberta-specific information, you might want to join the message board at www.fosterparents.com. Definitely not a place I go for parenting help, but it is a good place to meet people who are familiar with the workings in your area.

 

[MountainMamaGC]

we are signed up for 24 hours of orientation classes. Then we gotta fill out an application, followed by police and child welfare checks. Then homestudy and then license.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Whistler]

We licensed as a foster home in WA (could not take our placement b/c I got really sick) then later as an adoptive home in ID.

For the fostering HS, we had the caseoworker visit twice and had a really long list of things we had to do to make our home safe (most were done already) like locking up our knives, covering all outlets, turning the water heater down, putting a railing on our front steps... this in addition to the interviews about lifestyle and parenting style and family and jobs and finaces. I found it a little emotionally difficult to be so cross-examined although we passed with flying colors. We also had to take the PRIDE classes as well as First Aid/CPR.

For the adopton HS it was similar but had fewer requirements and the caseworker only visited once. Our interview questions when we got our answers all typed ended up being a total of 19 pages single spaced though! Wow!

For both we had to do the fingerprints/background checks. By the time I had these done to be a teacher and earlier as a child care worker etc, I have had a background check done five times!

 

[HisBeautifulWife]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BethNC although the licensor may ask you to talk about some difficult aspects of your past and your relationship with your partner (if you have one.)

Like what kind of questions would you be asked?

 

[MountainMamaGC]

What are PRIDE classes?