Saturday night at a friends birthday bash, we spoke to one of her co-workers that specializes in placing foster children into homes. SCORE! Unfortunately she only works in Broward county, but we were still able to get some great info. Seeing as we aren’t certain what state we will be living in, we aren’t planning on starting anything in the next couple of months.
She said the home study and other approval processes can take anywhere from 4-9 months. Considering we want a sibling group of 2, we would likely receive placement quicker than parents wanting a single child. Sibling groups fall into the “Special Needs” groups as they don’t want to be split up and can often be more difficult to place.
She offered to be our contact if we ever needed any help even after we move. I love nice people. They’re completely awesome!
Also, every state has different benefits for their children. Florida offers Medicaid for the children until the age of either 18 or 21 depending on circumstances, free college tuition up to age 28 (though maybe it’s age 23; it was loud in the bar) to any public FL university, community college or vocational school, as much therapy as the children (and family) requires, and a great support system. I had to look some of that stuff up on AdoptFlorida.org.
Texas offers the right to inherit (from both adoptive parents and birth parents), adoption reimbursement fees, Medicaid coverage up to age 18 or 21 again depending, counseling/ therapy/ other services for the children (and family), state college tuition assistance. All this (and more) came from the Texas DFPS website.
Great foster adoption resources:
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/foster/
http://www.theadoptionguide.com/options/foster/
Lots to think about and research now.
This is excellent news! I am glad you guys are getting some good information and educating yourselves to prepare for the process. It is exciting!
Great and encouraging news!
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