Seriously, though, when the child welfare agency removes children from their parents and guardians, they have the responsibility to place that child. They must take this responsibility very seriously. They first consider relatives and friends of the child, known as kinship care. If they cannot find kinship care, they then look at foster homes. Foster homes must be approved by a Homestudy, which consists of home inspection, fire inspection, medical screens, home visits from a social worker, about 60 hours of pre-placement training, 10 hours of in home parenting since we don't have children, questions about your life/relationship/personal stuff, veterinary records for all animals, the blood of your first born child, Just kidding about that last one. The process of the home study is backed up by state laws, rules and regulations and we as foster parents must respect that and follow those rules. Almost anyone can become foster parents but what separates those who want to from those who do is typically the time, inspections and paperwork involved.
That being said, here is the process of what it takes to become a licensed foster parent {in the State of Ohio}.
1. Reach out to your local county child welfare agency {or in our case, The Village Network, a private agency that works with many county child welfare agencies through the state. They are certified by ODJFS to approve and recommend foster parents}. I work for our local child welfare agency and at this time cannot accept any placements through them or be licensed through them. There is a solid 50% chance I would have been that child's intake {read: removal} worker anyways, and that just typically doesn't work out too well.
2. JFS 01653- The Medical Screening Form. This has to be filled out by your doctor basically stating you don't have any serious medical condition that will prevent you from caring for a child.
3. JFS 01691 - AKA "The Big One". This is the form about your basic information, how many bedrooms and beds you have and what type, if you smoke, if you have pets, where you went to school, if you have a home business, how many and what types of cars you drive, if you have military history, criminal history, you residential, employment and marital history (they ask about ex relationships too!), what age/gender/number/race/ethnicity of child you consider, experience with children, experience with child welfare agencies, four references from non relatives, adult child references, and signing an agreement with the agency at the end.
4. Get a fire inspection of your home. For us in Mount Gilead, OH, we called our local fire department and they sent out a licensed fire inspector the next week and we were not charged.
5. Obtain BCII and FBI background checks complete with fingerprints as well as local background checks (call your local PD and Sheriff's Office).
- Everyone over 18 living in your house must never have been convicted of – or entered guilty pleas for – any offenses defined in Ohio Revised Code section 5103.0319. Some exclusions may be found in Ohio Administrative Code rule 5101:2-7-02 .
6. Get a well water check if you have well water. We do not since we live in town.
7. Sign up for Pre-Placement and continuous training as you have to get so many hours a year. For us, The Village Network set us up in a hotel at Easton where the trainings were for three weekends (one weekend break for Easter). The first weekend was our 6 year anniversary! We did Saturday and Sundays, 8am to 5:30pm. The last weekend we asked for a hotel on Friday night and they obliged. They reported that they will actually reimburse us for our time once we are licensed at $10 an hour per person, and we did 60 hours so $1200. The hotel had breakfast, they fed us lunch, and we were on our own for dinner. {Pro tip: Wear comfy clothes. I tried way too hard to impress the first weekend and it's just not worth it to be uncomfortable. Also, let your trainers know if you need to get up, walk around, color etc and they will be very understanding. The days can be long!}
8. Prepare your home! I have a gazillion things on my mind I need to do and things I need to buy. I am setting up another bedroom (I originally had one little girls room ready) so there are many things that need to happen for that. Dane has purchased some bunks beds last week through his store since he works at a furniture company. We already have a crib that converts to a toddler bed then full sized bed. So we will hopefully be approved for two beds and a crib. They give us stipends for caring for the child and $30 a month must be spent on clothes, so the things we need to buy are mostly things like care seats, booster seats, sheets, towels, pillows, get dressers ready, kids food and snacks, and toys.
Our next home visit from our social worker is Wednesday April 27th and we are thinking things are getting wrapped up soon! I hope that whatever is supposed to happen will happen and we are still waiting on more information on the placement request we received a few weeks ago. Our social worker knows we would like to foster adopt, so it makes me feel good that she is looking for adoptive placements for our family. We are also open to fostering as well so we know that whatever child is supposed to be in our home will be.
Please continue to pray for us! We are so in need of you support and prayers! I'm not going to lie: this process is pretty stressful for my brain thinking about everything I want to do and that needs done. Pray for peace for Dane and I and that we will be in the best place possible to care for these kiddos, whomever they are.
***Also, if you feel led to help with some of the costs of preparing our home, you can donate at our GoFund Me page by clicking here.
Thank you so much to our friends and family who have already donated!
Much Love,
Bethany
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