Home/Social Study Questions

GoingCrazyInTX · 07-20-2007, 06:56 PM

Hello, some of you may know of our situation but for those that don't here's a quick version. We've had a little girl in our care for the last 14 months (she's 20 months old now). We are not foster parents but the mom chose to place her with us so she would not be put in foster care. The mom did not do what she was suppossed to do to get her back. They've closed the case with CPS. We've called in a few more referalls only for them to say "she's with you and not in any danger" so the close the case again. They have not been able to terminate the bio mom or dads rights. So now we are moving forward and have hired a lawyer to get the rights terminated ourselves so we can adopt her. Well, that's it in a nutshell!

My question is what should we expect from a home/social study? We will be having one in the near future. What do they look at exactly? House, financials, family, friends? Thanks!

mommavia · 07-22-2007, 01:22 AM

They will look at everything. You should expect to have to reveal all your financials and they will ask you questions about your home, family, friends, careers, relationships with family, each other, friends, etc, and about your parenting ideas. It's sort of intrusive, but must be done! You can always call your social worker and ask what you should expect from a home study.

Good luck!
Cynthia

Miss-Meme · 08-01-2007, 10:02 PM

The homestudy is not all that bad. You do a lot of paper work which I think is the worst part. They ask all kinds of questions about how your were raised and your family. About how you will raise your children and about you and your husband.

You will need a physical (we had to have a skin TB test and a Chest Xray for tb also.

You'll need fingerprints done and all kinds of background checks. And my recommendation is to find out if there is any place in your area that does a live scan for finger prints...comes back much faster.

You'll have meetings with the social worker, both you and your Dh and both of you alone. Most likely one or more of them will be in your home. Ours had to visit our home at least two times.

During the home visit somethings that she looked for were that your home was child safe. Chemicals our of reach and locked if under the sink. If you have a fireplace that it is safe. Fire alarms and extinguishers. Plug in covers. Gates in front of open stairs. Outdoors also need to be safe, pools, garages (chemicals in garages). Guns need to have gun locks.

You will need references. Ours wanted 3 friends that knew the both of us. She also either talked in person or on the phone with them. She also wanted to meet with our parents.

I hope this helped.

Any other questions just ask.

GoingCrazyInTX · 08-01-2007, 10:41 PM

Thanks ladies. I knew it was very intrusive.

Cynthia - You said we could call our social worker, would that be whoever is doing the home study? We don't have a social worker already that we're dealing with. We're going through an attorney to get the parents rights terminated on our own. I guess if she were in foster care she'd have a social worker? Is that the same as a case worker?

Miss-MeMe - Thanks for all the details you gave! What exactly do they want done with the fireplace? We bought some stuff to cushion the edge but we're going to have to get more. It's a long corner fireplace. We have a screen up but it's moveable. There's also the screen on the fireplace that slides back and forth. You said they wanted to meet your parents...what if your parents are out of state? Do the chemicals in the garage have to be up high or locked up?

I'm so worried we won't have the house ready! It's impossible for me to get anything done with two 1 yr olds and DH is working a ton of OT and is never home. UGH!

Miss-Meme · 08-01-2007, 10:53 PM

We don't have a fireplace ourself, but I know it was someone the lady doing the homestudy told us she would look for.

(by the way, I think Cynthia did mean the person doing your homestudy when she says social worker, I'm not really sure that is what they are always called, I really don't think that is what we could have called the lady doing ours?)

The lady doing our study did tell us what she would be looking for so we would be ready.

I'm not sure that all will want to meet with parents. We have had 2 homestudies done before this one and both did not meet with our parents. This was the first time. If they are out of state and they wanted to meet with them I'm sure by phone would work just as well.

Chemicals in the garage: we were told either or...we just done both. We locked the door and put them up on a shelf.

I just wanted to add that we were told that if something was not meet that she would give us time to fix it and would come for another visit. Basically on one or two items in our home we just said we were working on it and she just told us to make sure it was done.

I'm sure it will be fine. Since you already have the child in your home I'm sure you are already baby proof.

Have you already started/found someone to do your homestudy?

mommavia · 08-02-2007, 03:46 AM

Yes, by social worker I mean whoever is doing the homestudy...ours was a social worker for a private organization, not the state; we adopted from Korea.

Have you had any contact with the person/agency that will be doing your homestudy?

Cynthia

GoingCrazyInTX · 08-02-2007, 02:16 PM

Our attorney has a person she uses to do homestudies or social study as she calls it. She's going to have her call us soon about the homestudy. I think we have to wait until we have a court date. As soon as they are able to serve both the bio mom and dad then they'll set the court date.

Miss-Meme · 08-02-2007, 11:38 PM

Since the child is already in your home and has been there for sometime your homestudy may be different/easier. But I'm not sure on that.