I am curious, have your cases closed closer to the 12 months mark? I struggle so much with no one (i guess the court system?) following these time lines that have been put in place.
Lizzy turns 3 in December, obviously there will be no completed adoption by then so IF we get to adopt her I am glad that she will have that money for the future.
2 comments:
We have had about half and half. I don't know if you are aware of the fact that a yr or 2 back there was a law suit brought against our state by an advocacy group for the kids in foster care. Their main complaint was that there were to few workers for the number of cases there were. I believe it was settled out of court with the state agreeing to reduce the worker to cases ratio. There was a rush of hiring and besides there has been a greater use of outside agencys. We were told by a friend who has worked for the state for more than 20yrs, that the state is currently working towards using other agencys in 60% of the cases.
We have recently talked with another worker about the fact that the courts seem to be far more lenient on bio parents than they used to be. The assumption was that because of the suit, the judges are more afraid of appeals and accusations from parents and so they have been far more long suffering and almost like they have shut their brains off. (sorry no disrespect meant, just an observation)
The cases, in our experience, that have closed the most quickly were: the one whose mother was in prison. Baby was born at 30 wks (mother committed crime after baby was born) was positive for crack and alcohol. Baby was then released from hospital at 6 weeks and was then abused in the foster home at 12 weeks and it was thought that she would not live after the abuse. The next one that closed quickly was the case where adults in home were sentenced to 17 yrs in prison for the atrocities committed against the kids in their home including one that was beaten and abused to the point of death. Baby we had was placed in an adoptive/foster home very quickly for permanent placement. The next one terminated early was abandoned by his parents. In that they only came to visits until he was about 5 weeks old and then had no more contact, whereabouts unknown, did not call DHS. Next one was the child of teen runaway mom and was returned to grandparents very quickly.
Then on the other hand we had a case for 20 mo (from the time the baby was 2 days old) and that is the one that mom is a drug addict and a prostitute and "dad" is ineligible for legal permanent residence in the U.S. They were moved to a foster home that could be an adoptive placement (if parental rights are terminated) just a month ago. We had another case with a teen mom in foster care and we are told they gave mom more time in order to be fair to someone so young.
That is a lot of words to answer your simple question.
The reasoning behind the stipend after the age of 3 is that a child is considered harder to place after 3. The stipend should be an equivalent amount to what you get monthly with the clothing allowances and Christmas gift added in and divided by 12. No paper work is required on an ongoing basis.
Also we have been told that they are supposed to receive 2 years college education in a state junior college or we were told that an equivalent amount could be applied to a 4 yr college or a private school.
In my county right now, it is 2 and over for non-white children to get stipend. For college funds, they have to be adopted over the age of 12.
Our case with Miss M was the fastest most people around me saw, placement at 5 1/2 months, adoption decree at 12 months, 1 week.
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