Foster Care....?????

[TheRootedNomad]

Now the only thing about going through a private agency is, every placement of a child goes through your local dcs office. If the dcs office can't find a foster home for them, then they fax them over to another agency. The majority of the time when they fax kids over to another agency, they are behavior challenged, teenagers, fire starters, special needs, sexually active, etc. Its worth checking into, but I just wanted you to be aware that this is what I have been told my several casworkers since I've been fostering.

This is true to a degree. However the system is so frequently overflowing that these are not the only type of children that get referred to private agencies. These same children are oftern frequently placed in state homes without the FPs being given enough information because the worker "needs to get them placed". A private agency generally has a better relationship with their foster parents and ferretts out more information for them. You just need to be very specific when you fill out the acceptance paperwork no matter what branch you go through. - No history of firestarting, No sexual acting out, only ages blank to blank, only TPR'd children and so on. That may sound cold but it is actually in the best intrest of the child to be with foster parents that can handle that child's specific situation. It takes some intense sould searching. In my case I could handle almost any behavioral issue if it was just me and that child but I don't do well with medically fragile children. Then there is the issue of having children of my own aged 11 and 9 I wouldn't chose to have children close to their age or older. I would only want much younger children as it would be very easy for my children to be hurt or exposed to things they otherwise might not be. There are lots of things to consider. Medically fragile children and sibling groups are also very hard to place and are sometimes actually the "easier" children to deal with as they come through the system. It's generally pretty hard to find a family that can take in a sibling group of say 4,( one 5, one 7, one 9, and one 12) no matter how well behaved they are. These almost always end up in the private sector.

[MOMMYDEAREST]

This is true to a degree. However the system is so frequently overflowing that these are not the only type of children that get referred to private agencies. These same children are oftern frequently placed in state homes without the FPs being given enough information because the worker "needs to get them placed". A private agency generally has a better relationship with their foster parents and ferretts out more information for them. You just need to be very specific when you fill out the acceptance paperwork no matter what branch you go through. - No history of firestarting, No sexual acting out, only ages blank to blank, only TPR'd children and so on. That may sound cold but it is actually in the best intrest of the child to be with foster parents that can handle that child's specific situation. It takes some intense sould searching. In my case I could handle almost any behavioral issue if it was just me and that child but I don't do well with medically fragile children. Then there is the issue of having children of my own aged 11 and 9 I wouldn't chose to have children close to their age or older. I would only want much younger children as it would be very easy for my children to be hurt or exposed to things they otherwise might not be. There are lots of things to consider. Medically fragile children and sibling groups are also very hard to place and are sometimes actually the "easier" children to deal with as they come through the system. It's generally pretty hard to find a family that can take in a sibling group of say 4,( one 5, one 7, one 9, and one 12) no matter how well behaved they are. These almost always end up in the private sector.

RootedNomad??? Are you a foster parent? Caseworker? Just curious?