What is involved in an adoption 'home study'?

Question

I honestly don't know.

I hear about all the paperwork, but how are APs evaluated/investigated before an adoption is approved?

When I asked my amother, she claims not to remember, but I'm sure it's changed from the '60s anyway.

Answer 1

Good question. Each state has its own requirements and any homestudy agency in the state is required to meet at least those, but each homestudy agency is different. I've heard of some easy ones where the agency only does the minimum the state requires and I've seen some strenuous ones. I'll share what my own homestudy required. It required a criminal background check and a child abuse and neglect registry check. We did 4 hours of interviewing over two different meetings and my husband and I talked with our social worker each individually and together. I thought the interviewing was very thorough. It covered relationships, family, religion, experience with children, readiness for adoption, parenting philosophy, etc. We had a safety inspection of our home, including by the fire department, with a posted fire escape plan. We had a doctor check-up and hadour doctor attest to our mental and physical health. We also had a 12 hour international adoption class, over 2 different days, but that was because we adopted intenationally and isn't a state requirement. We also had a required reading list for international adoption. I'm sure there are some little things I'm forgetting, but that is most. After all of that, our social worker wrote the report and sent a rough draft to our adoption agency who looked it over to see if it covered all of the information of the foreign government requires, because the foreign government often requires different information than the state in which you live, and an internation homestudy has to meet both requirements.
Our international program required 2 post-placement visits as well, one at 3 months and one at 1 year.

edited to add: forgot a couple of major ones: financial discolure form, and 4 references.

Also, I agree with the poster who said that more should be required AFTER placement.

Answer 2

I think you may need to have a Masters of Social Work (MSW) to contract privately to do homestudies. For our homestudy, we went through a small company that only did homestudies, post placement reports, and faciliated the legal re-adoption in the US of internationally adopted children. I asked about their credientials and licensing and was told that in our state at least, an MSW was required to work in this fashion. I don't know if your master's degree fills the requirements or not.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

The case worker came to our house and visited with us and with our other children. We were asked a lot of questions about how adoption would affect our lives and how we each felt about a new addition. We also had to prove that we could financially take care of another child. Basically that was about it. I am sure there would be more like finger prints and such but we were alreadyy foster parents and had alread done all of that.

Answer 5

I certainly hope it has changed since the 70's. I asked my dad and he didn't remember a home study. Some social worker came over twice for coffee.... apparently that was a 70's style home study. Guess I lucked out in the sense that I wasn't tortured beyond the norm.

Oh and ROTFLMFAO @ two hours being lengthy. I squeezed my kid out and I still asked for more than two hours with someone in my home. I highly suggest that ALL new parents look into having an early childhood development specialist educate them about their new child's developmental needs and how to stimulate them.

Answer 6

In a home study, they will evaluate your home for hazards. They will also ask you many many questions. They want to know about your childhood, how you were disciplined, your relationships, past and current, your sex life, your income, you will also have a background check. There are other things involved, but that is basically the gist of it. Be ready, because you will feel completely violated, but don't be offended, they are just keeping the safety of the children as their first priority.

Answer 7

Hi! We've had 2 home studies. Relax! They are very nerve racking, but you will make it thru. The do go thru your home to make sure that it is safe. Make sure that you have plenty of smoke detectors and that you have a fire extinguisher. They will look everywhere including your bathtub to make sure that you have soap and shampoo for the child. You will have to have copies of your financial records and we had to have a copy of our marriage licsense. They will have to have reference letters from a few of your friends, family, and possibly your pastor if you have one. You will know when they are coming. THey will set up an appt. Then they may possibly stop by unannounced. Both of our adoptions were private adoptions, and they both went pretty smooth. My advice to you is just not to get too worked up. It will be just fine!

Answer 8

They come in and look at your house, go through your cabinets,check out safety violations. They sit with you and have an interview, where they ask alot of questions, generally to get a good idea of what kind of people you are. Generally it takes a couple of hours. It's a lengthy process. But congrats!

http://www.worldpartnersadoption.org/homestudy.html

Answer 9

The person who wrote that it takes about two hours is quite mistaken.

We were required to take a class called MAPP which lasted an entire summer. We had homework and there were roleplaying tasks during class that involved fostering abused children and other things. There were mounds and mounds of paperwork that included financial statements -- we even had to provide xeroxed copies of several years worth of tax returns. We had to have letters of reference from 4 people and we also had to have a letter from someone close to us stating that if something should happen to us, that person would take in our child. Our letter was provided by my sister, who took the matter very seriously. When I asked if she'd take over the parenting of our child if my husband and I died, she said that she would but she had to speak to her husband first because it wasn't solely her decision. I respected that and, fortunately, my brother-in-law agreed with my sister.

We had to be fingerprinted and have background checks through the Department of Justice and we had to have our home inspected by foster care. We thoroughly baby-proofed our home prior to inspection (put child safety locks on all cupboards, stored cleaning fluids up high, put in an extra smoke detector, put plastic plugs in all electrical outlets, etc.). We were interviewed as a couple and individually by our social worker and once we were matched with a child, we were interviewed by *his* social worker. We were required to take CPR and First Aid classes through the Red Cross.

This seems like a nice, neat little list, but it took months and months of preparation before we could even be put on a list for a child. I understand why potential adoptive parents are screened this way -- in fact, our social worker told us during MAPP that many people are 'put off' by all of the requirements and our MAPP class would probably decrease by half before it was over...and she was right -- but it's too bad that it has to be that way. I don't advocate handing over a child to people who abuse children, etc., but maybe ALL parents, not just potential adoptive parents, should be screened in some way before being allowed to take a child home from the hospital.

Oh, and as for follow up after we brought our son home: we had weekly visits from our son's social worker, usually at our house, in addition to the times she saw him when he visited his birth mother. (Her rights were terminated 3 months after we brought him home.) We were in regular contact with our social worker and we were even randomly chosen by foster care to have our home reinspected! So there *is* follow up. Again, too bad someone isn't following up with ALL parents, not just adoptive ones.

Answer 10

Why do you care? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for you to ask how to find a clean abortion clinic, since you seem to value murder over adoption? It's not like you'll ever open your home, so it shouldn't matter to you.

However, from what I remember, the social worker comes in and checks things out. My parent's home study was done in the early 80's, so I'm sure things have changed. I only remember the social worker comming in, and asking to be shown around the house. Then she asked my parents alot of questions and then asked ME alot of question (I was only 3 at the time.)

I agree that a home study does not guarantee parents will be great, but it does give a margin of safety to the process. No one can be taking in essential slaves and have them sleeping 8 to a room or something like that. However, I believe that the state (and agencies - espescially those that focus on non-infant adoption) really need to work with adoptive families more AFTER the adoption has been made. My parents had to attend classes before the adoption (even though they already had one kid) and go through the home study, and there were a couple of follow up visits, but then that was it. They were just sorta tossed to the wind!

I think this lack of support allowed the few bad things that happened around my brothers adoption to occur. Don't get me wrong, my brothers' were MUCH better off being adopted by my family than they would have been languishing in "the system" - but life was not perfect. Children adopted after infancy are usually "special" in some way, even if it's only fromt he emotional trauma of being an "unwanted" child for so long and moving from foster home to foster home. Expecting all those things to vanish just because they're placed in a "forever family" is ridiculous. In fact, the state knows it's not a realistic expectation because they talk about how the perspective adoptive parents must be ready to continue to give extra support to the child in this or that way.

However, the state does little to support the adoptive parents in doing what needs to be done for the child. I'm not talking about monetary support, I'm talking abour resources and advice. It is much easier to THINK you're ready to deal with certain needs in a child, to have plans for dealing with them, to be "ready" to deal with it than it is to actually DO the thing. Knowing you're adopting a child with anger management issues, and knowing all the ways of coping with the outbursts can never ready any parent from the emotional exaustion that such things can bring. The same goes for a physcially handicapped child or any issue in a child. Dealing with these things is physically and emotionally draining.

When "special" children are born to parents, they grow into their issues. The parents have much longer to develop the necessary resources and to be accustomed to their childs needs. In adoption it's pretty much flipping a switch. The state needs to do a better job of helping the whole family cope with the new situations. Even if all this means is checking in on the family one evening a month (or even one evening every six months) to ask how things are going and provide referals to resources, it should be done. The families need to know they're not alone. I believe alot of the "abuse" that is seen in adoptive families (or even the horrific RETURNING of children) is because the families feel suddenly stranded and unable to cope.

I guess I really have written alot, but I do believe in "ongoing" home support, not just one home study. Adoption can be wonderful, but it can't happen over night. If a child needs 9 months to gestate, why does the state thing adoptions are magic?