Alabama Adoption Foster Care – A Journey – Nine Months Matters

Almost every foster parent gets into foster care because they have a burning passion to help children in need. The State has the lock and the key on the vulnerable, at risk, abandoned, and neglected children of our state. So, if you want to help these children, you have to partner with the State. Despite common understanding, foster care is a necessary and noble endeavor. Here’s what foster care looks like:

Training and License for Foster Care

You can use a third-party agency (like AGAPE, Alabama Baptist Children’s Home, Kids to Love, etc.) to do your mandatory training to become a foster parent. These agencies can also “hold” your license. They can ensure that you meet all state-level requirements. Also, they can keep your home up to date with the State’s minimum requirements.

But at the end of the day, it’s the State that holds all the cards. By “State”, we mean the Alabama Department of Human Resources. The State has the authority to pick up a child from a dangerous situation and bring law enforcement if necessary. The State has been delegated the authority to select in which home a child will be placed; to secure medical care, mental health care, and counseling; and to pay for these services.

Bonding with Caregiver

If a young child comes into your home and stays for any length of time, that child will begin to bond with you as their primary caregiver. They will begin to call you “momma” and “daddy.”

For example, they will cry out to you in the night when they are afraid. And they will cry for you when they skin their knee. There will be no discernible difference between this child and a natural born child to your home. And likely this will be something all your neighbors and friends confirm.

Even so, in most situations, the foster parents should be expending themselves for the rehabilitation of the legal parents. This might look like exchanging phone numbers and providing updates and pictures. This could be offering to pack snacks for visits and passing along any medical information to the natural parents. Or, this may include ensuring that the legal parents know when the medical appointments are scheduled so that they can attend with you.

Rehabilitation to Permanency – the Noble Task of Foster Care

Whatever this looks like in your situation, foster parents sign up for the noble task of facilitating rehabilitation. That is supposed to be the case for the first 12 months. If the legal parents have not rehabilitated after 12 months, by law and common sense, the system should shift gears away from foster care and towards permanency with the foster parent – Adoption by Current Foster Parent, to be precise. In fact, the Department is mandated by law to file for termination of parental rights if the children have been in foster care for 365 days.

Now, if you get to month nine and the natural parents have not made any significant progress to alleviate the problems that led their child coming into custody of the State, it’s time to buckle down and get serious about permanency.

Why do I say nine months?

If the child has been in care 12 of the last 22 months, the State is obligated to file a Petition for Termination of Parental Rights. Does that happen very often?

No.

Tips to Help Your Case Worker

But there’s a lot you can do while the child is still in foster care to help move the ball forward. Here are a few tips to help your case worker follow the law and do what’s best for your foster child.

1. Keep a daily journal. This is the highest level of reliability and will carry more weight in court than pictures. Include in your journal whether parents have contacted the child, whether the parents have provided any material support for the child, how the child responds to visits with the parents (before and after), and basic things about the child’s day.
2. Ask for letters from people in the community: (a) Medical professionals about how the child is doing in your care, progressing with special needs, etc.; (b) Friends and community support partners regarding whether the child is thriving in your home, bonding to you and spouse, development, and your parenting skill; (c) Teachers or Day care workers regarding the health of the child, relationship to you, and developmental progress.
3. Compile any information you have on the legal parents, including any statements you have heard the parents make.
4. Compile and organize any medical records, school records, or attendance and participation in other activities.

After you have organized and compiled these things, put them into a three-ring binder with tabs and an outline at the beginning. Then make several copies and provide them to your caseworker, casework supervisor, Guardian ad litem, and DHR attorney. The ideal time to do this is at the beginning of month 11.

Remember your tone. Sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.

Happy advocating!