Foster care adoption basics?

Question

My husband and I are planning to adopt through the foster care system. We are a military family currently in Washington state, but he is a texan and I am a north dakotan. Do we have to adopt from Washington, or can we adopt from one of our home states? What about a neighbor state of Washington? (Idaho, Oregon) Thanks for any help you can give!

Answer 1

You usually go through the agency in your county/state you live in because of the home visits and paperwork required but you would need to talk to the agency there in Washington State where you live because active duty military adoptions have different rules and standards to follow.  Children in the foster care system can come from a neighboring county or even state as sometimes they will take a child that is in need of foster care and move them far enough away from the "danger area" as they can to keep them safe.  Some states have children on a website so you can view some that are looking for wonderful homes.

Answer 2

Hi -- I am in Washington.... and you want to visit the website in my profile... we have about 500 members most of which have adopted from Foster Care.

You also want to visit the Child Welfare Information Gateway...

http://www.childwelfare.gov/

You will want to contact the local CPS office in Washington--and start there. Because the Home Study is about where you are physically living and not about where you came from or where you are technically a resident.

If you are restationed or move someplace else the work you do in Washington can be forwarded and taken over by the office you move to. It's kind of like the military records.

Children can be adopted by families from any State as long as the matching a placement is done and the ICPC is completed everything goes fine. Oregon places many children with families in other states.

Good Luck--this takes a little time but, in the end it isn't all that bad....