Out of State foster care & help..?

Question

I am in California. I am trying to get family members from Texas CPS that have no one else to get them. Mom and and lost parents rights so if not us then kids will go out of the family.. Anyway we want to take the kids, but are on a fixed income.. Will they help us with the cost of the kids living, Food, and health? Or Do we have to make it on out own?

Answer 1

the best thing to do is contact the case worker, children's lawyers, and or the court appointed advocate

the biological parents should have this information

if you have waited for TPR to happen, you may be too late... that is just the way it works

if they do not have them placed in adoptive homes already

if you were contacted by the state then they probably are very interested in moving the kids to you

if you are doing this with out state support, then you could have a long fight ahead of you

but yes, early on in placement they do look for relatives to place the children with and most states do offer kinship support just like foster adoption subsidy

a lot of the time if you are on limited income already, you would qualify for the state medicaid anyway and if the kids have special needs you would get SSI which is usually more then adoption sub

and you would not have to play the social services games

Answer 2

Texas recently approved "kinship stipends" for children placed with relatives through CPS.  It is not as much as the usual foster care stipends, but it is something.  I do not think that it matters if you live in Texas or not, but I am not absolutely sure about this!  The best thing to do is to contact your relative's case worker and ask them to help you.  Considering how much trouble CPS has been having finding adoption placements, I think you'll do just fine!  

Just yesterday I read a story about a mom trying to sell her 5-year-old daughter for s*x...  YIKES!  

Answer 3

Yes they will help you. You have to be able to show that you are currently supporting yourself and whoever lives in your family, but if you have additional children that aren't your own placed in your home there are programs to help you and if you adopt a child you get a government adoption subsidy. Contact the CPS both in Texas and California and ask them what is available to help you.

Have you spoken to CPS in Texas? They should have been required to try and locate relatives before seeking permanent custody. If the court have already received permanent custody & the parents permanently lost rights to the children then the new plan is to find an adoptive family for the children and they will no longer be seeking out relatives who can take them. So if you haven't spoken to them already then you really need to do so ASAP. When the courts obtain permanent custody it strips the entire biological family of their rights to the children as far as placement, visits, etc. It doesn't necessarily mean that the children can't be placed with you but it will be a much bigger battle than it would have been before the received permanent custody.