Homestudy Reform Analysis

This 21-page report is a good start in recognizing the need for across-the-board standards for homestudies:THE NEED FOR A CONSENSUS STANDARD OF CARE IN SCREENING PROSPECTIVE ADOPTIVE, FOSTER, AND KINSHIP PLACEMENTS  by Daniel Pollack in Capitol University Law Review.

I wanted to point out a few parts.

On pdf page 10 (page 406 of journal), it lists reasons to reject PAPs. If only these were followed in the real world:

• Lack of financial resources
• Sexual abuse in the applicant’s past that has gone unresolved
• Screener concerns about potential pedophilia
• Alcoholism or drug addiction
• History of spousal abuse, either as victim or abuser
• Inadequate socialization
• Alienation from family members
• A history of unresolved relationship difficulties (individuals who
  make the same bad relationship choices over and over again)
• Hostile statements or attitudes toward the country of origin of a
  prospective adopted child
• Arrests or convictions for assault, substance abuse, or drug
  trafficking
• Poor health prognosis
• History of serious mental illness
• Poor parenting skills”

On pdf pages 12-14, he discusses COA and CWLA standards.

On pdf page 15, he discusses Consortium for Children standards which don’t occur in most states or for international adoptions. It would be wonderful if Numbers 3 and 6 were implemented across the board.

“1. A statement of practice values that outlines 10 practice guidelines to ensure the validity of the process

2. Information-gathering tools that include standardized questionnaires and templates for the family’s references

3. A psychosocial inventory that provides assessment based on 68 psychosocial factors using a 5-point scale

4. The desk guide, a tool for rating and analyzing the data gathered using the psychosocial inventory

5. A preformatted home study that provides a comprehensive, standardized report

6. The matching inventory, a structured compatibility list designed to assist placement workers in assessing the “goodness of fit” between children and prospective families.”

Starting on page 16, he discusses South Carolina foster care standards. So many of these need to be included in adoptions and adoptive postplacement monitoring. The first one on the list is one standard that we are increasingly seeing not attained by APs in the blogosphere : “Each child shall be provided with adequate health and hygiene aids.” From not having wheelchair accessible vans when a child is placed to having to fundraise for child diapers, this needs to be part of all homestudies and rejections need to occur if these are not able to be provided.

REFORM Puzzle Pieces