Free wireless!

[ratherastory]

Yay! I am off to bed in a moment. Free wireless is awesome. :)

Flist, say I was writing to a prompt that wanted Sam separated from his family by CPS after an illness/accident.

Where would I be able to find accurate information on the legal processes involved in having a child taken from his family and placed into foster care? Would he be placed right away? Would he end up in a halfway house first? Do his biological family get any kind of visitation rights? (If so, I'd have to figure out a reason why they wouldn't come, etc.)

Anyone? Bueller? Love and internet cookies to anyone who can help me. I'd like to at least *pretend* to be true to life, here.

Comments

[icelily01.livejournal.com]

My family has been doing foster care for...ever. It works different in different states but the way it worked in Wisconsin was...

Once it was reported, the child was taken and then either put in a temp home (Same as a regular foster home except it was only for a few days-a week until their permanent place was set up.) They do have visitation rights depending on the reason for the child's removal and also on what the court will decide. (For instance, we have one little girl live with us who was with us for a month before her mother was granted the right to have supervised visits one day a week.) If it was severe abuse or some other situations, they would have no visitation and the courts would almost certainly strip their parental rights.

There may be some information here: http://dcf.wisconsin.gov/children/foster/statsadmin/statslegINX.htm if you dig around. My mom and aunt are also still involved in foster care (my aunt is the county coordinator actually) so if you have any specific questions I'm sure I can get answers for you :)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm back from my trip. Wisconsin would actually work perfectly for my fic. May I bend your ear at some point? *bats eyelashes at you*

[icelily01.livejournal.com]

Sure, sure :) Always happy to help.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yay!

What's better? Email? PM? IM of some kind?

[icelily01.livejournal.com]

PM or email is fine. I usually check my PMs more than my emails but Ill send you my email address in case you'd rather do that. :)

[jesseofthenorth.livejournal.com]

This article has some good basic information and links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster_care
this link takes you to National Foster Parents also a decent resource
http://www.nfpainc.org/
Also this which also has a lot of info
http://www.nfpainc.org/

Also on a personal note I spent a fair amount of time in fost care as a kid and if you have any questions about the personal side of things I would be happy to help, just PM me :)

[alexseanchai]

Yeah, I was gonna say Wiki's usually a good starting spot. Also, your third link vanished somewhere.

[jesseofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up :D here is the third link
http://www.childwelfare.gov/

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

It's pretty involved, AFAIK, but it seems a lot of other people have beat me to the link search.

I was actually talking to a friend who knows about this stuff two days ago. And my roommate trained to be a social worker. So if you have any specific questions, I can pass them on.

[yasminke.livejournal.com]

Different states -- different rules. Plus, a lot depends on the reasons why the child(ren) goes into foster care. (My sister is a foster parent.)

Decide on a state and then check their DCS/DFS whatever site.

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

I was going to say exactly this... And if you need help with the specific state, let me know and I'd be happy to google-fu it.

[silverblaze85.livejournal.com]

I may be a bit lazy, but I usually hit up www.allexperts.com with something like this... explain straight up that you're doing research for a story, and you'd like some information, making sure your facts are all straight and whatnot. That's a great spot to ask -exactly- what questions you need answered, and get straight answers in response. They're usually uber-obliging. That's where I get like, oh, 75% of my medical info that I can't get from family at, and anything obscure.

Though I do totally agree with everyone's info though too. *nods*

[wave-obscura.livejournal.com]

I can speak from personal experience, as a child removed temporarily by CPS, though it was almost almost 20 years ago. You can pm or email me about if you're interested.

[genevieve-1.livejournal.com]

I take it you want the US laws about it... I could've helped you with the Quebec ones. :)

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

Your FLIST rocks at being able to provide meaningful (and first hand!) info!

So I'm just going to say - your icon makes me all kinds of gleeful!

[twirlycurls.livejournal.com]

I'm all excited to see you do this story. :)

[primrose-1.livejournal.com]

Looks like you got a lot of good information already, so my very very sketchy information based on a related incident isn't going to be of much use to you. I will await your story happily!