What Is Home Study For Adoption? Proven Quality Definitions.

This is a beginner’s guide for those asking “What is home study for adoption?” Probably you decided to adopt a child, but you’ve not heard so much about adoption home study services and how to go about adoption home study process.

This post is all about you, and how to show you what home study for adoption means and also show you all you need to know about it. Let’s dive in.

Here Is A Few Things You’ll Learn From This Post.

What is home study for adoption?
How to locate your home study provider.
Filling and submitting your home study application.
The documents you will gather for homestudy.
Get ready for home inspection.
Get ready for the inspection.
Cost of home study for adoption
Etc.

Table of Contents

What Is Home Study For Adoption?

Homestudy or home study is the process by which the home and the life of the prospective adopting family is been screened by the adoption professional prior to allowing adoption to take place. Homestudy is required be the state law, and if it’s not legally required, it must be required by the adoption professional conducting the adoption.

Homestudy for adoption is one of the most important steps in adoption, and it must be completed by anyone wishing to adopt a child, whether you are adopting internationally or adopting domestically.

During the home study process, your adoption professional will visit your home many times to verify your personal history, lifestyle, family interests, your parenting experiences, and generally to know how you intend to take care of your adopted child or children.

The home study investigation will include an interview with other residents of your home, and you. Financial, criminal, and medical checks will be done also.

Getting yourself acquainted with how to complete the home study for adoption will help you to prepare for the journey before you begin, and can make you absolutely confident in your adoption journey

Although adoption home study can be an overwhelming process for the adopting family, but you should know that the completion of adoption homestudy means you are on the verge of taking you adopted baby home. I hope your question about “What Is home study for adoption has be answered. So let’s look at the steps in completing the home study.

The Home Study Adoption Steps

Now your question “what is home study for adoption” has been answered. Let me take you through the steps that is required of you, before the adoption homestudy shall be completed and the finalisation of your adoption process comes.

Step One: Find The Adoption Home Study Provider Near You.

Every adoption home study process is conducted by an adoption Social worker that is employed and licensed by child placing agencies, or some other social worker experts. Depending on your state of residence, you must first of all search and select a homestudy provider to work with.

The adoption home study professional you selected will take you through everything that is required of you during the home study and in your specific circumstances.

Step Tower: Fill And Submit Your Home Study Application

When you find the adoption agency to work with, they will hand you over you application and other information packet. From that packet, you’ll see information about how your state conducts their home study process.

After that, you will be given a form to fill out your information; those are the information the social worker will use to complete your homestudy.

This is also the best time for you to gather all your documents together, including your proof of income, tax record and your medical records. All these documents will be reviewed by the social worker.

Documents To Gather:-

To also answer your question “what is home study for adoption” I want to share with you some of the important documents that you should make available for your home study to be successful and available on time. Check them out below.

The list that contains names of all the adults in your home that will take care of the child.
Reports from a physician for all the people living in your home.
Results for Criminal background checks of all the inhabitants of your home (from 18 years and above).
Your marriage certificate ( If possible).
Divorce decree also (if applicable)
Your finger print.
A copy of you annual return statement from your employer, or a copy of your most recent pay stubs.
Birth certificate for all those living in your home.
Reference latter from two to three people who have known you for about 2 years or more.
If you have adopted a child before, the final adoption decree for that will be required.

This stage of adoption tends to be one of the most stressful part, and that’s because of all the documents you have to gather. To make it less stressful for you, consult your attorney about which documents you should present before the time for homestudy.

Start Getting Ready For The Home Visit Inspection

This is the time when your home will be inspected by your home study provider, so you have to be ready for it. Note that your home doesn’t have to be made with gold before you will be certified eligible to adopt a child, but your home must be optimized and safe for the new baby you are bringing home.

Therefore, before scheduling for your interview, make sure you inspection your home and make sure it free from any thing that can harm your children. Below are a few things to consider as you prepare for the homestudy inspection.

Things To Consider When Getting Ready For Inspection.

It will be very helpful if you will take some time to ask your adoption lawyer what you will expecting as the interviewer visits your home, however, all I have listed for you below are also important to have a good answer for them before the inspection.

Is your home always and reasonably clean?
Do you have pets in your home, and if yes, are they friendly with people? Do they have any history of aggressiveness? What are your plans of either restraining or securing them?
Do you have any illegal substances or materials stored anywhere in your house.
Do your windows have screen and do they lock properly?
Do you have any smoker in your home?
Have you plan for where your new baby will sleep? How safe it is?
Do you have any fire escape plan in your home? If you are living upstairs, do you have a fire escape ladder available at an important position.
Do you have smoke detector? Do you have fire extinguishers at the strategic places of the building?

If all these things mentioned above are in place, the most of your questions about “what is home study for adoption has been answered, now it is time to get ready for the main part of your adoption, which the adoption interview. Below are things you should also consider when you are getting ready for that.

Prepare For The Interview.

At this point, I assume you are done with everything necessary preparations you are required to do for your adoption. Your next line of action is to prepare for your home study interview.

This is a time when your homestudy evaluator will sit down with you and your family, and separately also, find out about your intentions and readiness for planning to adoption the child in question.

It’s important you plan your family for this great experiences that will be happening soon; let them know the type of questions they should expect from the evaluator.

Examples of Questions To Expect.

What motivated you to choose adoption?
Your family culture and make up
How is your relationship with your partner or spouse.
How you have dealt with your infertility if applicable.
Financial capacity.
Your parenting styles and skills.
Your beliefs about child care.
Your conflict resolution skills.
How is your neighborhood and community?

Costs Of Homestudy For Adoption

If you are working with a public agency, you may be charged low amount of homestudy fee upfront, however, you may get a reimbursement of that money after the whole adoption process if you adopted from a foster care.

Meanwhile, if you are working with a certified social worker (in private practice), then expect to pay between a thousand dollar to three thousand dollar ($1000-$3000). These fee cover so many things, including application fee, training fee, and other costs.

If you are only planning to foster a child, you are not likely to pay for a home study too to the private or public agencies, but if it is the case of foster to adopt, then home study is not free.

In Conclusion:

I hope I have been able to answer your question “what is home study for adoption,” if yes, I wish you well as you take that step to adopting your dream child. Have in mind that you will meet different challenging times as you step out to adopt.

But, understand that you have every information you need now to start and complete your adoption home study.