If you're not familiar with the adoption or foster process, or are just getting started, part of being eligible for placement is going through a rigorous screening called a Home Study (or sometimes Home Visit). The point of the Home Study is to make sure that not only is your home safe and a good environment to raise a child in, but also that you are mentally, physically, and financially fit to parent.
To complete the Home Study, you will meet with your assigned social worker several times over the course of a month or two depending on how quickly you want to move things forward. For our Home Study, at least two of these meetings had to occur in our home. You will also have to complete some other tasks, which may include:
- Providing financial information such as:
- tax returns
- paystubs
- employment verification
- Housing and Financial Statement
- References from non-family members.
- Medical history and a signed form from your doctor.
- Disclosing any criminal history.
- Signed HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) forms.
- A child referral form or something similar. In it, you will indicate your preferences for the child you will match with. This is one of the hardest forms to fill out, so pick a time when you and your partner are relaxed with a glass of wine. You can indicate your comfort level with:
- Degree of openness, e.g. open, semi-open, or closed adoption
- Sex of the child (our agency does not offer this choice, which was fine with us).
- Age of the child
- Race of the child
- Substance exposures like alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, opiates, etc.
- Birth family medical history including depression, autism, etc.
- Monetary birth family assistance
Our First Interview
The first time we met our social worker was at her office. This was the part where she interviewed us together, asking us about how me met, why we wanted to adopt, our views on raising children, and other details about our lives. I remember feeling so nervous, but my hubby held my hand as we walked into the agency together, and our social worker was very kind and easy to talk to. I was also so happy to be taking this big step in the adoption process.
Our Second Interview
The next meeting took place in our home, which means that we went on an insane cleaning spree and read every article I could find about what the social worker would be looking for during her visit. I replaced open bookcases full of our wedding china and DVD collection with cabinets that closed, replaced smoke detector batteries, bought a fire extinguisher, bought a fireplace screen, got electrical socket plugs and went on a cleaning rampage from top to bottom. We even resurrected my husband's window washing talents from back when he "squeaked" for a summer job and made every glass surface sparkle. We made sure the dogs had lots of exercise so they would be on their best behavior. We were super antsy about this step, even though we knew that our home was already a nearly perfect place to welcome our baby.
When our social worker arrived, the dogs were on their best behavior (our husky turned up the charm big time), and everything went really well. She did a walk-through of the house, noting a few minor improvements and suggestions. She did not open drawers or peek into closets or put on the white gloves. Then she interviewed us individually. These individual interviews were pretty intense. She dove into our childhood, probing about friends and family and how we were raised. We were asked about how we were disciplined, how we felt about ourselves growing up, important moments in our lives. If we'd ever been to counseling or committed a crime. Then more about our relationships with each other and what we will value as parents. We provided her with more paperwork, scheduled her next visit, and then said our goodbyes.
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| Husky charm. Works every time. |
Our Third Interview
Our third and final home study was once again in our home. This one was pretty fast. Everything went smoothly again. The dogs were fantastic (our social worker wanted to take our husky home), we had corrected the minor issues she had identified on her last visit, and we had another short interview together. She also answered some of our questions and then we were done!
It took a few weeks for our social worker to type up the Home Study report and give her recommendation for our approval. After that, we were officially Licensed to Parent and ready to begin our adoption waiting game. Overall, the Home Study wasn't too daunting a procedure. With some foresight and preparation you too can ace this task! Check out the tips below.
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| License to parent interview. Click to enlarge |
Tips for a smooth home study
Note: Every agency, entity, state, or jurisdiction is different. Some of these suggestions may differ based on the age of the placed child or if you are a foster to adopt parent. This is by no means a complete list of what you can expect, but it should give you a good place to start.
- Relax!
- Get a good night's sleep the night before.
- Take half a day off of work if you can. You'll want to be calm and focused before the visit, and you may want to have time to process everything over lunch with your partner after it's over.
- Have any paperwork ready to go and in an easily retrievable place.
- Make sure your home is clean, but it doesn't have to be spotless! No one is getting out their white gloves. :)
- You don't have to have a nursery prepared, just a game plan about where the baby will sleep. You may want to have a room identified for them, but it doesn't have to be set up. (This is different for a foster situation of course)
- To reduce stress, try to break up the cleaning/organizing duties in the weeks leading up to your home study so you're not scrambling the night before or the day of!
- Identify and correct potential hazards in your home by:
- Protecting sharp corners with corner guards.
- Closing off open fireplaces.
- Protecting heat sources like stoves, furnaces, water heaters.
- Plugging open electrical sockets and securing power cords.
- Securing low cabinets with child safety locks. I like the magnetic ones.
- Moving fragile or sharp items out of reach.
- Move all cleaning and pest control products up to high shelves.
- Installing baby gates at top of stairs or to block off non-baby friendly areas.
- Make sure any weapons like firearms are stored in a secure manner like a safe. Bullets should be stored separately and also securely. Lock up the Hattori Hanzo swords.
- Research pool safety requirements, e.g. fences and locked gates of a certain height around the pool.
- Make sure smoke and carbon dioxide detectors are in working order and installed according to code, e.g. in California, smoke detectors are required in every bedroom.
- Some agencies or states may want a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.
- Make sure any pets are fed and well exercised so they are happy and well behaved.
- Make sure pets are up-to-date on vaccinations (especially rabies) and proof of this available if asked.
- Treat your social worker as an honored guest. Offer a beverage and a comfy spot for any interviews. Some people in our adoption classes set out hors d'oeuvres or sweets. These couples reported that the social worker didn't partake, but it was a nice gesture.
Good luck! You've got this!
