Licensing: From Start to Finish

This is the final revision of the post I originally wrote on April 20, 2006. I thought it would be worthwhile to re-date this post now that we've finally completed the process and received our permanent license.

FosterEema and I have written quite a few posts on what's been involved in the foster parent licensing process, so I thought it might be handy to summarize all the steps in a single post. Keep in mind that this was our unique experience, and that most states (and even counties) have different procedures.

1. Contact the Dept. of Social Services - For us, this was probably the toughest step. We had a really difficult time getting someone to call us back. We called the county off and on for probably two years before we finally got really motivated. We finally got through after we went down to the county offices and refused to leave until we spoke to someone.
   
   
2. Attend Foster Parent Training - In our county, this meant attending Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education (PRIDE) classes. PRIDE consisted of ten sessions, which in our case were combined into a single-evening orientation and three all-day classes.
   
   
3. Get a Health Certificate - We had to visit our doctor and have her sign a form that said we were physically healthy enough to care for kids and that we were free from tuberculosis.
   
   
4. Navigate a Paper Sea - We had to fill out about 70 pieces of paper, including personal applications, a foster home application, and a big pile of homework from our PRIDE class which was used during our assessment visits.
   
   
5. Meet with an Assessment Worker - We met three times (for about two hours each visit) with an assessment worker who asked us about our our backgrounds, family histories, and the kinds of children we would or would not like to work with. It was mostly pretty painless, though our second visit was pretty emotional because we had to talk about problems in our families of origin. Our last assessment visit made us worry that we might have problems because we are queer, but a later talk with a lesbian social worker from our county put our fears to rest. We also spent a bunch of time stressing about the cleanliness of our house, which was pretty much a waste of emotional energy.
   
   
6. Get a CPR and First Aid Certificate - This was probably the most boring step in the process. Even though we aren't planning on caring for infants, we had to take a class that covered adult, child and infant CPR. Our course was pretty light on first aid, and long on overly-dramatic videos showing people running in, assessing the scene, and excitedly telling bystanders to call 911.
   
   
7. Meet with Licensing Worker and get Live Scan - This was very painless. The licensing worker quickly cruised through our house to make sure we had our medications and cleaning supplies locked up, we had a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit handy, and that there was nothing obviously unsafe in the house. Her quick tour was very unobtrusive, and she didn't look in cabinets or give us the white glove test. She gave us the forms for the Live Scan fingerprint check, which we got done at the local police department.
   
   
8. Final Visit with Assessment Worker - We went over our worker's assessment report, corrected a couple of small factual and spelling mistakes in the report and signed our lives away. This was completely painless, and we were told at this point that we were being recommended for approval. (Added: May 3, 2006)
   
   
9. Final Home Inspection - Our final home inspection was easy. The licensing supervisor came in, checked the temperature of our hot water, looked around for five minutes and that was basically it. Once the inspection was over, we were granted our license. (Added: May 10, 2006)
   
   
10. Receive Our Permanent License - Our permanent license document arrived about two weeks after our license was granted. (Added: May 24, 2006)

Not counting the time it took us to talk to the right person at DSS and enroll in foster parent training, it took just under two months to receive our license. We started our first foster parent training class on March 13, our our license was awarded on May 9.