Foster Care and Adoptive Home Study

These guidelines are used by workers to complete foster and adoptive home studies. The guidelines indicate the issues that are required to be addressed with prospective foster and adoptive families. [read now]

What is a home study?

The home study (for adoption purposes it is also known as the Pre-adoptive Home Screening) is used in assessing the home for children's safety and available space. All homes must meet standards enumerated in the Minimum Standards and Guidelines for Child-Placing Agencies. The home study is designed to elicit information on a variety of issues including:

• motivation for wanting to foster or adopt;
• health status;
• marital and family relationships;
• applicants feelings about their own childhood and parents including any history of abuse and/or neglect;
• opinions about discipline;
• sensitivity about abused and neglected children;
• sensitivity towards birth families;
• sensitivity about different socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural groups in relation to their ability to maintain the ethnic identity of a child from a different background;
• feelings about maintaining sibling relationships;
• expectations of children in foster care;
• family's ability to work with specific kinds of behavior and backgrounds; and
• documentation on the number, age and sex for whom the home is approved.

Applicants are informed by CPS staff whether or not their home was approved and the reasons for the decision. Families who have successfully completed the CPS assessment process and are determined able to meet the needs of the children in CPS custody are approved.

Families can be approved to provide care in four general categories:

• foster care,
• foster/adoptive homes,
• legal risk homes, and
• adoptive homes.