Rules with fostering regarding your own childs shots/schooling

[WynneBabies]

Originally Posted by reesie Holy COW as to not caring about Pertussis in the house and still be willing to place an infant. The liability (and frankly the stupidity) of that amazes me. As a pediatric ARNP who has seen infants with whooping cough and the devastation it can bring-WOW.

I agree with this! Can't believe they allowed that.

Here, we did not have to provide anything medical about our children. I do vaccinate but my youngest was on a delayed schedule and was not up to date when we were being licensed. No one asked. My dh and I didn't even need medical forms although we had to state any health issues in our paperwork and sign it.

As for schooling, they don't care here how you school your own kids although they did send forms to our oldest children's elementary school to see if they had any issues with them or us as a family. Not sure how they'd do that with home schooling. I do know of a situation in our county where they allowed the foster child to be home schooled because they determined it was in his best interest. Sounds like this is rare though in general. Because it is through a public charter school, I'd definitely try to get it approved especially if the child would need to switch schools anyway. However, many foster children have some sort of special needs (whether educational or behavioral) and it may be in their best interest to attend a traditional public school to receive the services they need.

[yellowitchgrl]

vaxing is mandatory here and the dog fostering would be an issue. It alllll depends on your state.

[luvsviola]

Originally Posted by reesie Holy COW as to not caring about Pertussis in the house and still be willing to place an infant. The liability (and frankly the stupidity) of that amazes me. As a pediatric ARNP who has seen infants with whooping cough and the devastation it can bring-WOW.

Around here, the child is the least important piece in the entire case. DS was 2 days out of the NICU, and they made us do a sibling visit at grandma's daycare center where I dropped him off for 3 hours. His NICU release said no daycare centers or church nurseries for 6 months. DCS doesn't give a hoot about best interests of the child--only in getting kids back to their bios and what is most convenient for the caseworker.

[GreenDahlia]

Originally Posted by luvsviola Around here, the child is the least important piece in the entire case. DS was 2 days out of the NICU, and they made us do a sibling visit at grandma's daycare center where I dropped him off for 3 hours. His NICU release said no daycare centers or church nurseries for 6 months. DCS doesn't give a hoot about best interests of the child--only in getting kids back to their bios and what is most convenient for the caseworker.

That is completely awful.

ETA: not what you said, what you and your son went through. Ugh.

[Chris10]

Vaxing is not an issue here. They never ask about my kids. When ODD was still in fc she had to be on the regular vax schedule, though. Also, they don't care if you HS your kids, but foster kids typically attend public school. We don't have to keep them at the same public school, we can send them to the one in our district, or another of our choice, but they go to public school.

The animal rescue wouldn't be an issue here either, but I read recently on here about a home study social worker who didn't like dogs saying the family wouldn't get placed with any babies bc they have a dog. So.... I guess that will depend on the person doing the home study. We had three dogs and a cat when we had our HS and it was not an issue at all. We just had to show rabies vaccine proof for each of them (and I don't think it's been asked for again in the last five years).

[ivparker]

Originally Posted by mmbreb Maybe this was just our agency than but it was a part of our medical form. Our agency did mention some things are changing in the near future but they are implementing the new rules so they don't have to worry about it later. I dont have any idea if VAX is part of that but weird that there is a discrepancy .

The homeschooling thing is making me nervous so I asked my licensor and she said she hadn't heard that but will ask someone higher up.

[yellowitchgrl]

I can homeschool my own kids, but not foster kids. As far as I know homeschooling is not allowed for the foster kids in any state, but not positive

[ivparker]

Yeah, I know that we can't home school foster children but she was saying that MI might soon say you also can't home school your own children so that your foster children don't feel different.

[yellowitchgrl]

it all depends on the state- we have some (to quote JKR) "nuttier than squirrel poo" rules here in MD that blow my mind too and you can't even ask a simple question and get the same answer from anywhere in the country.

[WynneBabies]

Originally Posted by yellowitchgrl I can homeschool my own kids, but not foster kids. As far as I know homeschooling is not allowed for the foster kids in any state, but not positive

Well, I know for a fact my county allowed it in a certain situation. I was really surprised to hear that. I don't HS my kids nor have the desire to, but very interesting they allowed it here. I do think it may have been a special situation where all parties agreed it was the best option for that particular foster child.