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Become a Foster Care or Adoptive Parent
They Need Stability, Love and a Chance,
They Need You.
FOSTER CARE
Many different challenges cause families to break apart but when families do
break apart, it’s often the child who needs a new home. They come to this
new home with their own unique needs and they will present challenges as
well. The right environment can make all the difference! The Youth Homes
and our Dan Fox Foster Care and Adoption Program are here to offer the very
best substitute care and support, but we need willing and capable families
to meet the needs of children who have suffered their families’ misfortunes.
We provide stable, safe and healing homes for children who’ve grown up
knowing abuse, neglect, chaos and crisis. We want to help these children
begin to heal and our Foster Care families give them the support and
attention they need.
The children we help range in age from two to 18 years old. They often
experience low self-esteem and are challenged by a lack of social skills,
anger, and the inability to focus their attention. We’ve found that what
these children need more than anything else, is to be part of a family they
can trust.
Our foster care families give temporary or permanent placements in their
homes to children with behavioral and emotional disturbances. The children
in our program are referred by Child Protective Services, Youth Court
Probation, Tribal Social Services and other agencies helping children at risk.
In cooperation with the Montana Division of Child and Family Services, the
Youth Homes offers emotional support, intensive social work, case planning,
service coordination and financial support to foster and adoptive families.
Our in-depth application and training process,
along with the care we take in matching families
with children make our placements very
successful. Families receive regular ongoing
training on a variety of topics after the placement
is made.
ADOPTION FEE SERVICES
Application – Each time an application is submitted, a fee of $100 is
charged for processing. All Adoptive Parents – either in our program or
through another agency – must apply once. The fee is charged for any
re-application.
Home Study – Every adoptive family in Montana is required to have a
special evaluation of their family completed before they can be matched
with a child. This evaluation is called a “Home Study”. Our staff is
trained and equipped to provide professional Home Studies for all
adoptive families.
*Dan Fox Foster Care & Adoption Program adoption - $500
Home Study Fee
*Other agency, National or International adoptions - $1,000
Home Study Fee
If adopting through another agency, we will need to contact your agency
prior to beginning your Home Study. In this case, we do not consider
ourselves the child placing agency and we do not provide legal services.
Parent Preparation – Our program’s professional adoptive training
is mandatory for all our adoptive parents. This training is a 30-hour
program presented in various formats.
Matching – We take the completed Home Study, along with a list of
children who need to be adopted and work to make the best possible match
between a child and the family. This process can take time but is essential
in order for the adoption to be successful for both the child and the family.
This service is only provided for adoptions through our agency.
Placement – Once a match has been made, we will place a child in your
home, in Foster Care, for a period of time prior to the legal finalization of
the adoption. During that time a trained social worker will work closely
with your family, in your home, to help the process run as smoothly as
possible. This service is only provided for adoptions through our agency.
Post-Adoptive Services – Once an adoption of a child is finalized,
we will be available to help with any problems and difficulties as they
arise. We will teach you how to recognize when you need help and how
to find places in our community that provide the services you may need.
Families who adopt a child outside our program may purchase postplacement
reviews and reports for a fee of $100 per review/report.
Your agency may require additional reports.
Other Adoption Services – We will make appropriate and authorized
amendments to a Home Study written by our program for an additional
fee of $20. We will also provide an annual update for a fee of $100.
For families wishing to be considered for adoption of children outside
of our program, there is an additional charge of $20 for every request
to pursue consideration of a particular child.
If you are interested in our Adoption program or services, please
contact our Family Developer or Program Director at 721-2754, or
the Dan Fox staff person in your area.
Helena - (406) 443-4730 * Missoula - (406) 721-2754 * Polson - (406) 883-4370
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