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Homestudy 101: Oh, The Scrutiny!

What Is It? What You Need To Know

• A homestudy is required for all adoptions, except in some cases of kinship and stepparent adoptions where the requirement may be waived or simplified.
• A homestudy is valid for a period of one year from the date of approval. It must be renewed if the year passes and you have not adopted.
• A homestudy is prepared by those licensed for the purpose. Homestudy preparers may be licensed differently for public, private, and international adoptions.
• Pre-adoption education is an important part of the homestudy process. It is a requirement prior to homestudy approval for public adoptions (from foster care), and more and more private agencies are developing education requirements for other types of adoption.

If you're reading about homestudies, then congratulations are in order -- you've gotten this far in the adoption process!

So, you're taking in all there is to read and chatting it up with other prospective and experienced parents about what to expect next. You're not the first person to feel anxious about the scrutiny of a homestudy.

We spoke with Gerald A. Bowman, LCSW, ACSW and some parents currently going through it about the homestudy process and how to make it not only bearable, but beneficial.

Why are we subjected to homestudies?

The first step is to understand just what the homestudy is used for and how it's used. You can find many details starting at our resource list.

Contrary to what it may seem, a homestudy is essentially like a job interview -- an opportunity for two-way inspection. The agency wants to assess you and you want to learn more about the adoption process.

There's another, often unspoken, purpose for the homestudy. It may be used to present your family as a candidate to the child's representatives or biological parents.

What's Going to Happen?

There are some generic specifics that apply in most agencies' requirements, such as:

• A minimum number of visits, usually three;
• A requirement that some of the visits be in your home;
• Individual discussions with each member in the household;
• Preparation of a family financial history;
• Initiation of a criminal background check;
• Documentation of physical health history and current status;
• Request for references.

The following topics should usually be discussed:

• Each parent's family of origin;
• Parenting practices and beliefs;
• Marital and other relationships;
• Infertility issues, if applicable;
• Types of children you are considering.

The length of the homestudy process can vary widely, depending on the type of adoption, the rules, regulations, agency staff, and everyone's availability. According to therapist Gerald Bowman, once the visits have been completed, the process could theoretically be slowed by things like the preparer's previous workload, additional administrative tasks (such as translation or waiting for verification by a consulate), or requirements that all studies pass through a review board.

In Lori's situation, the whole process took less than two weeks from initiation to finish, with only one actual meeting with the worker. This is because, as Lori explains, "We did a 'designated adoption,' which means we had already located a birthmother and just used the agency to facilitate the adoption."

In a case of international adoption, Anna received a draft of the study five weeks after initially meeting her worker, and all related clearances took an additional two weeks.

Mary Kay reports that going through her county's foster care system is taking several months in total. The couple was called to schedule the preparer's visits some two months after they finished seven weeks of prerequisite classes.

What Is A Good Homestudy?

Bowman, a board member of the National Association of Ethical Adoption Professionals, says at its most basic level, a homestudy should be accurate, clear, concise, and readable.

It should answer the fundamental questions: who are the people who wish to adopt, why do they wish to adopt, how have they prepared for adoption, and are they able to support a child, physically, mentally, and financially?

The answers will come from an exploration through discussion about the prospective parents' past lives, employment, and future plans.

Any concerns that arise, for example either parent having an abusive childhood or any past arrests, should be addressed in the homestudy phase.

Bowman continues,

The home study is really a process, as well as a document. It is not a pass/fail test; rather it's a chance for the couple or single to ask questions of the provider and use this experience.

Every possible question that may be asked by any of the involved entities, including Immigration/Naturalization Service and foreign or domestic courts, should be addressed in the homestudy.

Regarding the length of the homestudy document itself, Bowman says that most agencies do not have a minimum or maximum length requirement, but they provide homestudy preparers with a standardized form to assure that all requested information is covered.

How To Survive The Scrutiny

If at all possible, lighten up! The truth of the matter is that workers and agencies are far more interested in approving you than not. They have children to place in good homes, and they want yours to be one.

Even tenuous circumstances, like previous arrest records or other "scathing" personal history, aren't grounds for automatic disapproval in most cases, says expert Bowman. So find ways to make the visits more relaxing for you, and things will work out fine.

In Mary Kay's situation, things got off to a rolling start as the couple golf carted their assigned worker through their hundred acre farm. It took half a day, but as the mom-to-be says about her worker, "She's very down to earth."

Anna was lucky enough to get some tips from a friend who had used the same worker. Also, even though she later learned that a parent in her older child's school performs homestudies, Anna says, "In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't use her -- I like having someone not so close to home to expose all the dirty laundry to!"

Knowing as much as you can about the process in advance can help you breeze through your homestudy. Lori says, "The whole process was rather overwhelming, especially happening as quickly as it did, but we didn't encounter anything surprising in the process, so I guess we had been pretty well informed."

Many families going through homestudy find that, in the end, the process gives them an opportunity to learn more about each other -- not just about "dirty laundry," but about expectations, hopes, and dreams -- the stuff that parenting is made of...

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