Youth formerly in foster care are using Texas tuition waiver at an all time record rate!

VideoEagle · December 29, 2016

I saw this in todays Dallas Morning News. Contrary to earlier reports, youth formerly in foster care are taking advantage of the Texas college tuition waiver at a record rate. There had been some misreporting on this in the Fall, only listing youth who aged out without being adopted instead of all those who are eligible. As a parent who adopted a boy we'd been fostering for about nine months, we were happy to find out he was eligible for this. Even some of the foster placement agencies don't completely understand the tuition waiver - we were first told it was only available for minorities or special needs children. As I understand it, a child needs to be in foster care for at least one full day and not be later returned to their birth parent(s) they are eligible for state college tuition waivers. Here's the article on how there are currently record numbers taking advantage of this program!

Link is here.

untbowler · December 29, 2016

My oldest is 15 and we adopted him at the age of 7, after had been in a foster home for a year. So he is also eligible once he gets to college.

Bless you and your family for adopting. This is a great thing Texas and other states do to keep these kids moving in the right direction.

HoustonEagle · January 3, 2017

How difficult was the adoption process for each of you? We currently have two kids 5 and 7. We would like a third and both of us really like idea of adopting. Obviously we are in the daydreaming stage at this point but we may get more serious soon. With that said we have heard it can be insanely difficult and very expensive. Was that your experience?

VideoEagle · January 3, 2017

13 hours ago, HoustonEagle said:

How difficult was the adoption process for each of you?

It's all a function of what you and your family call "difficult." Once the courts severed our parental rights, it was a very straight forward process for us. While the state will subsidize the cost of an adoption attorney, I wanted to pay my own just to have no question about loyalties and exactly who's interested the attorney was defending. It was less that $2K, but I'd have to look up the exact amount.

The whole process is simple, but there are lots and lots and LOTS of potential twists and turns. Texas law mandates the system try to return a child to either a parent, a relative or a close family friend and in that order I believe. In most cases, that happens. The second most common outcome is the child become available for adoption and is adopted. The third option and fortunately the least common is the child goes through the foster care system and ages out without being adopted.

My wife and I started the whole process with researching what was involved in March, 2015. We finished training, the approval process and signed all of the papers on July 21, 2015, at 6:45pm. We got a call for our first placement at 6:30am the next morning - less than 12 hours later. We have had a total of three placements with one of the three becoming adoptable and the other two returning to their families. We are currently waiting our next placement having gone active again the second week of December.

Previously, we had all of our placements within five days of becoming active on the list. This time our agency tells us there haven't been any children in our six-weeks to 18-months, no special needs (beyond the extra TLC every child in foster care requires). While in some regards the holidays result in more removals, a couple of former CPS workers have told us in their experience, parents of children under 2 tend to "step up" during the holidays as it's fun to have a little one at Christmas time. I've not doubt we'll get a call soon. Once school starts back up and parents go back to work, more people will be seeing kids and thus more reports that require removals.

The most common reason I've heard not to foster is the pain of giving up a child for whom you've cared. Yes, it hurts. It hurts a lot. But the alternative for the child is either a. stay in a dangerous and/or neglectful situation or b. literally sleep on the floor at a CPS office. That is never supposed to happen, but does because of the shortage of foster beds available. With that being the choice, my wife and I can put up with some pain. And in the case of both of the placements who went back, we know they are with loving relatives that are going to care for them. If either of them goes back into foster care, theoretically we will be the first potential foster parents contacted as we already have a relationship with them. So, no news if very good news.

The first step in the process is talking to a foster agency. In Texas, the state contracts with private foster agencies to place children with families (or individuals who are foster parents). Different agencies have different requirements and sometimes those requirements change. Many are church based, but certainly not all. Some allow for gay parents to get placements and other don't. When we started, one agency told us we could only be licensed if we were willing to accept a minimum of two placements at a time of any race. They hinted that was a state requirement - it is not. If you don't like the answers you get from the first agency, try another. When we started, there were 38 in the DFW area so there are LOTS of options.

We went with Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services, usually called PCHAS. You can email them at foserandadoptdfw@pchas.com. Here is a link to their website. I'd be happy to PM with you or anyone else interested in finding out more about the process.

HoustonEagle · January 4, 2017

18 hours ago, VideoEagle said:

It's all a function of what you and your family call "difficult." Once the courts severed our parental rights, it was a very straight forward process for us. While the state will subsidize the cost of an adoption attorney, I wanted to pay my own just to have no question about loyalties and exactly who's interested the attorney was defending. It was less that $2K, but I'd have to look up the exact amount.

The whole process is simple, but there are lots and lots and LOTS of potential twists and turns. Texas law mandates the system try to return a child to either a parent, a relative or a close family friend and in that order I believe. In most cases, that happens. The second most common outcome is the child become available for adoption and is adopted. The third option and fortunately the least common is the child goes through the foster care system and ages out without being adopted.

My wife and I started the whole process with researching what was involved in March, 2015. We finished training, the approval process and signed all of the papers on July 21, 2015, at 6:45pm. We got a call for our first placement at 6:30am the next morning - less than 12 hours later. We have had a total of three placements with one of the three becoming adoptable and the other two returning to their families. We are currently waiting our next placement having gone active again the second week of December.

Previously, we had all of our placements within five days of becoming active on the list. This time our agency tells us there haven't been any children in our six-weeks to 18-months, no special needs (beyond the extra TLC every child in foster care requires). While in some regards the holidays result in more removals, a couple of former CPS workers have told us in their experience, parents of children under 2 tend to "step up" during the holidays as it's fun to have a little one at Christmas time. I've not doubt we'll get a call soon. Once school starts back up and parents go back to work, more people will be seeing kids and thus more reports that require removals.

The most common reason I've heard not to foster is the pain of giving up a child for whom you've cared. Yes, it hurts. It hurts a lot. But the alternative for the child is either a. stay in a dangerous and/or neglectful situation or b. literally sleep on the floor at a CPS office. That is never supposed to happen, but does because of the shortage of foster beds available. With that being the choice, my wife and I can put up with some pain. And in the case of both of the placements who went back, we know they are with loving relatives that are going to care for them. If either of them goes back into foster care, theoretically we will be the first potential foster parents contacted as we already have a relationship with them. So, no news if very good news.

The first step in the process is talking to a foster agency. In Texas, the state contracts with private foster agencies to place children with families (or individuals who are foster parents). Different agencies have different requirements and sometimes those requirements change. Many are church based, but certainly not all. Some allow for gay parents to get placements and other don't. When we started, one agency told us we could only be licensed if we were willing to accept a minimum of two placements at a time of any race. They hinted that was a state requirement - it is not. If you don't like the answers you get from the first agency, try another. When we started, there were 38 in the DFW area so there are LOTS of options.

We went with Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services, usually called PCHAS. You can email them at foserandadoptdfw@pchas.com. Here is a link to their website. I'd be happy to PM with you or anyone else interested in finding out more about the process.

Thank you so much for taking the time to put that together for me. It was very helpful.