What happens during a home study visit?

In this video we discuss what happens during a home study visit.  We understand the thought of someone coming to your home to assess your readiness to foster or adopt is intimidating.  This video is helpful for anyone curious about the process or currently preparing for a home study visit.  Share this video with the rest of the folks who live in your home.  Knowing what to expect will help you and your family have a relaxed and productive home study visit.

The Purpose

The purpose of a home study visit is to help qualify you to care for our children.  By the time we are scheduling your home study visit both you and we have already invested significant resources into preparing you for this journey.  We are on the same team and we want you to be successful.

We will send a person to your home who is an experienced professional.  It is important that you are open and transparent with your home but also about your history, your present, and your future.  Your home study document must accurately tell the story of you and those living in your home.

A typical home study visit will last between 6 to 8 hours.  It is a full day.  Make arrangements for any and all full and part-time household members to be present for the visit.  Your CK Family Development Specialist will talk with you about your household members who need to be present and for how long.  Many find it helpful to make child care arrangements for portions of the day.  This will help adult caregivers focus on the interview with the home study writer.

We will visit with anyone age 3 and older both privately and in a group.  This includes your children who are away at college but return for weeks or months during the year when school is out of session.  This also includes family friends or adult parents who may be living with you in your home.

We find that it is helpful if you discuss your plans for fostering and adopting with everyone in your household prior to our visit.  Prepare your children so that they are not caught off guard.  This will go a long way to helping your children be more relaxed when it comes time to interview them individually.

What Will We Talk About

So what are we going to talk about?  The answer is, “everything”.  We are responsible for the well-being of our children.  The home study visit is a primary tool we use to qualify you to do so.  We’ll discuss your childhood experiences, past and current relationships, your philosophies on parenting children, any trauma events you encountered personally and how you have worked to resolve them.  We’ll also discuss your finances to verify your ability to absorb the financial impact of fostering or adopting.

Walkthrough?

You can expect that we will do a complete walkthrough of your home.  We will go into every room, the garage, storage buildings, and look in your cabinets and pantries.  We’ll need to see where and how you store medications and if you own firearms or weapons, we’ll need to see where and how you secure those as well.

Remember that we are invested in qualifying you to foster or adopt our children.  We are not looking for “perfect people”.  We will develop a plan to fix identified areas of concern.  In the end, we’ll pull together everything we learn about you, your household members, and your home to produce a home study document that brings you to life on paper.

Bookmark this page and come back for a refresher as the time of your home study visit draws near.  Share it with anyone you feel could benefit from the information.

If you have not already, be sure to watch this video for the details behind these tips.  Share this post with anyone you feel would benefit either directly via email or on your social media.  Our website has some information about becoming a CK Family including a convenient form and phone numbers to help you get connected with our team.  Also, be sure to head over to our YouTube Channel and subscribe by taping the red subscribe button to get notifications when we post new videos.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about fostering and adopting children. We look forward to speaking with you soon!