Adoption and Foster Care Specialists

During the fiscal year, Adoption and Foster Care Specialists, Inc. Facilitated the Adoption of children into families. These were all special-needs children with emotional, medical and/or cognitive disabilities. There were several large sibling groups that the agency was able to keep together in permanent families through Adoption. In the past, roughly one half of the children serviced for Adoption by the agency have been 10 years of age or older. During this fiscal year, there was a noted change in the age with many of the children adopted being below the age of 6. This change is directly related to the age that the children are entering Foster Care being younger than in past years as well as the courts general lean to establish permanency in a faster time frame resulting in the termination of parental rights occurring more quickly when there is a lack of progress on the treatment plan by the birth parents. Adoption and Foster Care Specialists has also provided the state of Michigan with Foster Care and Foster home licensing services. During this fiscal year, the agency provided Foster Care services for a number children. There were a number of Foster homes that provided Care for these children as well as some unlicensed relative Care placements that were supervised by the agency. Several of the Foster homes were borrowed from other agencies (mdhhs) with monitoring by Adoption and Foster Care Specialists, Inc being mandated. Adoption and Foster Care Specialists Inc has a number of licensed Foster homes for the Care of Michigan court wards. The agency has also licensed additional homes and transferred the license to the family's local mdhhs office. Adoption and Foster Care Specialists Inc. has been noted for the timeliness of Foster home licensure following a study by the statewide mdhhs office. During this fiscal year, the agency has worked with the birth parents with successful reunification of children.