(1) Your staff must complete an adoptive home
study (preplacement report) with the participation of the applicant(s). Contact
with the applicant must include a minimum of three in-person contacts that
include:
(a) An individual interview with each
applicant parent and with each member of the applicant's household, including
children;
(b) A joint interview
with the couple, if the family is a two parent household; and
(c) An on-site evaluation of the applicant's
home and property.
(2)
For the study, your staff must gather information about and assess the
following:
(a) The suitability and fitness of
the applicant(s) to be adoptive parent(s), including completed background
checks of the applicant(s); and
(b)
Identification of child characteristics for which the applicant or applicants
are best suited.
(3) As
required in
RCW
26.33.190(2), you must
document that your agency discussed with the applicant(s) the following:
(a) The concept of adoption as a lifelong
developmental process and commitment;
(b) Relevance of the child's relationship
with siblings and the potential benefit to the child for providing for
continuing relationship and contact between the child and known
siblings;
(c) Disclosure of the
fact of the adoption to the child;
(d) The child's possible questions about
birth parents and relatives;
(e)
Potential for the child to have feelings of identity confusion and loss
regarding separation from the birth parents; and
(f) The relevance of a child's racial, ethnic
and cultural heritage.
(4) The home study must identify the sources
for the information gathered, and include the elements in subsection (1)
through (3) in this section as well as the following:
(a) A background check as required in
RCW
26.33.190(3) that includes
the examination of state and federal criminal history check(s) and child abuse
and neglect check(s);
(b) Whether
the applicant previously applied for an adoption home study from any entity,
review of the completed home studies and the outcome of the application(s);
and
(c) References gathered
throughout the assessment process, including references from each of the
applicant's adult children or documentation of your diligent efforts to contact
the adult children. A minimum of three references, with no more than one
relative, are required.
(5) A supervisor must sign for approval and
denial of the adoption home study.
(6) Your staff must reevaluate the
applicant(s) suitability for adopting a child each time an adoptive placement
is considered.
