Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 441 - Human Services Department › Title XVI - Alternative Living › Chapter 200 - Adoption Services › Rule 441-200.4 - Adoption Services

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
Adoption services shall include: adoptive home study,
				  preparation of child, selection of family, preparation of family, preplacement
				  visits, placement services, and postplacement services.
(1)
Adoptive home study.
For
				applicants who apply to the department to adopt, the recruitment and retention
				contractor shall prepare an adoptive home study through the following
				activities:
a.
Family assessment.
The family assessment shall include a minimum of two face-to-face
				interviews with the applicants and at least one face-to-face interview with
				each member of the household. At least one of the interviews shall take place
				at the applicant's home. The assessment of the prospective adoptive family
				shall include an evaluation of the family's ability to parent a special needs
				child or children including the following:
(1) Motivation for adoption and whether the
				family has biological, adopted or foster children.
(2) Family's and extended family's attitude
				toward accepting an adopted child and plans for discussing adoption with the
				child.
(3) The attitude toward
				adoption of other people involved with the family in a significant
				way.
(4) Emotional maturity;
				marital history, including verification of marriages and divorces; assessment
				of marital relationship; and compatibility of the adoptive parents.
(5) Ability to cope with problems, stress,
				frustrations, crises, separation, and loss.
(6) Medical, mental and emotional conditions
				that may affect the applicant's ability to parent a child, treatment history,
				and current status of treatment.
(7) Willingness to accept a child who has
				medical problems (such as a child who is at risk for HIV or is HIV positive),
				intellectual disabilities, or emotional or behavioral problems. Ability to
				provide for the child's physical, medical and emotional needs and respect the
				child's ethnic and religious identity.
(8) Description of biological children and
				previously adopted children, if any, including their attitudes toward adoption,
				relationship with others, and school performance.
(9) Capacity to give and receive
				affection.
(10) Statements from
				three references provided by the family and additional references the worker
				for the recruitment and retention contractor may wish to contact.
(11) Attitudes of the adoptive applicants
				toward the birth parents and the reasons the child is available for
				adoption.
(12) Financial
				information, including the family's ability to provide for a child.
(13) Disciplinary practices that will be
				used.
(14) History of abuse
				involving family members, including how the abuse was addressed and how that
				history impacts the applicant's ability to be an adoptive parent.
(15) Assessment of, commitment to, and
				capacity to maintain other significant relationships.
(16) Substance use or abuse by members of the
				household, treatment history and current status of treatment.
(17) Recommendations for the number, age,
				sex, characteristics, and special needs of a child or children the family can
				best parent.
(18) The family's
				ability to anticipate and understand the special needs of an adopted child as
				the child gets older and how the family will manage those needs.