West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 78 - Human Services › Title 78 - LEGISLATIVE RULE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES BUREAU FOR SOCIAL SERVICES › Series 78-02 - Child Placing Agencies Licensure › Section 78-2-16 - Comprehensive Home Study

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
16.1. An
				agency shall conduct a comprehensive written home study with the prospective
				foster or adoptive parents and all household members prior to placing a child
				in the home including a minimum of one individual in-person interview for each
				parent and two joint interviews.
16.2. An agency shall write a narrative
				report on the home study that lists the contact dates, times, locations and
				participants, and is signed and dated by the agency employee who conducted it
				and the agency director, or his or her designee.
16.3. The study shall describe and evaluate
				aspects of the home and family and shall include:
16.3.1. The composition of the household and
				intra-family relationships;
16.3.2.
				The family's attitudes, values, and level of understanding of child development
				and sex education;
16.3.3. The
				family decision making process, including descriptive examples;
16.3.4. The manner in which the family
				handles conflict, stress, and frustration, including descriptive
				examples;
16.3.5. Individual and
				family hobbies, recreation, community activities, and social life;
16.3.6. The family's values and attitudes and
				how they relate in the community and to religious, ethnic, and cultural
				differences;
16.3.7. Each parent's
				personal history, attitudes, feelings, and values;
16.3.8. The parent's financial
				situation;
16.3.9. The parent's
				motivation to become foster or adoptive parents;
16.3.10. The family's attitudes about having
				a foster child in the home, and about a foster child's biological parents and
				family;
16.3.11. An account of
				discipline methods discussed with the family including:
16.3.11.a. Methods acceptable to the agency;
				and
16.3.11.b. The family's
				attitude about discipline and their past experiences with discipline
				methods;
16.3.12. A
				summary of the agency's discussion of the multiple aspects of foster child care
				including the circumstances surrounding placement of a child in foster care,
				the family's expectations of a foster child's presence in the home, anticipated
				problem situations and coping skills, and possible reactions of the child
				placed;
16.3.13. An assessment of
				the adoptive parent's ability and willingness to make a lifetime commitment to
				the adopted child, and their understanding of the legal rights of the adopted
				child;
16.3.14. A summary of the
				agency's discussion with the adoptive parents about who would become the
				adopted child's guardian if both of the adopted parents died;
16.3.15. An account of the agency's
				discussion with the adoptive parents about open adoption;
16.3.16. The agency's discussion with the
				adoptive parents about health insurance coverage for the adoptive child before
				the adoption is finalized;
16.3.17.
				The agency's discussion with the adoptive parents about adopting a child with
				special needs, subsidies, and the availability of community resources;
				and
16.3.18. A statement of the
				number, ages and gender of children desired by the foster or adoptive
				parents.