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| Family & Adoption Services
HOME STUDY PROCESS
What is a Home Study?
A home study is a report that describes the adoptive applicant(s), somewhat like a biography, but also includes information about their family, home and neighborhood. In addition, during the process of completing the home study, the applicant(s) is given an opportunity to discuss and explore many issues regarding adoption and to gain information about the many facets of adoptive parenting. If you live in New Jersey and you wish to adopt, you will need a home study conducted by a New Jersey licensed agency. The Catholic Charities Family and Adoption Program is licensed by the state of New Jersey.
To begin, you will need to complete our adoption application, have it notarized, and submit it to our agency with the $250 application fee. You will be contacted by the social worker assigned to you, to set up the first appointment. Generally to complete the home study, you will need to meet with the social worker for about 4 to 6 meetings. These meetings occur in our office, except for the home visit, which is when your social worker will meet with you and your family members in your home.
You will be given a list of documentation that you will need to provide to your social worker. These include such things as copies of your birth certificates, your marriage certificate, social security cards, driver’s licenses, passports, and your most recent W-2 or tax forms. In addition, you will need to be fingerprinted to check for any criminal record, and complete Child Abuse Record forms, to check for any history of child abuse or neglect. You will need for your doctor to complete a medical form that you are in good health. All members of your household will also need to have a medical completed by their doctor. Additionally, any other members of your household 18 years of age and over, will need to have a fingerprint background check, and the Child Abuse Record check completed. Also our agency requires that each spouse submit a personal reference from someone that has known you 5 years or more, a reference from your employer, a neighbor reference for the couple, and a clergy reference from your pastor or minister if available. You will also be asked to complete questionnaires about your background, marriage, personality, religion, and ideas about parenting.
In the meetings with your social worker you will talk about your backgrounds, family, and education, and how you became the person you are today. Married applicants will discuss how you and your spouse met, your courtship, how you resolve conflicts, and your current relationship. All applicants will discuss your values and expectations, along with what type of child you hope to adopt, and what issues regarding your child you feel you may not be able to deal with. You will talk about your ideas on parenting and discipline, and your feelings regarding adoption. You will discuss why you chose the country that you wish to adopt from, and how you plan to keep the child who you adopt in touch with their background and their heredity. There may be additional requirements or additional information needed, depending on the country that your are adopting from.
The home visit is usually scheduled as one of the last meetings in the home study process. Your social worker will meet with you at your home, along with any one else living in your home. After visiting with you at your home, the social worker should then be able to describe in your home study what your home, your neighborhood, and your community is like.
Recent legislation now requires that the adoptive couple complete 10 hours of pre-adoptive training, some of which you will complete on your own, and some of which your social worker will cover with you.
After the home study is written, you will be able to go over the rough draft with your social worker, to ensure that the information in it is correct. Your placing agency may also wish to review the rough draft before it is finalized, in case they want additional information covered in the report, or if they have any questions. The final copy of the home study is signed by your social worker, the adoption supervisor, and the adoption director, and you will be given a copy for your files, and a copy for you to submit to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. A copy will also be submitted to your placing agency, so that they may begin their referral process of matching you with a baby or child from the country which you have chosen to adopt from.
The USCIS is part of the Bureau of Homeland Security, and is responsible for approving all international adoptions by U.S. citizens.
The USCIS requires an approved adoption study and formal application with additional FBI fingerprint clearance on all prospective adoptive parents. If the child or children being adopted are from a country that is a party to the Hague Convention, applicants must submit an I-800A/I-800 form to USCIS. If the child or children being adopted are from a non-Hague Convention country, then an I-600A/I-600 must be submitted.
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