The children were in a pre-adoptive home with an aunt and uncle when the case was transferred to the A/G worker. The worker did not identify any barriers in getting the adoption placement agreement (APA) signed by the aunt and uncle. Once the APA was signed, the worker indicated that things started to change. The aunt and uncle separated and the children stayed with the aunt. The agency was navigating through which one of them would adopt the children and ultimately, they both still wanted to adopt them. The agency consulted with DHS and it was determined to continue to pursue the aunt for adoption. The aunt signed a second APA and the worker continued to gather supporting documentation to accompany the APA, while working on completing the social/medical history. The worker stated that they had court hearings every 3 months during this time and did not feel the court contributed to the delay in getting the adoption finalized.

The worker talked about the amount of paperwork and time it takes to gather supporting documentation when working on an adoption. She indicated that getting the social/medical history filled out “good enough” takes the most time; however, they have made some changes and are now having the ongoing worker get a start on the social/medical history and gathering the documentation to help speed up the process once it gets transferred to the A/G worker.