Phase II is fairly quick if you have a newer home. If you have an older home, you may need to make some upgrades in order to be compliant with minimum standards.
Pets: If you have any pets, they need rabies vaccines.
Fire: You have to do a fire inspection to ensure your house is up to code. Basically that means that you have fire extinguishers on all floors, working smoke detectors in designated areas, and carbon monoxide detectors outside of each bedroom. If you don’t have any of those, you will likely need to get them. We also had to get our fire extinguishers inspected even though they were both fairly new.
You will also need to draft up an emergency exit plan in case something were to happen while you are in the house.
Someone from the local fire department will need to come out to the house to do the inspection and sometimes they are booked up, so try to contact them ahead of time.
Health: Someone from the department of health will come out to the house to do most of the health inspection. They are making sure the house is sanitary. The form was designed for day cares and babysitters, so some of the items on the list may not be applicable.
You are also required to get a physical from a doctor.
Forms: Some additional forms will need to be filled out like what you will do in case of a disaster, where you will stay, how you will keep up with medications, how you will get to where you’re going, etc. There are a few other forms that need signing but won’t require any action to be taken.
That’s it for Phase II.
The Full Series:
- Quick Recap of How I Got to Where I Am Now
- Why Foster to Adopt?
- The Full Pre-License Process
- Foster Process – Phase I
- Foster Process – Phase II (this one)
- Foster Process – Phase III (future)
- Scratching the Surface: Religion (future)
- Overwhelmed (future)