806-342-5550
ADOPTION SERVICES
Additional Training
Panhandle Child Placement Services provides the certified First Aid and CPR training. We provide reimbursement for background checks and fire and health inspections.
Family Home Study
After the above requirements are met, Panhandle Child Placement Services's staff will come to your house. The purpose is to observe first-hand your family interests and lifestyle, childcare experiences, the types of children you feel would best fit in your home, and your strengths and skills in meeting the children's needs.
Every child deserves a home, whether they’re new borns or 17. We have many children and teens in our area that are reaching legal risk and need a permanent home. Legal Risk refers the end of the 18-month period after a birth parent’s rights have been terminated. At this point, children are eligible for adoption. Often children have been in foster care during the 18 months, so foster parents are offered adoption first. For this reason, among others, we encourage parents seeking to adopt to consider foster to adopt.
Below we have outline the standard process one must complete to provide a loving home for a child in need. This is intended as a guide and we encourage people interested in fostering or adopting a child to contact us for additional information.
First Steps
If you can meet the basic requirements, we encourage you to fill out an application then schedule a meeting with Panhandle Child Placement Services. The meeting will help our staff guide you in the right direction with the proper steps.
PRIDE
Panhandle Child Placement Services offers the CPS required course, Parent Resource Information Development Education (PRIDE). The training provides prospective foster or adoptive families with base knowledge and information about caring for children in the child welfare system, including topics on child attachment, loss and grief, discipline and behavior intervention, effects of abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, working with the child welfare system, and the effects of fostering and adopting on members of the family.
FOSTER
What is Foster Care?
Foster parents provide temporary and specialized care for a child that is not a relative, ranging in age from infancy to 18. These children have been removed from his or her home and deserve a safe, stable and loving home in this turbulent time. Panhandle Child Placement Services wants to partner with couples or individuals seeking to provide for these kids.
What is Our Goal?
Facing the foster system alone can be a daunting task. Panhandle Child Placement Services wants to utilize our 65+ years' experiences to help prepare and navigate you through the child welfare system. We use Good Child Placement Practices; always placing a child, as if in our own home. Panhandle Child Placement services is an advocate for children and the parents opening their homes.
What is Reunification?
The goal of foster care is reunification with a child's birth parents or a family member. The court system mandates a child's place of permanence. Until that time, children need a safe, stable home with foster parents.