Your Home Study Checklist and Tips

Many hopeful adoptive parents find the home study to be the most time-consuming and nerve-wracking part of the adoption process. They wonder things like, “Will they find our home to be acceptable? What about our parenting approach?” We are sharing an adoption home study checklist to help you prepare, as well as shed light on common home study myths!

Home Study Basics

A home study is an evaluation that a licensed social worker completes on a prospective adoptive family. Per state and federal regulations, you must have an approved home study to adopt. Your attorney will use it to file adoption paperwork with the court, and a judge will review your home study before he or she approves and finalizes your adoption.

It’s the perfect time to learn more about the adoption process and how to parent an adopted child. So make sure to ask the social worker preparing the home study your questions as they come up! If you’re ready to start your home study application, simply click on the button below.

Information in a Home Study:

• Your background (childhood, parents and siblings, and life events)
• Important people in your lives
• Marriage and family relationships
• Reason for adopting
• Expectations for your child and the adoption
• Outlook about infertility issues (if relevant)
• Parenting approach and childcare plans
• Family environment
• Your health history
• Education
• Employment
• Finances (including your insurance coverage)
• References
• Criminal background clearances

What to Expect in a Home Study

The process typically happens in 3 stages:

1st Stage: Complete required paperwork

2nd Stage: A social worker will visit your home at least once and conduct individual interviews with both of you.

3rd Stage: The social worker writes an evaluation of your family and their recommendation for adoption.

The entire process will take from two to four months, depending on how quickly you complete your paperwork and how busy your social worker is at the time.

Common Myths About Home Studies

“Our house must be perfect.”
A social worker is expecting to walk into a home that looks lived in, not one that’s been perfectly staged. We promise the social worker won’t arrive in a little white outfit for a white glove test!

“We have to be rich.”
Even though adoption can get expensive, you don’t need to be wealthy to get a home study approved. The social worker is looking to see if you’re financially stable; that you stay out of debt and pay your bills on time. So, what’s more important than how well-off you are is your budget, debt, and how you spend.

“We have to own our home.”
Couples who rent a condo, apartment, or house can also get their home study approved.

“My past has to be clean.”
The social worker understands that you’re only human. With that said, you’ll have to answer questions about your criminal background, social environment, and medical history. If you’ve been directly or indirectly exposed to circumstances such as alcohol/drug abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, jail, counseling, or financial issues, you’ll need to share that information. In my experience, most couples have had some sort of exposure.

The social worker will evaluate the issues and address them. Sometimes, a hopeful adoptive couple needs to show growth and change in a specific area or take additional training. While there are felonies that would disqualify a couple from adopting, each state has its own laws. So it’s best to evaluate them with the social worker.

How to Get Ready

Be prepared to answer questions about personal topics such as your marriage, childhood, and any issues you might have. The social worker might ask about your mental health, how you were disciplined as a child, marriage conflict, infertility issues, and financial struggles.

By asking questions like this, the social worker is seeking to determine how you manage stress and difficulty. How have you worked through tough issues in the past? Do you have a strong support system? Are you willing to ask for help when it’s needed? The social worker can get a clear picture by being straightforward about how you’ve moved through difficult events.

Valuable Home Study Tips

Expect to spend quite a bit of time completing paperwork and gathering the needed documents. Here’s a checklist of items that most professionals require:

• Tax records
• Birth certificates
• Marriage certificate
• Background checks
• Bank statements
• Employment verification
• Proof of insurance
• Physicals

We recommend reserving a few weeknights or a weekend to work through the process. Put on your favorite music, grab some snacks, and get to work!

It’s important to be yourself during the home visit and interview. Since the adoption professional is trying to get to know you and your family, it’s beneficial for you to be honest and straightforward.

This part of your adoption process might involve a lot of work, but once you bring your baby home, you’ll see that it’s completely worth it!

Webinars

Here are some adoption webinars to help, which are free to access!

Lifetime’s Adoption Expert Q&A: The Adoption Home Study, and more…
Behind the Scenes of Your Adoption Home Study
Adoption Q & A – All About the Home Study