I so appreciate all of the comments and notes! Thank you! Just to let you know where things stand... My friend J has told the agency in no uncertain terms that a placement must be found by Monday. She's exhausted all day care options, DCFS no longer allows home day cares (???) but the children must be in a public setting with curriculum in place (meaning she couldn't go back to a mutual friend who is the one who took Girlie when she was kicked out of the two while living with me), and J works full time as a single mom as I do. There were no local placements (which we knew) but the agency did open it up to a large surrounding area. As of tonight... no luck. They have found NO ONE who will take her even as a respite placement in the interim. She has qualified for our local day treatment facility, BUT the two psychiatrists are on vacation for two WEEKS and they aren't accepting placements. I suggested that she talk to them about a residential placement that a couple of my former kiddos have gone to. It's not too far and if she qualified locally I would think she would qualify for that one as well. That way she'd have a safe place to be, wouldn't transition to a respite home that wouldn't work anyway, and then a more exhaustive, far reaching, search could be done for an experienced family. I'd love to see her listed on CHASK or on some of my Yahoo groups with families who know exactly what they're getting into. Part of the problem here is also that they are searching for a family with a stay at home parent and if there are children, that they are at least middle school age and older. Exactly what I was fighting for back when but they would not push to make her specialized. She NEEDS to be specialized. Not that that will mean the "perfect" family is found and she'll never have to bounce again, BUT it's at least a better shot with experienced parents.
My prayers continue to go out to her!
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