So our homestudy is still waiting DCFS approval, and I
recently found out there is a new wrinkle to that... Illinois is one of
only a handful of states that requires this approval step (in most states, once
the social worker approves the homestudy, it’s done), and there have been
several attempts to do away with it.
This past winter, a bill was introduced in the Illinois legislature to
streamline adoption in Illinois, including eliminating the whole DCFS approval
step (actually doing away with the whole office in charge of approving
intercountry adoptions). It UNANIMOUSLY passed
the house in April AND the senate in May and the joint version was finalized
and passed 5/31/15! Since then it’s been
sitting on Governor Rauner’s desk, waiting for his signature.
I checked with our social worker today to see if she had
heard anything from DCFS (no) and what this bill means for us. Most likely: if it’s signed, the DCFS
approval requirement is gone, and our homestudy can immediately go on to our
placing agency for review and then we can file our I800A form. BUT the governor has 60 days to sign a bill
sent to him (or veto it).
And in the meantime, the DCFS approval process has slowed
down tremendously. The other homestudy
approval our social worker had been waiting for when she sent ours in, has now
been waiting for about 2 months! When contacted,
the DCFS office says they have too much to do and not enough time.
So our best hope at this point is for the governor to sign
the bill soon. If he waits the full 60
days, that’s going to be really tight to get our dossier to China before the
documents start expiring (the 1st being my medical exam!).
Those of you in Illinois can take a couple easy steps to
encourage our governor to sign this bill (HB 3079):
- Sign this an online petition asking the governor to sign the bill (another site that linked to this explained that “Every signature forwards an email to his office announcing another supporter”): http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gov-rauner-sign-hb-3079?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend
- Call his office: Springfield is 217/782-0244 or Chicago is 312/814-2121. I called the Chicago office and explained I wanted to urge Governor Rauner to sign bill HB 3079 on streamlining adoption in Illinois. The woman answering the phone was very friendly and just wanted to confirm which bill number it was and that I was in support of it.
- Or submit an email through his website: https://www.illinois.gov/gov/ContactUs/Pages/VoiceAnOpinion.aspx
Here are a couple additional links if you want to find out
more about the bill:
