Social Worker III - Adoptions

A. Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit

The primary purpose of the Adoption Unit is to carry out the agency's mandate to facilitate the adoption of children who are legally cleared or whose permanency plan has been changed to adoption; to provide case management services to a small number of children who are neglected, abused and or dependent; to provide counseling to prospective placement families and to recruit, assess and provide training based on the Trauma Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence:
Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (TIPS-MAPP) for prospective placement families.

The primary purpose of the social worker is to execute the agency's mandate to provide services to the adoption triad which includes the child, the birth family, and the adoptive family. The adoption social worker's role encompasses the provision of problem pregnancy services to the birth family, evaluation and assessment of the child's needs, including determination of eligibility for Adoption Assistance benefits and the evaluation and assessment of the prospective placement family's ability to meet the needs of a child.

Services are offered to find families for children in need of placement because their parents are unable to accept or to continue parental responsibilities to the child, Adoption serves as a viable resource for families who are choosing to build or increase their unit through the adoptive process. The adoption process requires a commitment from the agency to find the best home for every child who is cleared for adoption, to protect the rights of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents, and to enable adoptive parents to receive the assistance they need to help them to meet the needs of an adopted child prior to and after the Decree of Adoption is entered.

The social worker uses the Trauma Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence:
Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (TIPS-MAPP) curriculum to train prospective placement families. This curriculum helps families to assess their strengths and needs and facilitates the evaluation and assessment of the placement family's ability to meet the needs of a child. This position’s responsibilities may also include the completion of relative/stepparent/independent adoptive home assessment on families as well as completion and submission of the Report on Proposed Adoption as specified in NC General Statutes and ordered by the Clerk of Superior Court.

Regular work hours are from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday
- Friday. Work requires CPS on-call worker tracking “Radio” duties after work hours on a rotation basis, Monday through Friday. The worker is occasionally on call for emergency child welfare issues and disruption of placement between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 8:0 am on weeknights and also around the clock on weekends. As this position completes Pre-placement Assessments, trains prospective

placement families, and places children cleared for adoption, nighttime and weekend work may be required to allow for training and after regular work hour appointments to meet the needs of children and families.

All responsibilities and duties are essential to the effective performance of a Social Worker in this position.

These services facilitate the legal clearance of children including termination of parental rights, obtaining consents to adoption and denial of paternity. The social worker uses the judicial system to give sanction to the adoption process which requires case presentation, court testimony and recommendations regarding case disposition. He/she consults with the supervisor, staff attorney, co-workers, service providers and other experts in the field regarding agency custody cases.

The worker completes an assessment/evaluation of the child and prepares a pre adoptive summary on them. The summary indicates birth and developmental history, background information, hospital records, immunization record, school records and any other available medical or psychological reports. Counseling with a child prior to adoptive placement involves positive reinforcement, behavior modification and grief counseling to help he/she deal with separation and loss and assists the child in identifying feelings and in learning how to express them in acceptable ways.

The worker helps the child to be aware of their…