Lead Adoption Specialist

Adoption Specialist Lead

Under assigned supervisor, the Adoption Specialist Lead meets with families in their homes at various hours of the day including evenings, nights, and weekends, in potentially high-risk neighborhoods; focuses on the prevention of inappropriate out-of-home placement, strengthening and improving family functioning, and ensuring child safety.

• Approves adoption home studies for matched and unmatched children in FSFN.
• Assists individuals and families in crisis in a way that promotes positive change, growth, development and safety for all families.
• Attends all recruitment and match events.
• Attends court hearings, prepares and files all court documents within required time frames.
• Completes and reviews subsidy files, adopt only home studies, OTI and ICPC adoption home studies.
• Conducts visits with children and prospective adoptive families that include the ongoing assessment of child safety, permanency and well-being.
• Continually assesses risk of abuse, neglect and threatened harm by gathering appropriate information.
• Serves as a conduit of information between all parties to the case and identified stakeholders including medical, educational and mental health providers.
• Engages and assesses families from a strengths based perspective.
• Ensures children are registered on the adoption exchange within 10 days.
• Ensures that post placement is completed within one week of the child being placed in the identified prospective adoptive family's home.
• Facilitates placement and delivery services in collaboration with biological, foster and adoptive families.
• Knowledge of the Adoption Program Administrative Rule (Chapter 65C-16).
• Refers hard-to-place children to recruitment partners, if necessary.
• Attends and participates in weekly team meetings.
• Participates in match staffings and adoption review committee with the adoption team.
• Performs adoption related responsibilities in accordance with state and federal laws, Department of Children and Families Administrative Codes and Operating Procedures, funding source policies, and internal policies on child abuse, abandonment and neglect within required time frames.
• Prepares and up keeps a spreadsheet of active adopt only families and a spreadsheet that includes all available children in the service office.
• Staffs internal TPR cases with supervisors and case management at least once a month.
• Utilizes empowerment approaches to provide case plan development with children and families.
• Works closely with Supervisor to provide oversight of the unit.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree in Social Work, Criminology, Psychology, Sociology, Counseling, Special Education, Education, Human Development, Child Development, Family Development, Marriage & Family Therapy, or Nursing from an accredited college or university.

Five or more years of progressive work experience related to child welfare; three years of child welfare adoptions; previous supervisory experience.

State of Florida;
Child Welfare Certification.

• Reliable transportation: valid driver's license with OHU required levels of coverage for auto insurance.
• Knowledge of FSFN adoption procedures.
• Workable knowledge of community resources.