So I have a factual question related to a scenario in my book, and thinking of all the smart people here, I just KNOW that someone has the answer.
Four cousins aged nine, eight, seven, and five were traveling on a train that was in a terrible accident right near the station. All of their adult relatives were killed. Because there were thought to be no other options, they were all placed in foster care. Four years after the accident, one relative who hadn’t been on the train appeared (an aunt) and offered to take them in.
The question is, what kind of information would DHS actually need before releasing them to this relative? Proof of the relationship? Proof of a home to go to? Proof of income? What?
ALSO, a financial adviser is found at the same time who has been looking for them. He has a copy of the will their relatives left, which was never found before. He has a meeting with the four cousins and tells them the terms of the will, including a property with several houses on it that they will jointly inherit when one of them turns twenty-one. Is it believable that they would all be allowed to go to this meeting with the adviser/executor? (Their relatives’ express wishes were that they should be allowed to go to it as soon as the oldest cousin turned 13, which just happened.) Would this person need to prove his identity? Would a DHS rep be there? What else might happen?
Dunno about the first question, but if the estate has already been probated the newly found will is void. An estate can be reopened only to probate newly discovered assets.
Nobody knew that the property had actually been willed to the cousins until the new will appeared. Now, whether or not this actually happens too often, I don’t know… but the idea needs to have truthiness.
IANAL, but I do have some experience with the foster care system (in New York City – I’m sure there’s considerable variation in policy from jurisdiction to jurisdiction).
Kinship fostering, and fostering to adoption, is given a high preference in New York. The aunt would be the preferred foster parent, over and above any non-related persons, even after four years (ACS wants to get children out of group homes or wherever they’re staying, and into homes). The agency in charge (ACS, in New York) would of course require proof of identity and kinship, and there would be a home study, which would verify that the aunt had room for the children, and some income (although not a lot is required, and ACS gives a stipend to foster parents). There would be a background check. Presumably a record of child abuse would make the aunt ineligible.
In this case, since there are no parents trying to get their children back, the aunt would pretty much automatically be able to adopt the children if she chose to do so (assuming she qualified to be their foster parent). If she did, she’d be their parent just as much as if she’d given birth to the children.
As to the will stuff, I know nothing about law. I do know that ACS looks out for the legal interests of children in its care, and I’m guessing that they’d certainly allow the children to attend, perhaps with some kind of representation that they’d provide.
If the children have been adopted, ACS is out of the picture, and everything is up to the adoptive parent. Who is, of course, bound by the same laws as everyone else.
I think this could work… and thanks to everyone who’s given advice so far!
Basically, what happens is that the aunt sends the children away one day after mysteriously telling someone else on the phone to “come and get them.” The two sets of cousins are separated, two kids sent to a doctor and two back to DHS. It turns out that nobody knows exactly what happened with the aunt supposedly having been checked out… all of the records disappeared. (Note: this is a paranormal mystery…you kind of have to keep this in mind.
So some of these things don’t necessarily make sense in terms of what could actually take place in the real world, because a lot of these characters have supernatural powers, including covering their tracks and confusing witnesses. It’s more a question of what would happen in that situation.
