So, on the one hand I’m a single guy who likes kids a lot, but has never aspired to be a single parent. OTOH, I’m an ER nurse who’s seen a lot a abused kids and is quite enthusiatically aware of our safe haven laws in California. So, from time to time I’ve speculated on what I might do if someone walked into the ER and handed me their baby.
Well, a couple of days ago, as I was driving home from work at about 6:30 AM, I spotted a baby stroller by the side of the freeway, standing upright at the top of the offramp. I sure it’s possible that it could have tumbled off a truck and happened to land like that, but it seemed unlikely so I doubled back and checked to make sure there wasn’t a baby in it. There wasn’t, thank Og, but it got me thinking about this again.
The first thing I would have done is run straight back to the ER, so it’s going in the system, but what if. What if I told them I thought it was meant to be and I wanted to be first in line, etc. I’m sure hollywood has a treatment, but I’m interested in what any family lawyers or social workers on the dope think. Assume I have a clean record, mad skills, money and my co-workers respect, is there any kind of expedited fast track in that kind of case?
I’ve been curious about this too. For example, I know a woman who took in the neighbor’s six-year-old for a couple weeks when the single mom died. The police were looking for the out of state dad or other relatives, but in the mean time it was comforting to the kid to be with a known neighbor. In such a case do the authorities just keep an eye on things and leave it alone? The woman was a preschool teacher, so she’d been fingerprinted and had officially completed all kinds of basic child care and safety training, but she wasn’t a certified foster parent.
In my state, when you took the child to the ER, a social worker would be called, and the child would be in state custody while attempts to identify/locate relatives were made. You could petition the appropriate court for custody, but would likely lose against a natural parent unless said parent could be shown to have abandoned the child, or to be otherwise unfit. Obviously, it would appear that one parent probably abandoned the hypothetical child in the OP, but the other parent may not even know what has happened at this point. Failing both natural parents, blood kin would have a better chance than you would, as a stranger to the child, but nothing is certain until all the evidence is in.
The answers are liable to differ widely. Foster care in most states is managed at the county level and there are probably differing states laws and county regulations governing each region. Beyond that, in most states the local judge has the ability to override the local authorities in regards to child welfare, so in an emergency, a judge might make a decision outside the normal situations.
Such an emergency placement, however, would tend to affect only the child’s housing for a limited period of time. To make the placement permanent or to get support funding, Medicaid, etc., one would be up against the codified laws of the state enforced by its bureaucracy.
In my county, there is a specific training course that each prospective parent must undergo, (12 weeks, offered twice a year), so I suppose that a judge might allow the prospective foster parent to have temporary custody long enough to complete the training and be certified. In other states and counties, other rules might apply.
I don’t know details but there wasn’t a random foster house involved. It was during the summer so the kid was brought by the teacher to the (year-round) preschool every day where she quietly played and within two weeks her dad had been located and took her away. This was in Ohio. I’m trying to remember, but there might have been a distant blood relation who was immediately made aware of the situation and approved the teacher temporarily taking the kid. I don’t know how much if any say a relation has, but I would guess they would have first dibs if they were interested in taking on the kid(?) I’m sure there must have been paperwork and maybe a judge cutting through red tape.
What about if someone drops off a kid at an orphanage? Would the orphanage do a search to make sure that the kid didn’t have any relatives who wanted to adopt them before making them a permanent resident?
Or can this still happen anymore? Do orphanages even still exist in the US?
According to the dept of health and human services, yes, but I’ve never come across one. In California, each county decides their safe surrender locations.