Bilingual Foster/Adopt Home Verification Specialist

Role and Responsibilities

Divinity Family Services licenses foster homes through our foster and adoptive home development program. A Foster/Adoptive Developer develops, verifies, monitors and supports foster and adoptive families through the licensure process with Divinity Family Services. While Foster/Adopt programs differ slightly across the state, our purpose and tasks are the same.

Duties

• Helping recruit foster and adoptive families.
• Communicate and collaborate with development positions to collect required documents for licensure.
• Guide foster/adopt families through the licensing process. This includes tracking the requirements they must complete and determining if applicants are appropriate to be a verified foster or adoptive family.
• Walking through the homes to check for any needed variances and completing the health and fire safety inspections, along with taking photos of each room and completing a floor plan/evacuation plan.
• Verifying foster/adoptive homes meet state licensing standards (Minimum Standards for Child Placing Agencies) as well as external partner contractual requirements.
• Data entry into computer software program and uploading family documentation. Helping families log into and upload documents into their parent portal program.
• Work with kinship and legal units with DFPS to request documents and send updates regularly on families.
• Giving ongoing support to foster and adoptive parents.
• Work with compliance and case management teams to ensure foster family files are complete.
• Assessing the home for risk while conducting the home study interview with the applicant caregiver(s), all household members, the children in care and references.
• Completing the kinship home study addendum or full-blown home study making sure each section is individualized to each family.
• Submitting completed home study and family compliance file to the Divinity auditing team for review. Once the audited study is returned, going through and making any necessary corrections, then submitting to the developer supervisor for final approval and signature.
• Communicating with the developer supervisor any concerns that arise from the home study interview.
• Work with other departments to include the auditing team, to address any concerns/issues with home studies.
• Work weekends and evening hours when necessary and may travel to multiple service areas.
• Complete other duties as assigned.

Qualifications and Education Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree
• Home study writing experience preferred and knowledge of Minimum Standards state guidelines and state contracts
• Preferred work experience in social, human, or protective services include paid or volunteer work within social service agencies or communities providing services to families or other at-risk populations.

Conditions of Employment

Employee must have and keep a valid Texas driver's license. DFS will also conduct criminal background checks and reserves the right to conduct drug screenings at random. The employee must meet the minimum age requirements for full-time work in accordance with Texas Child Labor Law and the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Work weekends and evening hours when necessary. Employee must maintain working cellular phone service at all times for on-call and after-hours availability. Adhere to all current federal & state laws, as well as Divinity Family Services policies and procedures, regarding the safeguard of confidential healthcare information and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA). The employee may be required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and talk and hear. On rare occasions, the employee may have to lift up to 30 pounds.

In compliance with the American Disabilities Act, Divinity Family Services will attempt to make reasonable accommodations upon request.