Program Information What we do:
State Adoptions serves children and families in both the independent and agency adoption processes. In an independent or "private" adoption birth families select the adoptive family and an Adoption Specialist helps complete an investigation of the family for the court. For independent adoptions our office covers the following counties: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, and Yuba. In an agency adoption, State Adoptions receives referrals from county child welfare agencies in which children have been removed from their birth families and are placed in foster care. Adoptions Specialists help develop a concurrent or permanent plan for the child, write reports to the Juvenile Court, prepare, prepare child assessments, transitions children to adoptive homes, as well as evaluate and approve families for adoption. For agency adoptions our office covers the following counties: Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Sierra, Siskiyou, and Sutter.
Who we are:
Currently our adoption team includes one office manager, two supervisors, ten Adoptions Specialists, and two clerical support staff. All social workers are required to have a Master's Degree in Social Work to work at State Adoptions. Six of our 13 social workers also have an LCSW and another four have an ASW and are in the process of accruing hours or testing. We all meet twice monthly for a staff meeting and a separate clinical/MSW meeting. Our office has seen lots of changes in the last few years due to the state's realignment process and are now half the size our office was seven years ago. Through these changes we have remained a close supportive staff with many collaborative efforts. We feel we have a strong sense of team, years of knowledge and experience in adoption, child welfare, and clinical issues. We enjoy celebrating events with frequent office potlucks.
What we are looking for in an intern:
We are currently looking for graduate level interns. We welcome and embrace individuals of all backgrounds, ages, cultures, and sexual orientation. We hope to find a student that works well independently yet is a team player, is an active learner, self-motivated, organized, personable, professional, is interested in having a variety of learning opportunities (micro, mezzo, macro), and has good time management skills.
State Adoptions is a Title IV-E repayment agency. However, being Title IV-E as an intern is not a requirement. We tend to mostly take first year MSW students, but have made exceptions for a few second year MSW students.
Interns are supervised jointly by two Adoptions Specialists. Typically an internship is broken into thirds: the first in which the student shadows adoptions workers, the second where the student takes on more responsibilities with a worker present, and the third in which the student more independently manages cases. Regular weekly supervision is provided by one or both of the supervising Adoptions Specialists. Field work and shadowing is encouraged with all of the Adoptions Specialists in our office.
All interns are required to clear Livescan fingerprinting before their internship. It is necessary for interns to have the ability to at times work outside of traditional hours, such as returning to the office after 5 or 6pm or leaving before 8am. All hours, of course, count towards your required internship hours.
You must have a valid CA Driver's License, auto insurance, and reliable transportation. We do have a limited number of state vehicles to check out, but priority is given to those traveling the longest distances. You would be reimbursed for any mileage you accrue in your own vehicle. Since the majority of our case work is not in Chico, the ability to travel to Glenn, Colusa, and Sutter counties is crucial to a student having a diverse and meaningful learning opportunity at State Adoptions.