Off to the police station….
07 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
Part of becoming qualified to adopt is a police check. Not just any police check, but a special police check for “working with vulnerable persons”. Many volunteers also have to do this “working with vulnerable persons” check, and it has been in the news lately – as described in this report Prospective adoptive parents have an extra check for any police calls to their home and any place they’ve lived in the past five years.
If the first-round police check shows you have the same birthdate and gender as an offender (including pardoned offenders), you have to be fingerprinted to prove you’re not that person with a changed name. This happened to Peter. He has the same birthdate as a pardoned sex offender. So we had to go downtown and get him fingerprinted. The fingerprint lady said that about 50% of male applicants for volunteer and adoption police checks need to be fingerprinted.
We’ve seen in the news reports that some people are waiting up to four months for this second phase of the police check – since we are applying to adopt together, my forms are staying with his, so we’re in this wait together. We’re hoping that they’ll see why Peter is doing the check and try to get it done quickly. We know we’re also lucky to be in a large center (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) where the wait seems to be shorter than in smaller places. But is our situation any more important that someone trying to be a hockey coach or a volunteer with developmentally delayed adults or a friendly visitor at a retirement home?
Just another hoop to jump through. I’m a firm believer in all things (including timing of things) happening for a reason. Our police check will be done when it is done, and in the correct time for us. That’s what I tell the impatient side of my mind, anyway…
