Transcript Slide 1
700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
Section I: Introductions and Workshop Overview
• Introductions • Agenda • Learning Objectives • Competencies • Parallel Process The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Agenda for Four-Day Training
• Day 1 • Introductions and Overview • Review of Module 1: Introduction to PA Child Welfare System • Review of Module 2: Identifying Child Abuse & Neglect • Review of Module 3: Using Interactional Helping Skills to Achieve Lasting Change The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Agenda for Four-Day Training continued
• Day 2 • Review of Module 4: In-Home Safety Assessment • Review of Module 5: Risk Assessment • Review of Module 6: Case Planning with Families • Review of Module 7: The Court Process • Day 3 • Review of Module 7: The Court Process • Review of Module 8: Assessing Safety in Out-of-Home Care • Review of Module 9: Out-of-Home Placement and Permanency The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Agenda for Four-Day Training continued
• Day 4 • Review of Module 9: Out-of-Home Placement and Permanency • Review of Module 10: Making Permanent Connections: Outcomes for Professional Development • Partnerships • Closing and Evaluation The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to: • Recognize the relevant federal, state, and local agency statutes, rules, policies, procedures and best practice standards related to case planning.
• Recognize the steps of the casework process, from intake to case closure and the best practice standards associated with each step.
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Learning Objectives (cont’d)
• As administrators, recognize how use of best practice standards in child welfare practice can contribute to the use of strengths-based and solution-focused casework for the children and families in Pennsylvania.
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Competencies
The administrator: • 503-1: Knows the structure, function and operations of different types of work groups and knows how to determine which type of group is needed to best achieve the desired outcome.
• 531-3: Knows and can apply the steps common to any planning process, including gathering and analyzing information, defining the problem(s) or opportunity(ies), determine goals and objectives, evaluating available resources, identifying action steps, managing implementation of the plan and evaluating success.
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Competencies (cont’d)
The administrator: • 533-7: Knows strategies to reduce organizational barriers to staff performance, including accessing needed resources, changing policies or procedures, modifying unrealistic job expectations and advocating with upper level management for changes in problematic organizational structures.
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Parallel Process
The way in which the process on one level (such as administrator-supervisor) mirrors the way in which the process occurs on another level (such as supervisor-worker and worker-family). The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION II: Review of Module 1: Introduction to
Pennsylvania’s Child Welfare System
• Introduction to Charting the Course • Introduction to Pennsylvania’s Child Welfare Practice: o Mission of Child Welfare o Pennsylvania’s Child Welfare Practice Model • Overview of Laws, Bulletins and other Legal Guidelines The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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The Mission of Child Welfare
In keeping with the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) and the recommendations of the Child and Family Services Review, Pennsylvania encapsulates its mission for child welfare in the following: • To provide safety for children; • To assure permanency in a family setting; and • To assure the well-being of children.
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Historical Outcomes of Good Intentions
“I would give a hundred worlds like this”, wrote one child from her new comfortable home, “if I could see my mother”.
• Orphan Trains from 1854 to 1929, carried up to 200,000 children away from their parents and families. • From 1870 to 1920’s over 100,000 Native American Children were forced by the U.S. Government into Christian Boarding Schools.
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Historical Outcomes of Good Intentions (cont’d)
• In the 1970’s, 20 to 25% of Native American children removed from their homes were placed in non-Native American homes. • In Minnesota, one of every four Native American children under age one was removed from home and adopted by a non-Native American couple.” • African American and Native American children represented 8% of the population, yet they represented “50% of the children in long term foster care.” (2004) • African American children are more likely: – To come into contact with the system, – To be placed in out of home care, and – To have longer stays in out of home care than Caucasian children. The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Comparison of Approaches
1. Diagnose the problem.
2. Gather all available information in order to classify the client.
3. The professional is the expert.
4. Identify the web of causality that is supporting the client problem.
5. The professional develops a service plan that the client is expected to follow in order to achieve the case goals.
6. The plan is expected to be implemented in a logical, The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION III: Review of Module 2:
Identifying Child Abuse and Neglect
• Casework Practice: Navigational Guide and the Six
Domains
• Overview of Screening Process • Child Abuse: • – Non-Accidental Serious Physical Injury – Child Sexual Abuse – Imminent Risk – Non-Accidental Serious Mental Injury – Serious Physical Neglect – Student Abuse
General Protective Services
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Information Gathering: Six Domains
1. What is the extent of the maltreatment?
2. What surrounding circumstances accompany the maltreatment? 3. How do the children function, including their condition? 4. How does the adult function in respect to daily life management and general adaptation including mental health and substance use? 5. What are the disciplinary approaches used by the parent?
6. What are the overall, typical pervasive parenting practices used by the parent?
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Categories of Child Abuse
• Recent Non-accidental Serious Physical Injury; • Non-accidental Serious Mental Injury or Sexual Abuse or Sexual Exploitation; • Recent Imminent Risk of Serious Physical Injury or Sexual Abuse or Sexual Exploitation; and • Serious Physical Neglect The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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General Protective Services
• Services to prevent the potential for harm to a child.
o Potential for harm: likely, if permitted to continue, to have a detrimental effect on the child’s health, development or functioning.
• Services to ensure the safety, permanency and well being of a child.
• Services provided by each county for non-abuse cases .
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SECTION IV: Review of Module 3: Using
Interactional Helping Skills to Achieve Lasting Change
• Introduction to the Interactional Helping Skills Model • Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Questions • Using Interactional Skills in Individual Interviews • Stages of Change The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Interactional Helping Skills
• Tuning into Self and Others • Clarifying Purpose, Function and Role • Dealing with Issues of Authority • Reaching for Feedback • Questioning • Reaching Inside of Silences • Communicating Information • Summarizing and Identifying Next Steps The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Strengths-Based, Solution-Focused Questions
• Past Success • Exception • Scaling • The Miracle • Follow-Up • Coping • Indirect The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION V: Review of Module 4: In-Home
Safety Assessment and Management Process
• Safety-Risk Continuum • Six Assessment Domains • Interval Policy • Structured Case Note Guidelines • Present Danger vs. Impending Danger • Safety Threshold • PA Safety Threats • Protective Capacities • Safety Plans The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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In-Home Safety Assessment
• Consider all children in the home • Identify safety threats and protective capacities • Perform a safety analysis • Determine if the child(ren) is/are safe, safe with a comprehensive safety plan or unsafe • Develop a safety plan, if necessary • Remove the children, if necessary, based on planning with family • Engagement is key to the process The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION VI: Review of Module 5: Risk
Assessment
• What Risk Assessment Can and Cannot Do • Pennsylvania Risk Assessment Form and Continuum • Understanding and Rating the Risk Factors • Completing and Documenting an Assessment of Risk • Case Transfer The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Risk Assessment
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Consider all the child, adult and environmental factors
•
Remember to engage the family surrounding information gathering
•
Delineate whether it is a future risk of harm or safety threat
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Provide written rationale for moderate or high risk ratings
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SECTION VII: Review of Module 6: Case
Planning with Families
• • • • • • Regulations Related to Family Service Planning ICWA Screening Family Service Plan Definitions Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) Service Provider Selection and Referral Information Family Service Plan Review Requirements The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Family Service Plan Definitions
• Goals – Represent overall desired outcome • Objectives – More specific than goals – Describe in measurable terms the change desired • Tasks – Step-by-step implementation plan: who, when, how The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION VIII: Review of Module 7: The
Court Process
• Child Welfare Practice and PA’s Judicial System • Hearing and Appeal Process • Legal Authority and Decision-making in Dependency Court • Court Participants • Courtroom Preparation The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Child Welfare Practice and Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System SUPREME COURT
Appeals from Commonwealth and Superior Courts
SUPERIOR COURT
Appeals from Courts of Common Pleas The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Child Welfare Practice and Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System (cont’d) COUNTY COURTS OF COMMON PLEAS
Family/Juvenile/ Delinquency Divisions Informal/Shelter Care Adjudication of Dependency Permanency Hearing Permanency Review Orphan Division Termination of Parental Rights Adoption Hearings
For more information, go to: www.pacourts.us
“For the Public” Pennsylvania Courts: A Video Introduction.
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Child Welfare Practice Administrative Hearing and Appeal Process
SUPREME COURT Appeals from Commonwealth and Superior Courts COMMONWEALTH COURT Appeals from Bureau of Hearings DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE Bureau of Hearings and Appeals – Appeals of: Determination of Abuse Decisions regarding service provision DPW decisions to expunge records The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Legal Authority and Decision-Making Process in Dependency Court
• Legal authority or grounds for court intervention; • Outcome of the Safety Intervention Analysis; • Reasonable Efforts to prevent placement; and • Principles of Documentation.
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Protective Custody
• Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) o o As provided by Juvenile Act; or By physician examining/treating child: • • • • if protective custody is immediately necessary to protect the child; limited to 24 hours, after which a court order is needed; must provide immediate oral notice to the parent/guardian and to CYS; and must provide written notice to parent, guardian within 24 hours.
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SECTION IX: Synopsis of Module 8:
Assessing Safety in Out-of-Home Care
• Defining Out-of-Home Care • Safety in Out-of-Home Care; five characteristics • Assessing Safety in Out-of-Home Care • Choosing an Appropriate Placement Setting • Children in Foster Care Act Requirements • Present Danger • Indicators of Safety in Out-of-Home Care • Intervals • Alert Process • Quality Visitation The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Out-of-Home Care
The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center • 24-hour care and supervision of a child outside of the home from which the child was removed; ‘out-of home’ care includes both informal and formal care arrangements.
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Formal Care
• Required in situations in which the County Children and Youth Agency has legal and physical custody of the child and places the child in an emergency caregiver’s home that has temporary approval from a State licensed foster care agency, or in a resource home fully approved by a State-licensed foster care or adoption agency.
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Informal Care
• Situations in which a child who is not in County Children and Youth Agency custody goes to live with an alternate caregiver on a temporary basis when Safety Threats are present and the child is unable to continue residing with the caregiver(s) of origin. The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Informal Care, continued
• These arrangements include those – 1) made by parents/guardians prior to County Children and Youth Agency involvement or – 2) agreed upon jointly between the parents/guardians and the County Children and Youth Agency when the situation occurs during the course of County Children and Youth Agency involvement.
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Safety in Out-of-Home Care
• A family and home situation where there is an absence of perceived or actual threats, a refuge exists and is experienced, family members have perceptions and feelings of security and there is confidence in consistency.
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Characteristics of Safety & Safe Environment
• An absence of or control of threats of severe harm • Presence of caregiver Protective Capacities • A safe home is experienced as a refuge • Perceived and felt security • Confidence in consistency The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Information Explored to Identify Characteristics of Safety & A Safe Environment
• How the children are behaving in the home • How caregivers are performing • How the family is operating • The caregiver(s)’ capacity to sustain continued safety • How community connections sustain continued safety The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Principles for Choosing an Appropriate Placement Setting
• If non-custodial parent can provide a safe home, placement is not necessary.
• Consider Kinship Care as a 1st option.
• Include the family in the selection of the placement setting and in pre-placement visits.
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Principles for Choosing an Appropriate Placement Setting, cont’d
• Place the child(ren) in a home/facility where they can continue to attend the same school.
• Carefully assess the child’s needs prior to choosing the placement.
• Select the substitute caregiver based upon their capability to meet the child's special needs.
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Placement Considerations in Pennsylvania Policy
• Registry • Relatives/Kin • Least Restrictive • Education Considered The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Present Danger in Out-of-Home Care
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) or others in the home are acting violently or out of control.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) describes or acts toward the child in predominantly negative terms or has extremely unrealistic expectations.
• The out-of-home caregiver(s) communicates or behaves in ways that suggest that they may fail to protect child(ren) from serious harm or threatened harm by other family members, other household members, or others having regular access to the child(ren).
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Present Danger in Out-of-Home Care, cont.
• The out-of-home caregiver(s)/family refuses access to the child, or there is reason to believe that the family is about to flee.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) is unwilling or unable to meet the child’s immediate needs for food, clothing, or shelter.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) is unwilling or unable to meet medical needs including their own, other placed children, or children to be placed.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) has not, will not, or is unable to provide supervision necessary to protect child from potentially serious harm.
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Present Danger in Out-of-Home Care, cont.
• Child is unusually fearful/anxious of home situation.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) has previously maltreated a child, and the severity of the maltreatment or the caregiver’s response to the previous incident(s) suggests that safety may be an immediate concern.
• The physical living conditions are hazardous and immediately threatening.
• The out-of-home caregiver(s)’ drug or alcohol use seriously affects his/her ability to supervise, protect, or care for the child.
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Present Danger in Out-of-Home Care, cont.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s)’ emotional instability or developmental delay affects ability to currently supervise, protect, or care for the child.
• Domestic violence exists in the home and poses a risk of serious physical and/or emotional harm to the child(ren).
• Child has exceptional needs or behavior which the out of-home caregiver(s) cannot/will not meet or manage.
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Present Danger in Out-of-Home Care, cont.
• Child is seen by either out-of-home caregiver as responsible for the child’s caregiver(s) of origin’s problems, or for problems that the out-of-home caregiver(s) is experiencing or may experience.
• One or both of the out-of-home caregiver(s) are sympathetic toward the child’s caregiver(s) of origin, justify the caregiver(s) of origin’s behavior, believe the caregiver(s) of origin rather than the CCYA, and/or are supportive of the child’s caregiver(s) of origin’s point of view.
• One or both of the out-of-home caregiver(s) indicate the child deserved what happened in the child’s home.
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Present Danger in Out-of-Home Care, cont.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) has history of or active criminal behavior that affects child safety, such as domestic violence, drug trafficking or addiction, sex crimes, other crimes of violence against people or property.
• Out-of-home caregiver(s) or family members will likely allow the caregiver(s) of origin unauthorized access to the child.
• Active CCYA case or a history of reports and/or CCYA involvement that indicates that history will compromise the safety of the child if placed in this home.
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10 Indicators of Safety in Out-of-Home Care
1. Child Functioning: How are the children functioning cognitively, emotionally, behaviorally, physically, and socially?
2. Adult Functioning: How are the adult family members functioning cognitively, emotionally, behaviorally, physically, and socially?
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10 Indicators of Safety in Out-of-Home Care, cont’d
3. Caregiver Supervision: How are the out-of-home caregiver(s) actively caring for, supervising, and protecting the children in the home?
4. Discipline: How are discipline strategies used with the children in the home?
5. Acceptance: How do the out-of-home family members demonstrate in observable ways that they accept the identified child into the home?
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10 Indicators of Safety in Out-of-Home Care, cont’d
6. Community Supports: How does the out-of-home family access/use community supports to help assure child safety?
7. Current Status: How do the out-of-home family members respond to the current issues, demands, stressors within the home that affect the child’s safety?
8. Placed Child’s Family– Out-of-home Family Dynamics: Out-of-Home Family Dynamics: How do the dynamics between the caregiver(s) of origin and the out-of-home family support the safety of the child?
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10 Indicators of Safety in Out-of-Home Care, cont’d
9. Oversight: How does the out-of-home family demonstrate that they are agreeable to and cooperative with CCYA and other formal resources?
10. Planning: How do the out-of-home caregiver(s) demonstrate that they are capable of and actively engaged in day to day planning for the child’s day to day safety?
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Out-of-Home Care Assessment Intervals
• The Out-of-Home Care Safety Assessment Worksheet must be completed at the following intervals: – Within 60 days, or two months, from the date of placement in the current setting.
– Within 180 days, or six months, from the previously completed worksheet.
– Within 72 hours upon the identification of evidence, circumstances, or information that suggests a negative change in the Safety Indicators yet the child remains in the home.
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Considerations for County Alert Process Policy
• The agency policy should include: – Who will be notified? – Who will be responsible for notification?
– What will be communicated?
– How will notification take place (verbal, written, etc.) – How will the notification be documented?
– Where will notification be documented?
– Where will records be maintained?
– What timeframes will be associated with notification?
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SECTION X: Review of Module 9: Out-of-
Home Placement and Permanency Planning
Permanency:
• The Importance of Permanency Planning • Permanency Goals Overview • Concurrent Planning • Visitation • Permanency Services • Child Permanency Plans The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION X: Review of Module 9: Out-of-
Home Placement and Permanency Planning
(cont’d)
Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) Services and Independent Living:
• Six Service Areas of Independent Living • Description of SWAN Units of Service • SWAN Units of Eligibility The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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Concurrent Planning
• Concurrent Planning is a process of working towards family reunification while, at the same time, developing an alternative permanent plan. Planning occurs concurrently rather than sequentially.
• In addition to the development of the plan itself, concurrent planning requires that caseworkers work toward reunification of a child with his or her own family while, at the same time, work on the tasks identified in the alternate plan that has been developed to help the child achieve permanency.
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The Purpose of Concurrent Planning
• Achieve early permanency for children; • Decrease children’s length of stay in out of home care; • Reduce the number of moves and disruptions of relationships; • Put the risk of loss on the adults instead of the child; and • Maintain continuity in family and sibling relationships.
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Visitation
• Is the single most important factor in maintaining the relationship between the child and the parents; • Enhances the child’s emotional well-being; • Improves parent’s positive feelings about the placement; • Decreases parents’ worries about their children; and • Is associated with achieving permanency and decreasing time in care.
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Visitation Guidelines
• Child Safety MUST be assured; • Visitation MUST occur frequently; • Visits MUST be held in the least restrictive environment; • If safety can be assured, visits should be unsupervised; • Visits MUST occur between siblings not placed together in substitute care at least twice per month; and • Children should be allowed regular opportunities to telephone significant people in their lives.
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Reunification Decisions
• Reunification should be considered when: – Completion of treatment and successful change in overall caregiver functioning; OR – Sustainable progress toward enhancing protective capacities and the ability to implement an in-home safety plan.
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Reunification Decisions, (cont’d)
• A reunification recommendation should be made to the court when each of the safety threats can be determined to be ameliorated by one of the following: – Progress toward enhancement of diminished protective capacities is occurring; – Change or adjustment to circumstances that created the threats has occurred; and – An in-home safety plan can be implemented. The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION XI: Review of Module 10: Making
Permanent Connections: Outcomes for Professional Development
• Personal Safety, Permanence and Well-being • Secondary Trauma • Stress Reduction and Time Management • Ethical Dilemmas • How the Pieces fit Together • Transfer of Learning (TOL) • Professional Development Plan The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION XII: The Technical Assistance Collaborative
• AOPC • ABA, Permanency Barriers Project • Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc.
• JCJC • CWRC • OCYF • PCCD, OJJDP • SWAN – T.A.
– PAE and Helpline – LSI The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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SECTION XII: CLOSING AND EVALUATION
•Review •References •Evaluations •Dismissal The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 700: Charting the Course Towards Permanency for Children in Pennsylvania: An Administrator’s Overview
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