Section I: Introductions and Workshop Overview

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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: • Mission of Child Welfare • Pennsylvania’s Child Welfare Practice Model • Overview of Laws, Bulletins and other Legal Guidelines Families First (Caseworker Job Preview 2013)

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.

Historical Outcomes of Good Intentions “I would give a hundred worldslike this”, wrote one child fromher new comfortable home, “ifI 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.

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.

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,

SECTION III: Review of Module 2: Identifying Child Abuse and Neglect • Phases of Casework Practice • Legal Definitions: Why we do what we do when we do • Two components of child abuse • Perpetrator • Intentionally, knowingly, recklessly • Categories of abuse • Exclusions • Reporting abuse • Child Protective Services (CPS) and General Protective Services (GPS) • Multidisciplinary Investigative Teams • Dispositions • Indicators of Abuse and Neglect • Interacting with Medical Professionals • The Six Domains • Traumatic Stress and Self-care

Child Protective Services General Protective Services CPS: An allegation of child abuse is investigated GPS: An allegation of maltreatment that does not meet the criteria for child abuse is assessed. Investigation Timeframes: • Immediately if emergency protective custody is required or if it cannot be determined from the report whether emergency protective custody is needed • Within 24 hours in all other cases (23 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6368. Investigation of reports.)

Dispositions • Unfounded report – a report in which it is determined that there is not substantial evidence to make an indicated report • Indicated report – a report in which it is determined that substantial evidence exists that supports the allegation of abuse • Founded report – a report in which there is a judicial finding that the subject child has been abused (23 Pa. Cons. Stat. §6303. Definitions.)

The 7 B’s of Physical Abuse External: Visible Internal: Test for Bones Brain Belly • Bruises • Bites • Burns • The 7th B: Brothers • Other children living in a home in which another has been physically abused

Information Gathering: Six Domains • What is the extent of the maltreatment? • What surrounding circumstances accompany the maltreatment? • How do the children function, including their condition? • How does the adult function in respect to daily life management and general adaptation including mental health and substance use? • What are the disciplinary approaches used by the parent? • What are the overall, typical pervasive parenting practices used by the parent?

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

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

Strengths-Based, Solution-Focused Questions Past Success Exception Scaling The Miracle Follow-Up Coping Indirect

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

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

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

Risk Assessment • 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 • Provide written rationale for moderate or high risk ratings

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

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

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

Child Welfare Practice and Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System

Child Welfare Practice and Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System, (cont’d)

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 HUMAN RESOURCES • Bureau of Hearings and Appeals – Appeals of: • Determination of Abuse • Decisions regarding service provision • DPW decisions to expunge records www.dhs.pa.gov “Information for Families and Individuals” “Hearing and Appeals Process”

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.

Protective Custody • Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) • 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.

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 • Quality Visitation

Out-of-Home Care • 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Steps to Assess Safety in Out-of-Home Care • Step 1: Know the Child to be Placed • Step 2: Provider Selection • Step 3: Present Danger Assessment and safety determination (First Encounter - Provider Interview) • Step 4: Confirm a safe placement setting (Within 60 days, or two months, from the date of placement) • Step 5: Monitor for stability and any changes that could pose a threat to child safety (within 180 days, or six months from the previously confirmation of a safe placement setting)

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.

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.

Placement Considerations in Pennsylvania Policy • Registry • Relatives/Kin • Least Restrictive • Education Considered

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).

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.

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.

Section I: Introductions and Workshop Overview