	Adoption Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

AS 5: Child and Youth Permanency

The organization participates in or facilitates a permanency planning process with families to promote stability and permanency.

NA The organization does not provide care for children or youth in custody of a public agency or only provides Foster Care to Adoption Services.

NA The organization provides homestudy services only.

NA The organization provides post placement services only.

AS 5.01

The permanency plan defines the permanency goal as adoption and specifies:

activities that support the achievement of adoption; and
a timeframe for completing the adoption.

Interpretation: When the case involves an Indian child, tribal definitions of permanency should be recognized and incorporated into the permanency plan.

Research Note: Tribal definitions of permanency can vary by tribe but generally focus on the concept of belonging through the identification and enhancement of the child's support networks including their exteneded family, clan, and tribe. Thus, permanency is the result of continuity and a sustained sense of belonging.

AS 5.02

The child, parents, caregivers, and relevant professionals participate in a court or administrative case review at least every 6 months to assess:

facilitation of therapeutic parent/child/sibling visitation, unless contraindicated;
progress toward permanency;
possible planning resources and options; and
appropriateness of services.

Interpretation: Federal laws, state statutes or administrative rules may provide guidance about when and how administrative reviews are to be conducted. The case review may be conducted by or in collaboration with the public authority. The review is scheduled at times when appropriate parties can attend.

Interpretation: When the case involves an Indian child, a representative from the tribe or a local Indian organization should receive timely notification of court or administrative case reviews, be given an opportunity to participate, and be informed of any changes made to the permanency plan.

AS 5.03

The child receives information about progress toward achieving permanency as appropriate to his or her age, cultural needs, and developmental level.

QUICK JUMP TO


	PURPOSE: Adoption Services establish a permanent family for children and youth awaiting adoption, and increase the well-being and functioning of birth parents, adoptive families, and adopted individuals.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.


	CUSTODY The care, control, and maintenance of a child. The court legally can award custody to an agency in abuse and neglect cases or to parents in divorce, separation, or adoption proceedings. Child welfare departments retain legal custody and control of major decisions for a child in foster care; foster parents do not have legal custody of the children for which they provide care.


	PUBLIC AGENCY An agency under government auspices. A public agency is typically governed and operated by a public entity (e.g., a state, a county, or a department of the federal government. Public agencies seeking accreditation will utilize the Public version of COA's 8th Edition Standards, found at http://www.coastandards.org/standards.php?navView=public.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.


	INDIAN CHILD As defined in the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), "Any unmarried person who is under age eighteen and is either (a) a member of an Indian tribe or (b) eligible for membership in an Indian tribe and is the biological child of a member of an Indian tribe." For purposes of compliance with ICWA, the definition provided in the Act shall apply. For purposes of access to services and resources, other more inclusive definitions may apply (e.g. Indian Education Act, tribal definitions, etc.).


	CAREGIVER The provider of physical, emotional, and social needs to another person, often dependent and unable to provide for his or her own needs. Caregiver is the generic term used for the direct service providers in Community Care and Support Services (CCS).


	CASE REVIEW A regular and periodic examination of a consumer's service needs, service delivery goals and objectives, intervention plans, prognoses, and the timelines required to achieve them. The direct service provider and supervisor frequently conduct the case review, but it may also involve others, as in an interdisciplinary or inter-organizational case conference. The client, or the parent or legal guardian in the case of a minor, are included in his/her periodic case review by the team.


	APPROPRIATENESS The degree to which a particular service, placement, treatment, intervention, or activity is: best suited to an individual's needs; not excessive, unduly intrusive, or restrictive; anticipated to be effective in achieving the desired and specified outcomes; and adequate or sufficient in quantity to address the problem.


	INDIAN ORGANIZATION As defined in ICWA, "Any group, association, partnership, cooperation, or other legal entity owned or controlled by Indians, or a majority of whose members are Indians."