COA - Council On Accreditation

	Foster Care Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Definition

Family Foster Care Services provide children and youth with protection, care, and nurturance by certified or licensed foster parents in private homes. Support services are provided to the family to facilitate reunification with the child. If reunification is not an option, the organization works to ensure the child is placed in another permanent living arrangement.

Therapeutic Foster Care Services provide children whose exceptional needs cannot be met in their own homes, or in regular family foster care homes, with intensive supportive and clinical services in the homes of specially trained foster parents. Foster parents provide interventions and treatment, protection, care, and nurturance to meet the medical, developmental, and/or psychiatric needs of children. Children may have: emotional or behavioral disorders; physical disabilities; developmental disabilities; severe or life threatening illnesses; or conditions that require the routine use of a medical device and/or daily ongoing care or monitoring. Therapeutic programs can serve children involved with the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems.

Note: References to “parents” may include: biological parents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians of a child prior to placement in foster care. The term “children” is used throughout the foster care standards for ease, and includes infants, toddlers, school age children, and youth.

Note: Please note, all Administration and Management Standards and Service Delivery Administration Standards that are applicable to foster parents specifically reference foster parents within the standard. If foster parents are not specifically addressed in the standard, it does not apply to foster parents.

Note: Foster Care to Adoption Services will complete: all of FC and AS 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14.

Note: Organizations that use kin and non-kin placements for their foster care program will be reviewed under the Foster Care (FC) and Kinship Care (KC) service sections. Please see Related Files, "FC-KC Template" and "FC and KC Crosswalk" for information on preparing an FC/KC self-study.

Note: Foster Care Case Management Services plan, secure, coordinate, and monitor goals and comprehensive services provided to children in foster care and/or their birth parents. Case management services for children monitor the child's safety, stability, well-being and permanency. Case management services for birth parents monitor the family's progress toward reunification. Organizations providing Foster Care Case Management Services only will complete: FC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 14, 15, and 19. In addition, organizations will complete FC 8, and/or FC 9 and FC 10, depending on whether the organization is responsible for managing services to the parents or the child, or both.

Note: Foster Home Services recruit, assess, and train foster parents and may provide ongoing support and monitoring of foster homes on a regular basis. Organizations providing Foster Home Services will complete FC 5, 7, 12, 16, 17, and 19.

Note: When the case involves an Indian child, the organization should engage and collaborate with the child’s tribe throughout the provision of foster care services as outlined in the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which governs state proceedings involving Indian children. This requires the inclusion of tribal representatives throughout all aspects of service delivery, including, but not limited to, assessment, service planning, permanency planning, case closing, and aftercare. Additional opportunities for inclusion are identified in the standards. While collaboration with federally recognized tribes is required by ICWA, organizations should reach out to tribal representatives in cases involving federally non-recognized tribes as well, as their involvement in the case will improve access to culturally-relevant resources and help establish permanency through a heightened sense of belonging and connectivity to the child’s extended family, clan, or tribe.

While local Indian organizations are not granted the same rights as federally recognized tribes under the Indian Child Welfare Act, there may be circumstances under which their involvement is necessary and appropriate. These organizations can facilitate the child’s connection to his or her tribe, inform the family and the organization of services available to the child, act as an advocate for the Indian child and his or her family, and provide ongoing support and information. This involvement is particularly important when the child’s tribe does not have the infrastructure to participate formally in the case or when the tribe is geographically distant from the child’s home and their participation is somewhat limited.

Note: Please see Self-Paced_Training: Foster Care Services (FC) in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.


	PURPOSE: Children and youth who receive Foster Care Services live in a stable home, remain safe and healthy, and achieve permanency and well-being.

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."


	FOSTER PARENTS State- or county-licensed adults who provide a temporary home for children whose birth parents are unable to care for them. Foster parents are not considered employees or personnel and are specifically referenced in all relevant standards.


	CLINICAL The study, assessment, and diagnosis of the client situation followed by direct treatment to help the client achieve prescribed goals.


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


	MONITORING An evaluation involving a periodic review of consumer services, organizational activities, or conduct. Specifically, monitoring is an activity of case coordination, whereas more broadly, monitoring is an evaluation technique used in overall quality assurance.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	LEGAL GUARDIAN A person who has legal responsibility for the care and management of a person incapable of administering his/her own affairs. In the case of a minor child, the guardian is charged with the legal responsibility for the care and management of the child and of the minor child's estate.


	ADMINISTRATION The personnel responsible for management functions of the organization, including fiscal management, human resources, and service delivery. Such personnel determine organizational goals, acquire and allocate resources to carry out a program, coordinate activities toward goal achievement, and monitor, evaluate, and make needed changes in processes and procedures to improve the likelihood of goal achievement. The term is synonymously used with MANAGEMENT.


	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.


	INFANT A child aged one year and under.


	MANAGEMENT See ADMINISTRATION


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


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


	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.).


	CASE CLOSING A voluntary or involuntary process which occurs when an organization no longer assumes responsibility for providing services to a particular individual, group, or family. Also known as "termination" or "discharge."


	AFTERCARE Additional services provided beyond the period of primary care that offer continuity and supportive follow-up.


	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."