	Group Living Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PA-GLS 5: Child and Youth Permanency

The agency participates in or facilitates a permanency planning process with families to promote stability, permanency, and well-being.

Interpretation: Permanency work is aimed at achieving physical, emotional, and legal permanency for children and youth. Public and private agency roles in the permanency planning process are defined by state rules, regulations, or contracts. When the agency is not responsible for facilitating the permanency planning process, it documents attempts to participate in the process.

NA The agency does not provide out-of-home care for children or youth in custody of a public agency.

PA-GLS 5.01

Service providers, the public authority, and the court work with the child, youth, and family to develop a permanency plan within 30 days of placement, which specifies:

the permanency goal(s);
a timeframe for achieving permanency; and
activities that support permanency.

Interpretation: The timeframe for achieving permanency should be consistent with state and federal regulations which in most cases should not exceed 12 months. Tribal representatives and service providers should be involved in the permanency planning process when the Indian Child Welfare Act applies. In extenuating circumstances, the plan can be completed within 60 days. The age of a youth should not limit the consideration of all permanency options.

PA-GLS 5.02

Concurrent planning is undertaken when appropriate and includes:

early assessment of the potential for reunification;
full disclosure of options, expectations, and timelines;
early identification of potential family resources;
early placement with a permanent family resource; and
counseling for parents about relinquishment and permanency options when reunification seems unlikely.

Interpretation: State statutes or administrative rules may provide guidance about when concurrent planning is appropriate, and how concurrent planning is to be conducted.

PA-GLS 5.03

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

the appropriateness of continued placement;
constructive parent, child, and sibling visitation;
efforts to reunify the family and progress toward permanency;
possible planning resources and best options; and
appropriateness of services.

Interpretation: State statutes or administrative rules may provide guidance about when and how concurrent planning is 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.

PA-GLS 5.04

Youth are actively involved in the permanency planning process, and children and youth receive age appropriate information about progress toward permanency.

PA-GLS 5.05

The case record documents opportunities parents have to support reunification, including:

involvement in service planning and access to needed services;
constructive visitation and on-going contact with the child;
reduction of barriers to contact, visitation, and involvement in the child’s care; and
use of resources to prepare the family for reunification.

Note: The documentation must be in a format legally admissible as evidence to facilitate court proceedings.

PA-GLS 5.06

The agency recommends or files a petition to terminate parental rights for children who have been in care for 15 of the most recent 22 months, unless case-specific information legally exempts a child.

Interpretation: The reason submitted for termination of parental rights cannot be the length of time a child has been in care. When the decision is made not to reunify the child and parent, the justification and alternative permanency goal are entered into the case record.

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	PURPOSE: Individuals who receive Group Living Services regain, maintain, and improve life skills and functioning in a safe, stable, community-based living arrangement.

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.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


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


	CONTRACT A formal written agreement between two or more parties that specifies the services, space, or products to be provided in exchange for some form of compensation. Also known as "purchase of service arrangement."


	OUT-OF-HOME CARE Services for persons living in environments outside of their usual households. Foster Care Services are considered to serve persons in out-of-home care.


	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.


	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."


	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.).


	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.


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


	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.


	CONCURRENT PLANNING An approach used in foster care casework that simultaneously involves the identification and assessment of possible alternative permanency options for a child with efforts toward parent/child reunification.


	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.


	CASE RECORD A written compilation that describes the client and the services delivered. Records can be in hard copy and/or electronic format. The case record can be used as a source of information for quality improvement or other evaluation activities, for research purposes, or to demonstrate accountability to funding bodies.