 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
CHANGE # 05-2009
MARCH 2009
In August 1993, under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, Public Law 103-66, (H.R. 2264), Congress amended Title IV-B to extend the range of child and family services funded under Title IV-B to include family preservation and support services. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 (H.R. 867) re-authorized the Family Preservation and Support Program of 1993, and renamed it the Safe and Stable Families Program. ASFA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton on November 19, 1997. It clearly defined our national goals in the areas of safety, permanency, and well-being for children in the child welfare system. The Law addressed the realization that human services systems that impact families need to work in partnership with one another to better meet the needs of both children and their families. The Law also gave renewed impetus to break down the multitude of barriers that exist between children lingering in out-of-home placements and the stability of permanency. It has since become known as the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF), and was amended and renewed by President Bush in January 2002 (Public Law 107-133).
PSSF promoted several key principles for implementation:
1. The safety of children is the paramount concern that must guide all child welfare services;
2. Foster care is a temporary setting and not a place for children to grow up;
3. Permanency planning efforts for children should begin as soon as a child enters foster care and should be expedited by the provision of services to families;
4. The child welfare system must focus on results and accountability;
5. Innovative approaches are needed to achieve the goals set in the areas of safety, permanency and well-being.
With emphasis on permanence, permanency planning, and a major overhaul of the child welfare system, PSSF significantly expanded the scope of services set forth by the previous Family Preservation and Support Program (FP/FS). This
expansion included requirements for more adoption promotion & support and family reunification, in addition to the continued investment in ongoing FP/FS services.
The term “family reunification” is defined as “the planned process of reconnecting children in out-of-home care with their families by means of a variety of services and supports to the children, their families, and their foster parents or other service providers. It aims to help each child and family achieve and maintain, at any given time, their optimal level of reconnection—from full reentry of the child into the family system to other forms of contact, such as visitation—that affirm their child’s membership in his/her family.” (Maluccio, Krieger, & Pine, The Child Welfare Challenge, page 341.)
Agencies funded by NCDSS have the discretion to develop and implement various models of family reunification that are unique and appropriate to their respective communities, provided that these models are developed and implemented within the parameters of this manual. The reunification program will provide services to families who have one or more children in out-of-home placement with the local county Departments of Social Services DSS having custody or placement authority and with the goal of the Out of Home Family Services Agreement being reunification. Ideally, the family will be referred for reunification services earlier rather than later in the eligible period. These children will have been alleged or found to be abused, neglected or dependent or in need of services; emotionally or behaviorally disturbed; undisciplined or delinquent; and/or have medical needs that, with assistance, could be managed in the home.
MISSION
The Division of Social Services, Family Support and Child Welfare Services Section is committed to provide family- centered services to children and families to achieve well-being through ensuring self-sufficiency, support, safety, and permanence.
VISION
The vision of the Division is that all programs administered by the Division of Social Services will embrace family centered practice principles and provide services that promote secutiry and safety for all. This means that every child in North Carolina will grow up in a safe, permanent, self-sufficient family where well-being needs of all are met.
VALUES
The Division believes that the family is the fundamental resource for the nurturing of children and that children have a right to their own families and that parents should be supported in their efforts to care for their children in ways that assure the safety and well being of the child. We support parents by respecting each family’s cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious heritage in their interactions with the family and our mutual establishment of goals. We support and require the involvement of children and families throughout their involvement with child welfare. Child and Family Team meetings focus on the family’s strengths and recognize that families are our partners in the process of service planning and delivery. Judgments about families are often based on incomplete information, and can wait. A crisis can be an opportunity for change; inappropriate intervention can do harm. It is our job to instill hope because even families who feel hopeless can grow and change. This means that we as an agency arrange our schedules to accommodate the child and his/her family, that the family’s ideas and resources are given the same legitimacy as those proposed by professionals, and that mutual agreement in decision making is a primary goal. For youth and families whose supports may exist outside the family unit, this means allowing and encouraging them to invite those whom they wish to attend Child and Family Team Meetings. Shared parenting meetings, which encourage interaction between caregivers and birth families, continue the partnership to enable families to best parent their children. Special efforts are to be made to engage the absent and/or non-custodial parent in the intervention process.
Service delivery does not exist in a vacuum. In order to best serve the needs of children and families, all agencies that work with the family should work cooperatively in ways that maximize service delivery and resources. To the fullest extent possible, service providers should be within the family’s community, convenient for the family and child.
It is important to note the foundational philosophy of the NC Multiple Response System (hereinafter MRS) is family-centered practice delivered within a System of Care framework. The six family-centered principles of partnership are:
• Everyone desires respect
• Everyone needs to be heard
• Everyone has strengths
• Judgments can wait
• Partners share power
• Partnership is a process
The foundational philosophy of the NC System of Care (hereinafter SOC) is family- centered practice. The six SOC Principles are:
The primary goal of North Carolina’s Reunification Program is to support the family in correcting the conditions which led to the child’s removal, thus enabling the parent(s) to safely parent the child in their own home. These services are designed to meet the following objectives:
1. Help families develop the skills, competencies and resources necessary to effectively parent the child(ren) in a safe and nurturing environment.
2. Help families develop the skills, competencies and resources they need to handle future crisis situations more effectively.
Undeniably, the ideal family for a child is the child’s own family, but this is true only if his/her family can provide a safe, stable, and nurturing environment. Once the parent(s) receive the assistance and services necessary to remove the barriers that keep them from raising their children in their own home, there is a greater likelihood that the family can be safely restored and, eventually, thrive. Reunification Programs in North Carolina are designed to offer the assistance, services, and support families need in order to maximize the opportunity for family reunification.
|
For questions or clarification on any of the policy contained in these manuals, please contact your local county office.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|