If reunification has not already occurred, a family meeting must be held during the 9th month after case opening. At this critical meeting, the current service plan will be evaluated, a new plan will be formulated and recommendations will be made regarding the permanency goal in preparation for the 12-month ACR and the upcoming permanency hearing in court. The Child and Family Team will discuss the case status, the recommended permanency goal and the reason why this goal is recommended. Following is the caseworker activities with the birth parent, child and caregiver at this time.
Casework activities with the parents:
· Assess reasonable efforts and reasonable progress or lack of reasonable progress. Engage the parents in a discussion of their perception of their progress, whether they feel they have made significants changes in the conditions that led to the maltreatment, their perception of the child(ren) and the child(ren)'s needs, and their readiness for reunification.
· Fully discuss with the parent the case status, recommended permanency goal and the reason why this goal is recommended
· Use full disclosure to advise the parents of the consequences of not making reasonable progress.
· Engage the parent in planning for the child's health, safety and well-being.
· Discuss how the parent can be more involved in the child's daily activities, such as school and recreational activities, family celebrations, health care, etc.
· Discuss the status of visits and whether the visiting plan should be revised, such as by increasing frequency of visits; moving to unsupervised or overnight visits (if not already being done)
· Evaluate the current service plan; develop a new service plan with the family.
Casework activities with the child:
· Continue to assess the child's health, educational and well-being needs.
· Ensure that necessary services to meet those needs are in place.
· Keep the child informed in an age-appropriate fashion about the permanency plan.
· Engage the child in developing new service plan if he or she is old enough.
Casework activities with the foster parent or other caregiver:
· Engage in discussion regarding child's needs, behaviors and necessary interventions
· Discuss child's permanency needs and how to best address those needs
· Involve the caregiver in planning for permanency, whether that means working with the child and parents toward return home or toward another permanency plan.
If return home is recommended, the worker must convene a reunification staffing as described in Section 7.12. If return home is not recommended, the worker must schedule a permanency staffing.
If an alternative permanency goal is recommended, parents must be engaged as much as possible in planning. For example, adoption, subsidized guardianship or private guardianship are options that must be considered in any permanency discussion where return home is not recommended. In addition, caseworkers should begin discussing surrenders or consents with parents. Signing of surrenders is usually an emotionally laden subject and must be approached with empathy and sensitivity. This discussion may occur over a period of months (and may have already occurred in cases where it was clear that no progress was being made). Surrenders and consents must be entered into freely and voluntarily. Therefore, caseworkers must be careful not to "push" parents in this direction, but be able to discuss it openly and honestly. The worker must remember that steps toward another permanency option cannot be taken until the case goes to a permanency staffing and it is determined that another permanency option is in the child's best interests.
Note that the caseworker does not have to wait until the permanency planning hearing to return a child. Whenever the conditions for safe reunification exist and it is in the best interests of the child to reunify, a reunification staffing and family meeting must be convened. Refer to Section 7.12 for information on convening these meetings.
As soon as the caseworker assesses that reunification is unlikely, whether at 90 days or at 9 months, he/she should have been discussing permanency with the foster parent /relative caregiver in order to assess whether the caregiver is willing and able to provide long-term care for the child. In all cases, the child should have been placed in a permanency home within the first 90 days of case opening in the event that an alternative permanency plan needed to be made. The caregiver's willingness and ability to adopt the child or become the child's guardian needs to be determined in order to develop a permanency plan that is in the child's best interests.