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016.15.3-4. Department of Human Services & Division of Children & Family Services

AR ADC 016.15.3-4Arkansas Administrative Code

West's Arkansas Administrative Code
Title 016. Department of Human Services
Division 15. Division of Children and Family Services
Rule 3. Family Foster Parent Handbook
Ark. Admin. Code 016.15.3-4
016.15.3-4. Department of Human Services & Division of Children & Family Services
Currentness
DHS, acting through DCFS, serves as the court-appointed legal custodian of the child and has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the child has the best possible foster care experience and that appropriate long-term plans are made. There is also a direct vested interest in resolution of the problems or conditions affecting the status of the birth/legal family. The cooperative efforts from the courts, other agencies, and community resources are necessary to ensure that responsibilities to the child and assistance in resolution of problems or conditions affecting the child's birth/legal parent are carried out.
Department/Division responsibilities:
1. Remain legally responsible for the supervision and decision making regarding foster children. (Foster parents have daily responsibility for the care of the children.)
2. Provide the child in foster care, birth/legal parents, and foster family with the necessary support services to accomplish goals set out in the case plan.
3. Provide the foster parents with the information necessary to provide adequate care to each foster child, including the child's health, reason for entering care, probably length of placement, and siblings. As additional information is obtained by the caseworker, it shall be promptly shared with the foster parents.
4. Provide foster parents with instructions for contacting agency personnel at any time.
5. Ensure a caseworker visits the child in person at least monthly while the child is in foster care.
6. Include foster parents in case planning for each child and provide them with a copy of the current case plan and visitation plan.
7. Have a written plan that provides for timely reimbursements to foster parents for cost of care and fees for services.
8. Approve respite care and babysitting arrangements.
9. Maintain a record for each foster family that contains all information and documentation required by licensing standards. (See PUB-04: Minimun Licensing Standards for Child Welfare Agencies.)
10. Work with birth/legal parents and foster families to see that the child's emotional needs are met.
11. Conduct regular staffings and schedule and attend statutorily required hearings.
12. Provide necessary medical or psychological services, evaluations, care or treatment needed by the child. Ensure that each child in foster care has a medical exam at least annually.
13. Ensure that the child has planned regular visitation with birth/legal parents; or, if there are barriers to visitation, provide services directed toward removal or reduction of barriers to visitation.
14. Ensure visits for the child with siblings by planned regular contact (at least every two weeks).
15. Maintain regular contact with all team members according to the case plan.
16. Keep all team members informed of significant changes in the status of the case or individual team members.
17. Provide opportunity for religious experiences with respect for the child's and birth/legal parents' religion.
18. Take the legal steps necessary to place the child in a permanent home when return to the birth/legal parents is not possible within a reasonable length of time, usually not more than one year.
19. Keep the terms of the Initial Foster Home Agreement, CFS-462 and Foster Home Agreement Addendum, CFS-462A.
20. Communicate with the child's school about custody and other issues that might impact the child's ability to learn.
21. Investigate the foster home if DCFS receives a complaint report of non-compliance with licensing standards. Investigation shall be completed within 60 days of receiving the report, unless good cause is documented.
22. Prepare a closing summary, including reasons, if the home closes.

Credits

Amended Nov. 25, 2010.
Current with amendments received through February 15, 2024. Some sections may be more current, see credit for details.
Ark. Admin. Code 016.15.3-4, AR ADC 016.15.3-4
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