Case planning for a child placed in out-of-home care, including concurrent permanency goals, trial reunifications, and planned permanent living arrangements for such a child

Concurrent planning Under current law, an agency, at the same time as the agency is making reasonable efforts to prevent the removal of a child from his or her home or to make it possible for the child to return home, may work with an adoption agency in making reasonable efforts to place the child for adoption, with a guardian, with a fit and willing relative, or in some other alternative permanent placement (concurrent reasonable efforts). If an agency is making concurrent reasonable efforts, the child's permanency plan must include the goals of the permanency plan.

This bill eliminates the authority of an agency to make concurrent reasonable efforts and instead permits an agency to engage in concurrent planning, which the bill defines as reasonable efforts to work simultaneously towards achieving more than one permanency goal for a child. Under the bill, an agency must determine, in accordance with standards established by DCF (concurrent planning standards) whether to engage in concurrent planning. If, according to the concurrent planning standards, concurrent planning is required, the agency must engage in concurrent planning and the juvenile court must make a finding as to whether the agency has made reasonable efforts to achieve the primary goal of the concurrent plan. If an agency determines to engage in concurrent planning for a child, the child's case plan must include the rationale for that determination and a description of the concurrent plan and the primary and concurrent goals of the concurrent plan. In addition, if a child's case plan calls for concurrent planning, the court assigned to exercise jurisdiction under the Children's Code and the Juvenile Justice Code (juvenile court) or a case plan review panel appointed by the juvenile court, in reviewing the child's case plan, must determine the appropriateness, in light of the concurrent planning standards, of each of the permanency goals of the concurrent plan and, if the juvenile court or case plan review panel does not approve of any one or more of those goals, that court or panel must include in its determinations the reasons for that disapproval.

Trial reunifications Current law — changes in placement.

Under current law, the juvenile court, on the request of the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing a dispositional order, of the juvenile court, may order a change in placement for a child placed outside of his or her home under a dispositional order of the juvenile court. The juvenile court may order the change in placement without a hearing, unless a party receiving the notice files an objection. Current law also permits the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order to make an emergency change in placement if emergency conditions necessitate an immediate change in placement.

The bill — trial reunifications.

This bill provides a similar procedure under which the juvenile court may order a trial reunification, which the bill defines as a return of a child who is placed in an out-of-home placement to the home of his or her parent or other home from which the child was removed for a specified and limited period for the purpose of determining the appropriateness of permanently returning the child to that home. The bill, however, does not permit an emergency trial reunification. Under the bill, if an emergency condition necessitates an immediate return of a child to the home of his or her parent or other home from which the child was removed, the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order must make an emergency change in placement as provided under current law.

Under the bill, the juvenile court may order a trial reunification on the request of the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order, or on its own motion. Notice of the proposed trial reunification must 1) be provided to the child, the parent, guardian, and legal custodian of the child, any foster parent or other physical custodian of the child, the child's court-appointed special advocate, all parties who are bound by the dispositional order, and, in the case of an Indian child, the Indian child's Indian custodian and tribe; and 2) contain a statement describing why the trial reunification is in the best interests of the child and a statement describing how the trial reunification satisfies the objectives of the child's case plan. The juvenile court may order the trial reunification without a hearing, unless a party receiving the notice files an objection.

If the juvenile court finds that the trial reunification is in the best interests of the child and that the trial reunification satisfies the objectives of the child's case plan, the juvenile court must grant an order authorizing the trial reunification. A trial reunification terminates 90 days after the date of the order, unless the juvenile court specifies a shorter period in the order, extends the trial reunification, or revokes the trial reunification or the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order makes an emergency change in placement. At the end of a trial reunification, the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order may return the child to an out-of-home placement without further order of the juvenile court or may request the juvenile court to order a change in placement changing the placement of the child to the home or his or her parent or other home from which the child was removed.

The bill also permits the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order to request an extension of the trial reunification. The request must contain a statement describing how the trial reunification continues to be in the best interests of the child and continues to meet the objectives of the child's case plan, and the same notice and hearing requirements that apply to an original request for a trial reunification also apply to a request for an extension of a trial reunification.

If the juvenile court finds that the trial reunification continues to be in the best interests of the child and continues to meet the objectives of the child's case plan, the juvenile court must grant an order extending the trial reunification for a period specified by the juvenile court not to exceed 60 days. Any number of extensions may be granted, but the total period for a trial reunification may not exceed 150 days.

In addition, the bill permits the person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order to request the juvenile court to revoke a trial reunification if that person or agency has reasonable cause to suspect that a child who has been returned to the home of his or her parent or other home from which the child was removed for a trial reunification has been abused or neglected, has reason to believe that such a child has been threatened with abuse or neglect and that abuse or neglect of the child is likely to occur, or otherwise has reason to believe that the trial reunification is no longer in the best interest of the child. The revocation request must state the reasons for the proposed revocation, and the same notice and hearing requirements that apply to an original request for a trial reunification also apply to a request for a revocation of a trial reunification. If the juvenile court finds that the child, while returned to the home of his or her parent or other home from which the child was removed for a trial reunification, has been abused or neglected, or has been threatened with abuse or neglect and that abuse or neglect of the child is likely to occur, or finds that the trial reunification is no longer in the best interests of the child, the juvenile court must grant an order revoking the trial reunification and returning the child to an out-of-home placement.

Finally, with respect to trial reunifications, the bill permits the person or agency primarily responsible or implementing the dispositional order to make an emergency change in placement if emergency conditions necessitate an immediate removal of the child from the home of his or her parent or other home from which the child has been removed.

Other planned permanent living arrangement Under current law, if a goal of a child's permanency plan is an alternative permanent placement, the permanency plan must document a compelling reason why it would not be in the best interests of the child to pursue the safe return of the child to his or her home or placement of the child for adoption, with a guardian, or with a fit and willing relative.

This bill changes the term "alternative permanent placement" to "other planned permanent living arrangement,", requires the arrangement to include a long-term relationship between the child and an adult, and eliminates independent living as a planned permanent living arrangement option. The bill also permits a child's case plan to include the permanency goal of placement of the child in a planned permanent living arrangement only if the agency determines that there is a compelling reason why it would not be in the best interests of the child to pursue the safe return of the child to his or her home or placement of the child for adoption, with a guardian, or with a fit and willing relative. If an agency makes that determination, the child's case plan must include 1) a concurrent plan towards achieving the permanency goal of safely returning the child to his or her home or placing the child for adoption, with a guardian, or with a fit and willing relative as well as the permanency goal of placing the child in some other planned permanent living arrangement; and 2) the compelling reason why it would not be in the best interests of the child to return the child to his or her home or to place the child for adoption, with a guardian, or with a fit and willing relative and the efforts made to achieve that goal, including, if appropriate, through an out-of-state placement.