Qualified residential treatment programs and granting rule-making authority. (FE)

Currently, when a child or juvenile (collectively referred to as “child” ) alleged or adjudged to be in need of protection or services is removed from his or her home in a proceeding under the Children's Code or Juvenile Justice Code, the agency responsible for that child's removal is required to prepare a permanency plan, designed to ensure that the child is reunified with his or her family whenever appropriate, or that the child quickly attains a placement or home providing long-term stability. Current law requires the juvenile court to periodically review the plan and to periodically hold a hearing on the plan.

Under this bill, if a child is placed in a certified QRTP, the agency must assemble a family permanency team to participate in permanency planning for the child, and invite appropriate biological family members, relatives, like-kin, and professionals who serve as a resource for the family to participate. The bill requires the agency to include in the permanency plan information about the family permanency team and its meetings and recommendations.

The bill requires that, in a review or hearing on a permanency plan for a child who is placed in a certified QRTP, the agency that prepared the permanency plan must present to the juvenile court certain information that the juvenile court must consider when determining the continuing necessity for and the safety and appropriateness of the placement, including 1) whether the placement is supported by assessment of the child's needs, is the most effective and appropriate level of care in the least restrictive environment, and meets the goals for the child in the permanency plan; 2) the specific treatment or service needs that the placement will meet and how long the child will need that treatment or service; and 3) the efforts made by the agency to prepare the child to return home or to be placed with a relative, guardian, or adoptive parent or in a foster home.

Under the bill, if a child is placed or proposed to be placed in a certified QRTP in juvenile court proceedings for a temporary physical custody (TPC) hearing, a change in placement (CIP), consent decree, or a disposition, a qualified individual must conduct an assessment, using a tool determined by DCF, of the strengths and needs of the child to determine the appropriateness of that placement (standardized assessment). The bill creates a definition for “qualified individual” to match the term used in federal law, meaning a trained professional or licensed clinician who is not an employee of the state and who is not connected to, or affiliated with, any placement setting in which children are placed by the state. The federal law definition provides that a state may request a waiver from this definition, and on December 14, 2020, Wisconsin requested such a waiver to allow state and county child welfare staff to serve as qualified individuals.

The bill requires the qualified individual to develop a recommendation on all of the following: 1) whether the proposed placement will provide the child with the most effective and appropriate level of care in the least restrictive environment; 2) how the placement is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals for the child in the permanency plan; 3) the reasons why the child's needs can or cannot be met by the child's family or in a foster home (and a shortage or lack of foster homes is not an acceptable reason); and 4) the placement preference of the family permanency team and, if it is not the placement recommended by the qualified individual, why that recommended placement is not preferred. Then, depending on the type of proceeding, the intake worker, agency primarily responsible for providing services under a temporary custody, person or agency primarily responsible for implementing the dispositional order, or agency appointed as the guardian of the child must submit the standardized assessment and the qualified individual's recommendation to the juvenile court and any person who is required to receive a copy of the notice or request in the proceeding.

Under the bill, the standardized assessment and recommendation must be submitted by the time of a TPC hearing, by the time the notice or request is filed in a CIP proceeding, by the time the consent decree is entered, or by the time the disposition report is filed. With respect to most CIP proceedings, if not available by the time the notice or request is filed, the bill generally requires it to be submitted within 10 days after the filing of the CIP notice, except this does not apply to a CIP requested by someone other than the intake worker, agency, district attorney, or corporation counsel or from in-home to out-of-home, to a consent decree, or to a disposition. In all cases, if the required information is not available by these first deadlines, it must be submitted no later than 30 days after the date on which the placement is made.

The bill requires the juvenile court to make the following findings when it issues an order placing a child in a certified QRTP: 1) whether the needs of the child can be met through placement in a foster home; 2) whether placement of the child in a certified QRTP provides the most effective and appropriate level of care for the child in the least restrictive environment; 3) whether the placement is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals for the child in the permanency plan; and 4) whether the juvenile court approves or disapproves the placement. The answers to these questions do not affect whether the placement may be made. If the standardized assessment and recommendation of the qualified individual are not available at the time of this order, the bill requires the juvenile court to defer making the findings. However, no later than 60 days after the date on which the placement was made the juvenile court must issue an order making those findings.

The bill requires that, for youth in out-of-home care who are parenting or pregnant, a permanency plan must include 1) a list of the services or programs to be provided to or on behalf of the child to ensure that the child, if pregnant, is prepared and, if a parent, is able to be a parent; and 2) the out-of-home care prevention strategy for any child born to the parenting or pregnant child.