4.10.1 DCBS Care Plus

Introduction

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Practice Guidance

  • Because of the excessive demands and stresses related to caring for a child in a care plus foster/adoptive home, weekly phone calls by the SSW are encouraged. 
  • When the permanency goal is to return to parent, ongoing contact between the foster/adoptive parent(s) and the child’s birth family is encouraged during periodic reviews and visitation. 
  • The foster/adoptive family is to act as a role model for the birth family, assisting them to implement components of the plan prepared for the child. 
  • Weekly record of events (WROE) documents are maintained in the care plus foster/adoptive home for a period of one (1) year.


Procedure

The SSW:

  1. Explores placement in a care plus foster/adoptive home if the child: 
    1. Displays aggressive, destructive, or disruptive behavior; 
    2. Has a diagnosed emotional or behavioral problem; 
    3. Is due to be released from a treatment facility; 
    4. Is at risk of being placed in a more restrictive setting; 
    5. Is at risk of institutionalization; or 
    6. Has experienced numerous placement failures; 
  2. Discusses the appropriateness and availability of a care plus placement with the recruitment and certification (R&C) team if the child meets the criteria established in the proceeding procedure and has a level of care assignment of two (2) or three (3); 
  3. Forwards the approved care plus referral to the billing specialist; 
  4. Or R&C worker ensures that the child’s activities and behaviors are recorded on a DPP-130-Weekly Record of Events ​(WROE) by the foster/adoptive parent; 
  5. Visits the child, at a minimum, once per calendar month in the care plus foster/adoptive home to: 
    1. Determine if the child’s needs are being met; 
    2. Provide supportive services to the foster/adoptive parents; 
    3. Review the WROE; and 
    4. Determine when further services are indicated; 1 
  6. Or R&C worker ensures that the care plus foster parent(s) maintains the WROEs in the care plus foster/adoptive home;
  7. Assists by providing the WROEs from the previous placement to the new placement provider if the child’s placement changes.

The R&C team:

  1. Identifies an approved care plus foster/adoptive home for the child, and when the situation permits, schedules a pre-placement visit for the child with the foster/adoptive parent(s), but more than one pre-placement visit may be needed to successfully transition the child into the home.

The FSOS or designee:

  1. Approves a care plus per diem rate. The care plus rate may be made retroactively, however, no more than thirty (30) calendar days from the date of the care plus approval.


The SSW, R&C worker, and foster/adoptive parent(s):

Consider a plan to assess the following prior to placement, or at the time of the first home visit after the child’s placement:

  1. Management of the child’s behaviors in the home, at school, and in other settings; 
  2. Specific methods for measuring the child’s progress; and 
  3. Meeting the child’s needs when the primary care plus parent is employed outside the home.


​ ​​​ Footnotes

  1. The number of contacts per month is determined by the needs of the child.


Revisions

​7/20/22 Level of care four (4) and five (5) were removed from # 2 under The SSW: Procedure.  ​