5.4 Eligibility Requirements for Subsidized Permanent Custody (SPC)

The following occurs to determine if a child is eligible for a goal change to SPC :

The child's SSW and FSOS, the foster family's recruitment and certification (R&C) worker, the R&C supervisor, and any other appropriate staff consult to determine if SPC is appropriate.
 The SSW or designated regional staff:

1. Ensures the child:
1. Is advised that a return to parent and adoption are not an appropriate permanency option;
2. Demonstrates a strong attachment to the relative or fictive kin caregiver;
   
3. Has been placed in an approved relative or fictive foster home that has received foster care maintenance payments for at least six (6) consecutive months, except in the following cases: _​1
   
1. A child whose sibling has met this requirement; ​₂ or 
2. A child being placed with a successor caregiver.
   
4. Will be residing with a caregiver who meets the eligibility requirements.
   
2. Ensure the caregiver(s):
1. Be a non-parental relative or fictive kin of a child who is eligible for assistance;
2. Meets the requirements to be a relative or fictive kin foster home. Please refer to  SOP Chapter 12 for relative, fictive kin foster parent requirements; and
   
3. Have a strong commitment to permanently care for the child(ren).
   
3. The following should be discussed with the foster parents and documented in service recordings:
1. ​The difference between fostering, adopting, and permanent custody;
2. Importance of permanency for the child(ren);  
3. ​The child’s options for a permanent home when a foster parent does not commit to being a permanent placement for the child; and 
4. Provides SPC and adoption handbooks to the family for review.
   
4. Consult youth who are age fourteen (14) or older regarding the permanent custody arrangement with the caregiver;
5. Provides the SPC Handbook and DPP-1257P Preliminary Agreement to Accept SPC to the relative fictive foster family. If the relative fictive foster home signs the DPP-1257P, a designated regional staff completes the Subsidized Permanent Custody (SPC) Determination Worksheet.​​ A child may be eligible for SPC if a sibling has met the six (6) month requirement for foster/adoption maintenance payments or already has an SPC agreement in place. If it has been determined that extenuating circumstances exist, and the relative agrees on the appropriateness of the arrangement for the siblings.

Footnotes

1. ​​A child who receives a bed hold for up to fourteen (14) days and returns to the same relative/fictive foster home, is eligible for the full month of foster care maintenance payment. If the youth is absent for more than fourteen (14) days but is still within thirty (30) days of being outside of the foster home, because of the bed hold situation, the days are pro-rated. If the child has been outside of the home for thirty (30) days, the six (6) consecutive months will start from the beginning.