Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 12, March 22, 2024
a)
The Department has an administrative case review system for all the children in
placement and their families. Administrative case reviews are conducted for
children living in foster family homes, relative homes, group homes, child care
institutions, youth emergency shelters, or detention, correctional, mental or
physical health related facilities. In addition, the Department may elect to
conduct administrative case reviews on other groups of children as fiscal and
staffing resources permit.
b) Case
reviews are conducted in order to:
1) assure
that parents and the children (if participating in the planning) are involved
in and collaborating in development of the plan and understand and discuss the
plan and know what is expected of them;
2) ensure siblings are being placed together
whenever possible; when sibling are placed apart, efforts continue to locate a
placement that will accept all of the children; contact and visitation between
siblings is encouraged and occurring in accordance with the Visitation and
Contact Plan; efforts are made to support contact between siblings in
substitute care with siblings who are not in substitute care (e.g., because of
adoption, legal guardianship, emancipation or adulthood);
3) review whether the Department's continuing
intervention is necessary;
4)
review whether services, including placement services, are necessary, relevant,
coordinated, and appropriate and address the health and safety needs of the
child;
5) identify services needed
but that are not being provided to the child, family or foster parents and the
reasons why they are not being provided;
6) review the disability status of a child to
determine the need for and/or appropriateness of specialized
services;
7) review the
appropriateness of the child's educational placement and the child's
educational progress and recommend changes to the caseworker;
8) review health information on the child and
family;
9) review any special
physical, psychological, educational, medical, emotional, or other needs of the
minor or his or her family that are relevant to a permanency or placement
determination;
10) review, for any
minor age 16 or over, programs or services that will enable the minor to
prepare for independent living;
11)
review whether the Department, the service providers, the family, the
substitute care provider, if any, and the child are complying with the service
plan and, if they are not complying, whether changes in the service plan or
goals are needed;
12) review
whether there is progress to resolve the child's and family's problems and
whether the progress is satisfactory and whether the child can safely return
home;
13) review whether the
projected month for achieving the permanency goal should be changed;
14) review the appropriateness of the
permanency goal and recommend changes in the goal (if appropriate);
15) review and finalize the service plan for
the next period, including an analysis of:
A)
the appropriateness of the services contained in the plan and whether those
services have been provided and, if not, why not;
B) whether reasonable efforts by the
Department, and reasonable progress by the family, have been made to achieve
the goal;
C) whether the plan and
goal have been achieved;
16) refer the case for a family meeting as
described in 89 Ill. Adm. Code
315.120
(Family Meetings) when one has not been conducted; and
17) report findings and make
recommendations.
c) The
Department shall provide training for all Administrative Case Reviewers, their
supervisors and their managers regarding the importance of maintaining sibling
relationships and the child's sense of attachment to his/her siblings, the
importance of maintaining sibling relationships over the child's lifespan, and
the impact on the child if those relationships are severed.