Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(a) All social services districts must
establish and maintain a single uniform case record for each family for whom a
case record is required pursuant to section
428.1 of this
Part.
(b)
(1) Each uniform case record must include,
but need not be limited to the following items in the form and manner
prescribed by OCFS:
(i) a common application
form;
(ii) family assessments and
service plans at regularly scheduled intervals in accordance with subdivision
(f) of this section;
(iii) plan
amendments, as required by section
428.7
of this Part completed for each status change;
(iv) all forms for the child care review
service pursuant to sections
406.4
and
465.1
of this Title, for as long as that system remains the official system of record
of OCFS;
(v) face sheet;
(vi) progress notes in the form and manner
prescribed by OCFS;
(vii) all
official documents and records of any judicial or administrative proceedings
relating to the district's contact with a child and/or a family, including but
not limited to records of petitions, permanency hearing reports and notices,
court orders, probation reports, voluntary instruments or agreements, fair
hearings, administrative reviews, and the results of any examinations or
evaluations ordered by a court;
(viii) all correspondence between the family,
the district and/or purchase of service agencies;
(ix) information received from private or
public purchase of service agencies, concerning casework contacts with a child
and/or his or her family receiving family and children services; and
(x) all documentation relating to the
establishment of categorical eligibility for any funding source for which the
child or family may be eligible.
(2) For foster care placement cases,
additional information and documents must also include:
(i) data and official documents relating to
the identification and/or history of a child and/ or his/her family, including
but not limited to copies of birth certificates, documentation of religion,
documentation of the child's immigration status, and any consent forms and/or
religious preference forms signed by the parent or guardian;
(ii) all reports of medical or clinical
examinations or consultations, including medical examinations and laboratory
tests, psychiatric or psychological examinations or consultations (either
court-ordered or voluntary), dental examinations; and medical consent forms
signed by the parent or guardian, by the commissioner of the social services
district, or by the child if the child has the capacity to consent, as
applicable, regarding medical treatment for any child in foster care placement,
including documentation that the child has been assessed for risk factors
related to HIV infection in accordance with section
441.22(b)
of this Title, and, if one or more risk factors have been identified, a
description of the procedures that were followed to arrange for appropriate
HIV-related testing including obtaining the necessary written informed consent
for such testing;
(iii) educational
and/or vocational training reports or evaluations indicating the educational
goals and needs of each foster child, including school reports and Committee on
Special Education evaluations and/or recommendations;
(iv) the child's transition plan prepared in
accordance with the standards set forth in section
430.12(j)
of this Title; and
(v) the foster
child's consumer report provided in accordance with section
430.12(k)of
this Title.
(3) For
foster care placement cases in which the child is placed in a qualified
residential treatment program as defined in section
441.2 of this Title, the uniform
case record must also include:
(i) Details
regarding the family and permanency team, including but not limited to:
(a) Its composition;
(b) The reasonable and good faith effort to
identify and include all the individuals described in section 409-h of the
Social Services Law and section
439.3 of this Title to participate
in the family and permanency team;
(c) All contact information for members of
the family and permanency team, as well as contact information for other family
members and fictive kin who are not part of the family and permanency
team;
(d) Evidence that meetings of
the family and permanency team, including meetings relating to the assessment
required under section 409-h of the Social Services Law, are held at a time and
place convenient for the family;
(e) If reunification is the goal, evidence
demonstrating that the parent from whom the child was removed provided input
from the members of the family and permanency team;
(f) Evidence that the assessment required
under section 409-h of the Social Services Law is determined in conjunction
with the family and permanency team;
(g) The placement preferences of the family
and permanency team relative to the assessment that recognizes children should
be placed with their siblings unless there is a finding by the court that such
placement is contrary to their best interest; and
(h) If the placement preferences of the
family and permanency team and child are not the placement setting recommended
by the qualified individual conducting the assessment under section 409-h of
the Social Services Law, the reasons why the preferences of the team and of the
child were not recommended.
(ii) Details regarding the assessment
conducted by the qualified individual, as such term is defined in section
441.2 of this part, including, but
not limited to:
(a) The written assessment
completed by a qualified individual; and
(b) The determination of whether the child's
needs can be met in a foster home, and if it was determined by the qualified
individual that the needs of the child cannot be met by the family of the child
or in a foster family home, in accordance with section 409-h of the Social
Services Law, the specific reasons why; and
(iii) Documentation of the court's findings
at the court review of the placement in a qualified residential treatment
program in accordance with sections 393 of the Social Services Law, or section 353.7, 756-b, 1055-c, 1091-a, or
1097 of the Family Court Act, as may be applicable.
(iv) If the child meets the definition of
long stayer as provided for in section
439.5 of this Title and a long
stayer review is conducted in accordance with that section, the determination
of the commissioner of OCFS, or the commissioner's designee, regarding the
appropriateness of the child's continued placement in a qualified residential
treatment program.
(4) If
a youth is parenting a child, as part of a parenting youth and child of
parenting youth unit as defined in section
427.2 of this Title, the uniform
case record shall be updated to include information on casework contacts with
both the parenting youth and child of the parenting youth as required under
section 441.21 of this
Title.
(c) A single
family assessment and service plan must be completed as specified in section
428.6
of this Part, for all family members at the intervals described in subdivision
(f) of this section. The assessment and service plan must include a description
of the collaborative efforts of the case planner and all case workers assigned
to the case.
(d) Each family
assessment and service plan, must document the involvement of the parent(s) or
guardian and, where appropriate, child(ren) 10 years or older, including
children in foster care and their siblings or half-siblings and children placed
by a court in the direct custody of a relative or other suitable person
pursuant to article 10 of the Family Court Act, in the development of the plan,
or must document efforts to involve them in the development of the plan. Such
efforts must include, but are not limited to:
(1) encouraging parent(s) or guardian and the
children to participate in the development and review of the plan, and
attempting to obtain the parent(s)' or guardian's signatures documenting their
review of the plan; and
(2) where
parent(s) or guardian and/or children are not able to participate in the
development of the plan and arrangements cannot be made to allow participation,
conveying the contents of the service plan and any recommendations to them, and
attempting to obtain the parent(s)' or guardian's comments and signatures
documenting their review of the plan.
(e) For foster care cases and for children
placed by a court in the direct custody of a relative or other suitable person
pursuant to article 10 of the Family Court Act, the service plan review
requirements of section
428.9
of this Part also apply.
(f) Case
process flow.
(1) Social services districts
must initiate a uniform case record for a family on the case initiation date as
defined in section
428.2(a)
of this Part.
(2) On the case
initiation date, the following must be completed and become part of the uniform
case record:
(i) a common application form;
and
(ii) face sheet or equivalent
in accordance with section
428.4 of
this Part.
(3)
Documentation of casework activity and contacts in progress notes must begin on
the case initiation date or, for cases where a report has been accepted by the
Statewide central register, casework activity must be recorded in progress
notes from the date of receipt of the report of suspected abuse or
maltreatment.
(4) Except for open
indicated child abuse and maltreatment cases, an initial family assessment and
service plan must be completed by the social services district or by a provider
agency providing services pursuant to a purchase of service agreement, and must
be approved by the case manager within 30 days from the case initiation date.
For open indicated child abuse and maltreatment cases, an initial family
assessment and service plan must be completed by the social services district
or the provider agency providing services pursuant to a purchase of service
agreement, and approved by the case manager within seven days of the date that
a report to the Statewide central register is determined to be
indicated.
(5) A comprehensive
family assessment and service plan must be completed by the social services
district or by a provider agency providing services pursuant to a purchase of
service agreement and must be approved by the case manager within 90 days from
the case initiation date.
(6) The
first family reassessment and service plan must be completed by the social
services district or by the provider agency providing services pursuant to a
purchase of service agreement, and must be approved by the case manager no
later than 210 days from the case initiation date. All subsequent family
reassessment and service plan reviews must be completed by the social services
district or by the provider agency providing services pursuant to a purchase of
service agreement, and must be approved by the case manager six months from the
due date of the previous reassessment and every six months
thereafter.
(7) A plan amendment
must be completed by the social services district or by the provider agency
providing services pursuant to a purchase of service agreement, and must be
approved by the case manager for the case, in accordance with the requirements
of section
428.7
of this Part, whenever a significant change occurs in the status of the
case.
(g) Each initial
family assessment, comprehensive family assessment and family reassessment
developed in accordance with this Part must contain, as applicable: a written
consideration of whether it is safe for the child to remain in his or her home;
or whether it is safe for the child to remain in his or her current foster care
placement, and whether it is safe to discharge the child from foster
care.
(h) The name or other
information identifying the reporter and/or the source of a report of suspected
child abuse or maltreatment, as well as the agency, institution, organization,
and/or program with which such person(s) is associated must only be recorded or
documented in progress notes and such documentation must be recorded in the
manner specified by OCFS.
(i) With
respect to a child in foster care who has attained the age of 14 years, the
family assessment and service plan and any amendments thereto must be developed
in consultation with the child and, at the option of the child, up to two
members of the child's case planning team who are chosen by the child and who
are neither the child's foster parent(s) nor the child's case manager, case
planner or case worker. The agency with case management responsibility may
reject an individual selected by the child to be a member of the child's case
planning team if the agency has good cause to believe that the individual would
not act in the child's best interests. One individual selected by the child to
be a member of the child's case planning team may be designated to be the
child's advisor and, as necessary, advocate with respect to the application of
the reasonable and prudent parent standard for the child.
