Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 12, March 26, 2025
(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;
(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:
(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.
