identify gaps in family finding and connection for children. Another key practice of the Family Engagement Initiative is the Rapid and Crisis Response Meetings, family- centered meetings that encourage parents and children to make an emergency plan to prevent family separation and to identify kin supports if removal is necessary. xxxiii Finally, the initiative works to enhance legal representation, another key strategy to increasing kinship placement. Permanency Barriers Project The American Bar Association’s Permanency Barriers Project, funded by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Office of Children, Youth and Families, helps to identify, analyze and correct the delays that cause lengthy waits for foster youth to achieve permanency. The Project focuses on improving court and agency relationships, streamlining the legal process and providing Pennsylvania-specific training. Areas of focus have included assistance with writing state policies that promote maintaining kinship relationships and prioritizing placement with kin, conducting regional and statewide kinship trainings and county-level assistance to improve kinship practice. The Project’s work in Westmoreland County has helped to significantly increase formal kinship placements. Kinship Custody Case Studies Ted Ted has been raising his two grandchildren for the past 3 years and has ongoing concerns about the parents’ ability to care for the children and keep them safe. The parents have started coming around saying they will take the children from Ted. Ted cannot legally withhold the children from their parents, unless he has a court order stating otherwise. Ted wants to file for custody but cannot afford an attorney. Janette Janette’s grandson lives with her and needs his wisdom teeth removed. While the dentist has allowed her to continue her grandson’s routine care after the mother had given her consent years ago, without a parent’s consent for surgery, the dentist refuses to do more invasive care. Janette has lost touch with the mother and cannot afford an attorney to help her figure out how to file for custody.
Families are empowered to identify a plan that is tailored to their needs, including but not limited to identifying recommended kinship placements and offering support with transportation, after-school care, housing and preparing meals, among others. Family Finding Family Finding is a practice now required by state law that must occur at least once a year until the child achieves permanency. Agencies must not only seek to first place children with relatives when separation is necessary, xxviii they must also search for and engage kin in service planning and delivery, and also seek to gain commitment from kin to support children and parents. xxix Additionally, the Rules of Juvenile Court Procedure require that the court must take a proactive role in each hearing to ensure that the agency has met its obligation to support meaningful family finding. xxx The Pennsylvania Dependency Bench Book, 3rd Edition, includes guidance on how judges and legal professionals can ensure meaningful family finding occurs, emphasizing that while the agency may take the lead on family finding practices, family finding is best understood as a shared responsibility among judges, legal and county child welfare agency professionals. xxxi Family Engagement Initiative (FEI) The state Family Engagement Initiative is a project of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, Office of Children and Families in the Courts that launched in select counties beginning in 2018. xxxii The project brings together many of the best practices in family engagement and family finding and has shown impressive early results in keeping children in their homes and with their families. It requires the agency to submit to the court a regularly updated Family Finding Report, which includes: a document identifying the child’s connections among family, friends, school and community; a calendar showing the child’s activities and connections; and a checklist identifying which family members have been engaged and how they are willing to offer support. These documents not only assist in building a strong network of family connection, including potential kinship placements, they also help all professionals including court personnel to
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Kinship Care in Pennsylvania: Creating an Equitable System for Families – January 2021
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