New York System Type: County-Administered, State-Supervised
The “Blind Removal Strategy”, originally implemented in Nassau County and starting its statewide implementation in New York in 2020, is a process that occurs when a child welfare agency recommends out-of-home placement for a child. A committee of child welfare professionals convene a case review to determine if there is enough cause to place a child away from their parents. While the caseworker presents information on the case, including assessment of risk, case history and family strengths, none of the identifiable information is offered. This includes withholding information on race and ethnicity demographics and other identifiable information that could lead to bias in the decision-making process. Results have included reduced rates of placement, especially for children of color. While just being implemented on a statewide level from a county pilot, this is an example where other county-administered systems can consider a similar approach in starting with something more localized and consider the option of scaling it in the long term if successful. Tennessee System Type: State-Administered Tennessee’s Kinship Exemption Request policy, implemented in 2018, outlines required family finding attempts that must be made prior to the child welfare agency seeking approval to proceed with non-relative placement options. Included in the process is the use of kinship coordinators, who assist the worker with ensuring that all relative options have been located, contacted and exhausted. Additional layers of accountability are assigned to ensure that all efforts are made to place the child with kin prior to proceeding with approval for an exemption. While Pennsylvania has its own language around family finding practices in statute, it was last updated in 2013 and does not provide nearly the robust requirements contained in the Tennessee language. The Pennsylvania statute only requires an annual search for extended family members for a child while he or she has been accepted for accepted for services, in addition to the identification of extended family members willing to be short-term or long-term placement resources. It is not inclusive of further provisions such as kinship coordinator staffing support, language on ensuring all family finding efforts have been exhausted and ultimately the step of having to proceed only via an exemption approval in that situation. In this example, other states, including Pennsylvania, may want to consider broadening its own state law via a legislative amendment dependent upon the outcomes of the Tennessee policy implementation. Pennsylvania would need to consider how this would be adapted to be implemented county-by-county due to the structure of the child welfare delivery system. Connecticut System Type: State Administered As a part of its Family First Prevention Services Act implementation planning efforts, Connecticut has developed a Kinship & Foster Care Workgroup and related charter. Over several months, the state is looking at engaging kin and youth in the planning process and has adopted tangible deliverables and associated timeframes for informing policy. While Pennsylvania has a Family First Project Team and several related subcommittees, family-based placement has not been an area of its focus. It is expected that this work will be embarked upon as a subcommittee in the coming months and, in that event, stakeholders can look to the work being done in the Connecticut workgroup to see if any of the deliverables they have produced can be investigated for use in Pennsylvania. New Jersey System Type: State Administered In June 2020, New Jersey updated its waiver process that outlines timelines for waiving non-safety regulations that are barriers to licensing kin. The policy further outlines how prior abuse and neglect allegations can be waived when appropriate and the amount of time needed for a response on the waiver. While Pennsylvania recently issued its own bulletin pertaining to licensing waivers in November 2020, it does not have any guidance accompanied to assist county child welfare agencies on decision making and is not specific to nor aimed at increased use of formal kinship placement.
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Kinship Care in Pennsylvania: Creating an Equitable System for Families – January 2021
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