Foster Care for Children Licensing Standards 622-05

 

Definitions 622-05-05

(Revised 6/1/22 ML #3677)

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1. Affidavit of Compliance with Licensing Requirements: A statement in writing by a representative of a recognized Indian Tribe stating that a specific home on or near an Indian reservation meets federal and state requirements to provide foster care in their home. The statement must be subscribed and sworn before the Tribal chairperson or other authorized person from the Tribal Nation with a State-Tribal Title IV-E agreement.

2. Applicant: Individuals who have completed, signed, dated, and submitted an application to provide foster care for children.

3. Approval: The approval by the Department means, upon submission of tribal licensing standards or in the absence of tribal licensing standards compliance with state standards, of a family located on or near, as identified by the tribe, a recognized Indian reservation in North Dakota, not subject to the jurisdiction of the state of North Dakota for licensing purposes. (NDCC-50-11-00.1)

4. Authorized agent: Authorized agent means the Children and Family Services Licensing Unit, a licensed child placing agency, Tribal Nation or another entity designated by the Department.

5. Child and Family Team: Every child in foster care shall have a permanency plan reviewed by a Child and Family Team that meets not less than once each quarter in which the human service zone, division of juvenile services, or Tribal Nation acts as the custodial agency supervising the child in foster care.

6. Custodial agency: Public agency granted custody of a child in foster care; human services zone, division of juvenile services or a Tribal Nation.
   
   
7. Department: Department means North Dakota Department of Human Services including the Children and Family Services (CFS) Licensing Unit.

8. Foster Care for Children: Foster care for children means the provision of substitute parental child care for those children who are in need of care for which the child's parent, guardian, or custodian is unable, neglects, or refuses to provide, and includes the provision of food, shelter, security and safety, guidance, and comfort on a twenty-four-hour basis, to one or more children under twenty-one years of age to safeguard the child's growth and development and to minimize and counteract hazards to the child's emotional health inherent in the separation from the child's family. Foster care may be provided in a licensed or approved family foster home for children, supervised independent living program, or qualified residential treatment.
   
   
9. Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 (PL 115-123): Implemented October 1, 2019, this law allows North Dakota and Tribal Nations with an approved IV-E agreement, to use federal funds to provide enhanced support to children and families and prevent foster care placement through the provision of mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, in-home parent skill-based programs and kinship navigator services. This act also seeks to reduce residential placements for children and instead emphasize placements into family foster homes.

10. Family Foster Home: Family foster home means an occupied private residence in which foster care is regularly provided by the owner or lessee thereof to no more than six children, unless the CFS Licensing Unit approves otherwise. The CFS Licensing Unit will review requests to increase the bed capacity for a licensed foster home beyond the limitation of six if the home has the physical capacity to accept and care for additional placements and for any of the following reasons:

1. To allow a parenting youth in foster care to remain with their own child.
2. To allow siblings to remain together.
3. To allow a child with an established meaningful relationship with the family to remain with the family.
4. To allow a family with special training or skills to provide care to a child who has a severe disability.

11. Foster Care Provider: The licensed family home providing foster care to children responsible for meeting and maintaining minimum licensing requirements.
    
    
12. Foster Home License: The document issued by the CFS Licensing Unit which authorizes the applicant to provide foster care subject to the limitations as specified on the license; i.e. a license limited to a specific child(ren), age group, gender of child(ren), for a one-year period or less.
    
    
13. Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Fostering Connections): The Fostering Connections Act includes important improvements for children who enter foster care or are at risk of entering foster care. The act offers vulnerable children meaningful family connections and important protections and support, including promoting permanent families for them through relative guardianship and adoption and improving education and healthcare.
    
    
14. Identified Relative: The child’s grandparent, great-grandparent, sibling, half-sibling, step-parent, aunt, great-aunt, uncle, great-uncle, nephew, niece or first cousin. An individual with a relationship to the children, derived through a current or former spouse of the child’s parent, similar to a relationship described in the first sentence. An individual recognized in the child’s community as having a relationship with the child. (NDCC 50-11)

14. License Capacity: The maximum number of children in foster care who can live in a foster home at any given time.

15. Licensed Relative Home: A relative may request to have their home licensed or approved. If the home meets the standards for licensure or approval, a license may be issued and the appropriate foster care daily rate must be reimbursed to the relative provider. NOTE: There is a relative waiver option that can be considered for non-safety related licensing compliance.

16. License Requirement: No person may furnish foster care for children for more than 30 days during a calendar year without first procuring a license to do so from the Department. The mandatory provisions of this section requiring licensure do not apply when the care is provided in:
    1. The home of an identified relative; or
    2. A home or institution under the management and control of the state or a political subdivision.

17. Maintenance Payment: The reimbursement made to the foster care providers to meet the needs of the child(ren)placed in licensed or approved (Tribal Affidavit) foster home.

18. Permanency Planning: The process of assessing and engaging families, to best need the permanent plan of a child which may include returning to the parent(s), relative care, guardianship, adoption (if applicable) or another planned permanent living arrangement.
    
    
19. Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 (PL 113-182): This law advanced the protection and prevention of children and youth in foster care from exploitation, from becoming victims of sex trafficking and made improvements to the child welfare system to help advance long term permanency outcomes for children and youth in foster care.

20. Provisional Status: A provisional status is a condition imposed when a foster care provider does not meet compliance with licensing standards. A provisional license is not eligible to receive foster care maintenance payments. Reimbursement can occur again, when the license becomes fully compliant with the State's licensing standards.
    
    

21. Specialized Reimbursement: An excess maintenance payment (EMP) made to eligible foster care providers to meet the needs of children with special needs, in accordance with North Dakota Department of Human Services Manual Chapters 624-05 and 623-05.

22. Substitute Caregiver: A substitute caregiver is a responsible adult, age 21 or older, temporarily providing care for a child in foster care in the absence of the foster care providers. When a child in foster care is placed in substitute care during the absence of the foster care providers, prior approval of the substitute care; must be given by the child’s custodial case manager. Prior approval is not required for short periods of substitute care such as a portion of one day. The child in foster care may not be removed from this state without the prior approval of the child’s custodial case manager.

23. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA): The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) seeks to ensure safety, permanency, and well-being for children. Foster care provides a temporary safe, alternate setting for a child when the child’s family cannot provide care. ASFA emphasizes the need for the foster care experience to be brief, but more intense in terms of planning with the family and others to achieve permanency for the child. ASFA imposed strict timelines on states for meeting certain milestones in foster care case activity. It discourages long-term foster care and eliminates that as one of the permanency options for children. Encouraged are reunification, relative care, guardianship, and adoption. Other options are considered before termination of parental rights and adoption. Concurrent planning is used when appropriate: the agency works on two goals for the child simultaneously; for example, reunification and relative care. Services are provided to the family to ready them for reunification. If that doesn’t happen, the relative care option is ready, and the child’s permanency is achieved in a more timely manner.