Case Management Monthly Visitation 624-05-15-50-30

(Revised 1/15/21 ML #3600)

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Federal Social Security Act, Section 422(b)(17) and Section 424(e)(2) require all foster children receive ongoing contact and visitation with parent(s), siblings and custodial case managers. A child in foster care should have at least one face-to-face visit with the custodial case manager each month the child is in foster care. During each monthly visit, the worker is required to assess and address the child’s safety, permanency and well-being with quality and as necessary as needed to meet the needs of the child and family.

 

The primary foster care case manager supervising the placement of a child must have or arrange for regular contacts with the foster child, child's parent(s), and foster care provider while coordinating services for the foster child and family.

 

North Dakota's minimum standards for foster care case manager monthly visitation:

  1. Placement in North Dakota
  1. Personal face-to-face contact at least once per month is required with the children in foster care.
  2. The goal of monthly face-to-face visitation is to ensure safety of the child, review, and work to achieve the permanency goal as quickly as possible.
  3. Majority of the monthly face-to-face visits must occur in the location in which the child resides, which may be a relative caregiver, licensed foster home, residential facility, hospital or even the home where the child was removed, if on a trial home visit.
  4. Face-to-face visits can be conducted by any authorized employee designated within the custodial agency. However, whenever possible the child shall have the opportunity to meet with his/her primary foster care case manager.
  5. Face-to-face visits must address the child's safety, needs, issues, and conditions needed for reunification or permanency. The visit must also address the overall well-being of the foster child, foster care provider and his/her family.
  6. The use of interactive technology (Skype, FaceTime, etc.) does not meet the federal requirements of a 'face-to-face' visit. Monthly face-to-face visitation is required, while the use of technology and phone calls to engage in more frequent and ongoing communication is highly encouraged.
  1. Placement Out-of-State
  1. Custodial agencies must carefully consider the placement of a child out of the state. If it is the most appropriate placement option, face-to-face contact at least once per month is required.
  2. Custodial agencies can determine how visitation of children placed out of state will be accomplished as visitation standards are the same for children placed out of state as for those placed within North Dakota.
  1. Special Circumstances – Contracting Visitation
  1. On occasions when a face-to-face visit is not possible between the child’s primary case manager or a designated employee within the custodial agency, the agency is allowed to contract visitation responsibilities.
  2. If visitation cannot occur with the primary case manager, an agency designee or contracted visitation worker must be provided the pertinent information regarding the child’s case plan goals, needs of the child, needs of the parents/caregivers, and foster care providers.
  3. The agency designee or contracted visitation worker making the contact is responsible for assessing the safety and well-being of the child. Documentation of the visit must be provided to the child’s primary case manager to be included in the child’s case file and entered into the ND case management system. The contracted visitation worker shall be provided the monthly face-to-face visitation tool as guidance.
  4. If utilizing a contracted visitation worker from another agency, a formal agreement must be signed and placed into the child’s file to ensure understanding of expectations, consistency in case management responsibilities and authority to complete the monthly face-to-face visits on behalf of the custodian.
  5. If a child is placed out of state in a facility, the primary case manager may contact the Children and Family Services ICPC Administrator to see if there are any other North Dakota children placed in the same location. This would provide a collaborative arrangement for the North Dakota public agency (County/Human Service Zone, DJS or Tribe) to visit the children regularly as a joint effort. Securing an out of state visitation agency to complete the monthly face-to-face visit is an option, but the primary case manager or designee from North Dakota is preferred.

Documentation Efforts:

The department developed a monthly face-to-face visitation tool (Tool) to assist foster care case managers in ensuring consistency in visitation, while meeting compliance with required topic areas. The foster care case manager or agency designee must:

  1. Enter the face-to-face visitation details into the case management system as a new case activity log.
  2. Enter whether or not the visitation took place in the foster child’s residence. Entry codes mean:
  1. FF = Face-to-face contact not in child's residence
  2. FR = Face-to-face in child's residence

Case Manager Visitation With Parents

The case manager must also meet with parents or primary caregivers from whom the child was removed at least monthly. “Parents” refer to the biological or adoptive parent(s), noncustodial parent who is involved or wishes to be involved in the life of the child, the primary caregiver(s) with whom the child was removed and the current foster care provider.

 

The frequency and quality of the visits between the case manager and the parents must be at the highest level of engagement, which may include one or a combination of face-to-face, telephone, FaceTime, texting, emailing, etc. The visitation with parents must be sufficient to address issues pertaining to the safety, permanency, and well-being of the children and promote achievement of case goals. The length of the visits should be of sufficient duration to address key issues with the child(ren) and in a location conducive to open and honest conversation. The documentation of the frequency and quality of visits with parents must be entered into the case management system monthly.

 

Visitation Impact on Onsite Case Review (OCR)

States across the nation are required to engage in federal review for children in foster care. In completing the review, a team of Department Quality Assurance staff will use the national instrument, conduct case file reviews and case-related interviews with children, parents, foster parents, caseworkers, and others involved in the life of the child. Various review items highlight visiting with parents and siblings in foster care (item 8), preserving connections (item 9), engaging in parental and sibling relationship development (item 11), caseworker visits with child (item 14) and caseworker visits with parents (item 15).