What services are available to prevent placement in Foster Care?

This questioned was asked by a number of parents during a child welfare focus group at the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health Conference.

Before a court places your child in foster care, it must determine that the state has made "reasonable efforts" to prevent the need to remove your child. There are several types of in-home services, supported by federal funds, designed to assist families to stay together. These services may be short-term crisis services or longer-term services, depending upon the level of your family crisis and the availability in your community. Two types of in-home services offered in many communities are described below:

1. Intensive Home Based Family Preservation Services (IFPS) are intervention services for situations in which a child has been assessed to be at the highest risk of removal from his/her family home. That means that if IFPS were not used, Child Protective Services would remove the child from his home 72 hours to 1 week after the assessment. Your family would use these services as a last resort before placement. These services use methods that remove the immediate conditions that created the crisis. Therefore, they focus on meeting needs of food, clothing, shelter, home repairs, health care, day care, etc. The services are provided for 8-12 weeks, with staff available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Families who use these services spend up to 20 hours per week with a combination of child welfare agency and community providers.

If your family uses IFPS services, you can expect:

• to be contacted immediately after a referral has been made 

• that services will take place in your home to teach practical skills in the place where they will be used

• that skills such as parenting, cleaning, painting, shopping, negotiating, and budgeting, will be modeled with you by service providers

• that concrete services such as flexible dollars for repairs, housing, utilities, food, and necessary clothing will be provided.

2. Longer Term Family Support Services are also designed to promote the safety and well - being of children and families. They are used when risk of placement is not immediate, but when families still need help to stay together. Most are based in child welfare agencies that contract with community providers for additional services such as drug treatment, mental health services, domestic violence services, parenting classes, and conflict resolution, as well as individual and family counseling. In some states they are provided by a combination of public and private agencies. However, all of them share the same goal, which is preventing out-of-home placement while ensuring the well - being and safety of children in their own homes.

These services are intended to help families by:

• supporting families in their efforts to care for their children by teaching, counseling, and advocating;

• stabilizing families in times of crisis-helping families to manage their daily lives and remain safely together or stay connected;

• helping families to heal-creating opportunities for children and families to overcome past harms and losses;

• connecting families to community resources that will help them in the future;

• advocating for improved social and financial conditions for families and children; and

• reconnecting families whose children have spent time outside of the family home.