Candidacy Definitions: FFPSA
What to consider when writing your definition for FFPSA candidates
We hope to highlight the definitions of candidates for foster care or imminent risk definitions that are upstream or that may cast a wider net for children and families. The following handful of definitions include highlights from candidate definitions that reference inclusion of parenting skills, risk factors for maltreatment, services necessary to prevent maltreatment, in-home services or home visiting, etc.
Indiana: Indiana’s approach to their candidacy definition is upstream and includes children and families receiving home visiting services. Their draft definition includes: “Children and families served by providers outside of Department of Child Services (who can remain safely at home and will have an individualized service/prevention plan) including, children and families (including relatives and kin) receiving Healthy Families of Indiana services; children and families (including relatives and kin) receiving Nurse-Family Partnership services; and children who have exited foster care through reunification, guardianship, or adoptions and may be at risk of re-entry into foster care”
Arkansas: Arkansas casts a fairly wide net with a focus on early childhood. Among the reasons a child might be determined a candidate, they include failure to thrive and inadequate supervision with a child in the home 5 and under.
District of Columbia: DC is leveraging a fairly robust system, and for example, candidates include children served through CFSA’s In-Home Service Program, which offers intensive case management and service referrals to family.
Kentucky: Includes children for whom maltreatment has not been substantiated, however, moderate to severe risk factors for maltreatment are present and services are necessary to prevent maltreatment.
Utah: Makes direct link to in home parenting skill-based programs: “For the purposes of the Title IV-E Prevention Program, a child under age 18 is a prevention candidate when at serious risk of entering or reentering foster care, but able to remain safely in the home or kinship placement as long as mental health, substance use disorder, or in-home parenting skill-based programs or services for the child, parent or kin caregiver are provided.”
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