STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

etween standard of care concerns and true safety threats. This has lead workers to have more Child and Family Team
meetings to discuss concerns and develop plans for addressing concerns instead of removing children unnecessarily from
placement providers.
Workers have also found the Visitation Safety Check helpful in being able to assess the parent’s behavior during visitation
to assist them in being able to determine baseline behavior for visitations and making decisions about the appropriate
level of supervision required. Workers are required to review the Visitation Safety Check with their supervisor at monthly
one-to-one supervision to increase the frequency of review of the visitation plan to allow for increases in visitation or
moving toward unsupervised visitation in a timelier manner.
Washoe County Department of Social Services: In the past fiscal year, WCDSS was selected as a site for a
Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) with Casey Family Programs regarding timely permanency for reunification.
Several goals and action steps were initiated with several promising results. These results include the reduction of the
number of children placed into care and a greater understanding by all parties of the child safety model. The BSC team is
very committed and engaged and is recognized often by Casey Family Programs staff for their work completed to date.
Promising practices have been implemented and maintained. WCDSS indicates that continued implementation of the
improvement model (Plan Do Study Act) once the BSC is discontinued (July 2010) will be a challenge. In addition,
WCDSS reports that budget challenges are affecting caseworker caseload size, which in turn affects permanency
outcomes.
DCFS – Rural Region: In an effort to increase diligent search efforts the DCFS-Rural Region, through the Children’s
Justice Act Taskforce Grant was able to purchase the LexisNexis program to conduct people searches for parents and
relatives. The DCFS-Rural Region also had concerns regarding the length of time children are remaining in foster care;
therefore, the Supervisory Review Committee was established. Supervisors throughout the region meet monthly to
review cases and the barriers to permanency for children who have been out of home care for three months or longer.
Each case is reviewed on a quarterly basis. Additionally, to increase contacts between workers and children and to
increase visitation between children and families, webcams have been installed on the majority of DCFS-Rural Region
workers’ computers.
Policy Development and Revision
Statewide Policy: Over the past year two statewide policies were updated to reflect changes to legal requirements and
statewide casework practice. These included Policy 0101 Adoption Subsidy and 1004 Training, Assessment and
Licensing of Foster, Relative and Adoptive Homes. Policy 0101 Adoption Subsidy was revised to update information
regarding the Fostering Connections to Success and increasing Adoptions Act of 2008(P.L 110-251). This revision was
made to ensure that during the application process prospective adoptive parents of children in agency custody are
informed by the child welfare agencies of the availability of a Federal Adoption Tax Credit and that they are directed to the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and/or their tax preparer for more information.
Policy 1004 Training, Assessment and Licensing of Foster, Relative and Adoptive Homes (formerly Policy 1004
Structured Analysis and Family Evaluation (SAFE)) was renamed, revised and approved allowing flexibility for each child
welfare agency to use their own preferred training curriculum, information gathering tools and home study template(s) to
meet the needs of their children and families within their community. This revision maintains consistency in the
information provided to prospective foster/adoptive parents and in the evaluative elements of home studies. Currently the
DCFS Rural Region and WCDSS use the Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE)
curriculum for training foster and adoptive parents. This curriculum uses a model for developing and supporting foster
families and adoptive families, utilizing a standardized, consistent, structured framework for the competency-based
recruitment, preparation, and selection of foster and adoptive parents, and for foster parent in-service training and
ongoing professional development. In the fall 2009, CCDFS adopted the use of the Partnering for Safety and
Permanence – Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (PS-MAPP) curriculum for training foster and adoptive
parents. This curriculum, developed by the Child Welfare Institute, trains and licenses foster and adoptive families using
consultation and interaction with the participants to allow families to “self select,” as they learn about the needs of children
in foster care. Information used to complete the PS-MAPP home study is collected throughout the process. Both the PS-
MAPP and PRIDE curriculum provide approved families certification for both foster care and adoption which eliminates
the need for a separate home study when/if a foster family chooses to adopt a child in their care, thereby expediting the
process.
In addition to policy development and revision, the State submitted a bill for the 2011 session to amend NRS 127.060 to
allow Nevada agencies to finalize adoptions of children in their custody who are placed with families (usually relatives) in
Nevada APSR – SFY 2010
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