Statewide Quality Assurance Report

Florida Department of Children and FamiliesCase Management Services - 2009-2010 Quality Assurance ReportWhen the case plan goal is reunification, the child must be placed as close as possible to theparent with whom reunification is planned. When placing children, the case worker must takeinto consideration the family’s home address, its proximity to the placement, and the impact onfrequency of parent/child visitation. Every possible effort must be made to place siblings in thesame home, when two or more siblings are in licensed or non-licensed out-of-home care.Concerted efforts are required to maintain the child’s connections to his or her neighborhood,community, faith, extended family, tribe, and friends. The most appropriate available out-ofhomecare placement should be chosen based on the child's community ties and schoolplacement. To ensure continuity of education, concerted efforts are required to maintain thechild within the same school, if at all possible.When removal or court ordered supervision occurs, the case worker must inquire of themother or father (or a maternal or paternal relative if the mother or father could not be located)about whether they are of Native American or Alaskan Native descent. The service agency isresponsible for ensuring that a child who is receiving services has been appropriately identifiedas to heritage. Each area showed improvement, but significant improvement was noted inplacing siblings together and making inquiries related to Native American or Alaskan Nativeheritage.Quality of Practice for Child PlacementStd# Standard # Cases Yes No# of ApplicableCasesPracticeRating26The child's current placement was in close proximity to the parents to facilitateface-to-face contact between the child and parents while the child was in outof-homecare. (applicable to out-of-home care cases)1575 748 64 812 92%28The child was placed with siblings who were also in licensed and/or nonlicensedout-of-home care.1575 449 304 753 60%32 Concerted efforts were made to maintain the child's important connections. 1575 1022 167 1189 86%33An inquiry was made to determine if the child was of Native American orAlaskan Native heritage.1575 671 777 1448 46%Table III g-2Office of Family Safety | Page 29