NIPFC October 2023 Blast

Hello again—it has been a long time since we have created a blast! We have been engaged in a great deal of product development and are awaiting completion of the final versions to share with you. Some of them have recently been released, which we are pleased to help disseminate: The Family Finding and Engagement Toolkit for Probation Officers and Supervisors, and the Due Diligence bench card (specifically for California).

We also want to communicate that in our efforts to more uniquely brand our work, we now identify our approach as “Family Network Building: Realizing a Just Permanency for All Families”. To learn more about this approach, please see our updated organizational approach below or visit our website here.

Finally we have been working intensively with UC Davis and the Center for Excellence to assist in the development of training materials (microlearning instructional modules, informational packets, etc.) to support the consistent establishment of a kin-first culture and family centered practice approach statewide. Bob Friend will be participating in a webinar on Tuesday Nov 14, from 1-3 PST on partnering to achieve a kin-first culture in CA:

Creating a Kin-First Culture Through Partnerships with Service Providers: presented by Seneca, Wayfinder, and Family Builders

Tuesday, November 14, 1:00—3:00pm (PST)

This special webinar will be a panel presentation focusing on the potential for child welfare and probation to partner with service providers. Seneca, Wayfinder, and Family Builders will share information about how they team to keep children and youth connected to their families, communities, and tribes.

Family Network Building:

Realizing a Just Permanency for All Families

Our dignity and justice driven approach centers on family* engagement and involvement in order to build family networks of support that can guide the youth long after they exit the system. The foundations of this approach include:

Forging system alignment with all court and system partners with a shared commitment to ensuring every youth served will have a “family” network in place who can love and support the youth wherever they will live. That “family” are prioritized as potential homes for the youth to reside in, and the family network are invited and welcomed to all planning and decision-making opportunities that affect the youth’s life while in care.
Utilizing long established discovery methods, including a search service that is the most well established and comprehensive tool in the United States, while seamlessly integrating effective engaging collaborative strategies that are curious about and respect the families’ values, culture, and history.
Supporting the network to meet the needs of youth, using professional services when necessary, so that youth have the asset base necessary to thrive and therefore no longer require the oversight and protection of the juvenile court.

We have built out training with experiential activities to help those learning the approach to appreciate the experience of the people they are engaging with the learned tools/activities, and to provide feedback and coaching to them as they test out these tools/activities with the families they serve.

We emphasize the importance of supervision of the work that breaks from historical child welfare practice and instead centers on family engagement and network development as a primary focus. We provide coaching and consultation, along with tools to supervisors so that they can effectively supervise the practice.

*It is important to understand what the family deems as their “family,” which can include relatives, non-related extended family, and anyone else within the family and youth’s network.

Family Finding and Engagement Toolkit for Probation Officers and Supervisors with CPOCF

NIPFC contracted with the Chief Probation Officers of California Foundation (CPOCF) to develop a Family Finding and Engagement Toolkit for Probation Officers and Supervisors. This toolkit was designed to address the common practice and mandates that exist for both Probation and Child Welfare in the California system, while also specifically addressing the unique and separate requirements Probation must follow under state law, found here.

Legal and Emotional Permanence

Training Recording

We are excited to announce that Bob Friend, Kelly Beck, and Mike Mertz recorded the Legal and Emotional Permanence training for the Judicial Council of California this year. You can access the video on JCART here (please note, sign-in to JCART is required).

We will soon be releasing another training video for A Deep Dive into Due Diligence: Kin-first and Relative Placement Preference.

System Alignment to Generate System Change: Highlighting Work in Santa Cruz County

California Child Welfare Council Presentation

Bob Friend, Judges Denine Guy, Timothy Schmal, and Jerry Vinluan from Santa Cruz County, Marymichael Smrdeli (Supervising Attorney from the Judicial Council of California (JCC)), Rob Doty (former Division Director of Santa Cruz County Probation), and Kelli Kopeck (Program Manager from Santa Cruz County Family and Children Services) presented the system alignment work that is currently being done in Santa Cruz County to the California Child Welfare Council on June 14, 2023. View their presentation here (1:25:06-2:01:27).

NIPFC contracted with JCC to develop two bench cards which focus on the requirements of relative placement preferences as well as Due Diligence to identify, locate and notice relatives for both Child Welfare and Probation. These bench cards are a great resource for all stakeholders and especially for those advocating for foster care placement prevention; a kin-first approach and requirements for emergency placements.

The first bench card has already been released (available in the Family Finding and Engagement Toolkit above and on the UC Davis website here) provides law, policy and procedures that can be argued and implemented prior to and at the Detention Hearing. It centers around placement priorities, emergency placement requirements and engaging questions to uncover kin, nonrelative extended family members (NREFM), and important connections.

The second bench card is completed and will be publicly available soon. It includes the above and adds requirements to meet Due Diligence/Family Finding and what to include in reports around these issues. Both bench cards include statutory, federal, rules and case law as references and cites.

A number of bills were signed by Governor Newsom in the past two years attending to child welfare in California—here are two of note:

SB 1085

Signed into law in 2022.

Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge certain children to be dependents of the court under certain circumstances, including when the child has suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm or illness as a result of various types of neglect.

Existing law prohibits a child from being found to be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court on that basis solely due to the lack of an emergency shelter for the family or the failure of the child’s parent or alleged parent to seek court orders for custody of the child.

This bill would prohibit a child from being found to be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court on that basis solely due to indigence or other conditions of financial difficulty. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that families should not be subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court nor should children be separated from their parents based on conditions of financial difficulty, as specified.

SB 578

Signed by Governor Newsom and chaptered 10/8/2023.

This bill would require the social worker’s report to also include information regarding the short-term and long-term harms to the child that may result from their removal, including:

1. the child’s perspective on removal, the existing relationship between the child and members of the household, and

2. the disruption to the child’s schooling, social relationships, and

3. physical or emotional health that may result from placement out of the home, and

4. in the case of an Indian child, the child’s connection to their tribe, extended family members, and tribal community.

The bill would also require the social worker’s report to include placement options, including an assessment of the least disruptive alternatives to returning the child to the custody of their parent, guardian, or Indian custodian, and other measures that may be taken to alleviate disruption and minimize the harms of removal.

The bill would require the court to determine whether less disruptive alternatives to removal were considered, as specified. If the court finds that removal is necessary, require the court to set forth, in a written order or on the record: the child’s placement and the basis for its findings, whether the placement complies with specified placement preferences, and would require the court to include any orders necessary to alleviate any disruption or harm to the child resulting from removal.

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Seneca Family of Agencies

8945 Golf Links Rd

Oakland, CA 94605

(510) 362-4988