As you are aware, Wisconsin's Program Enhancement Plan (PEP), developed in response to the federal Child and Family Services Review, includes action steps related to maintaining and supporting family connections for children removed from their homes. One aspect of those action steps is the creation of a policy related to family interaction during the time period that the child is removed from the home.

Attached to this memo is the new policy on family interaction. The policy is an interim policy that provides standards and supplemental information to caseworkers to assist in maintaining attachments between children and their parents/ families when children are placed in out-of-home care. This policy will be incorporated at a later date into the revisions of the Ongoing Services Standards For Child Protective Services. This policy is regarded as interim because it is subject to change based on the revisions to the Standards as well as requirements that may be included in proposed administrative rule Ch. HFS 44 relating to permanency planning and reasonable efforts.

This new policy becomes effective on October 31, 2005.

Attachment  (PDF 50 kb)