Ongoing Out-of-Home Care Services

Out-of-Home Child Protective Services (CPS) cases involve an unsafe child where impending danger is controlled through an out-of-home placement.

A thorough understanding of child safety decisions and actions is essential for caseworkers since safety assessment, analysis, planning, and the management of child safety occurs in every aspect of CPS involvement with a family.

Ongoing Services has the following fundamental intervention responsibilities:

• Evaluating the existing safety plan developed during initial assessment/investigation.
• Managing child safety through continuous assessment, oversight, and adjustment of safety plans that ensure child safety and are the least intrusive to the family.
• Engaging families in the case planning process that identifies underlying needs which directs services to address threats to child safety.
• Measuring progress related to enhancing parent/caregiver protective capacities and eliminating safety related issues.
• Achieving timely permanence for all cases.

Information from an initial assessment, a child welfare assessment, or the juvenile court intake process guides decision-making about whether an agency will open a case for ongoing services. When children are safe, but the agency determines that a child requires either specific services or sanctions in the community or in a placement setting, the agency opens a child welfare case.

Child welfare cases involve providing support and services to a family. The caseworker focuses on:

• Assessing the family for strengths and needs
• Managing safety of placement setting
• Achieving permanence and well-being
• Attaining safe case closure

These cases may be court ordered or voluntary, and may include Juvenile Justice (JJ) and Juveniles in Need of Protection or Services (JIPS) cases.

Safety intervention for child welfare cases focuses on confirming children remain safe and protected from abuse and neglect.

Although child safety is not the reason for agency intervention, it is important to understand there may be times during the life of a case when family dynamics and functioning change, resulting in an unsafe child. At this point, a case becomes a child protective services case and can no longer be served as a child welfare case.

Placement in foster care is usually temporary and gives families time to make necessary changes so the child can safely live in his or her home and community. Most children in foster care return home to their families, which is called reunification. When children cannot return home, they find permanence through adoption, guardianship, or other means.

There are many resources that can assist caseworkers and agencies in making placements in foster care.  Caseworkers must follow the placement requirements that are described in the Ongoing Services Standards.

Geographic Placement Resource System

The Geographic Placement Resource System (GPRS) can help caseworkers and agencies find foster care placements for children throughout Wisconsin. The GPRS uses geo-mapping to map all out-of-home care providers and foster children throughout Wisconsin, as well as the United States if Wisconsin is responsible for those providers and children.

• The Geographic Placement Resource System User's Guide explains how to navigate the GPRS.

Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool

When a child enters out-of-home care, there are child assessment requirements which must occur.

This assessment is called the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool is a multi-purpose tool developed to

• Support decision making, including level of need and service planning
• To facilitate quality improvement initiatives
• To allow for the monitoring of outcomes of services

  The CANS tool assesses a child’s needs and strengths in different areas such as:

• School
• Trauma
• Mental health needs
• Risk behaviors

Additional information about the CANS can be found in Chapter DCF 56.22.

Funding Opportunity for Community Based Supports for Foster Children

A grant opportunity is available for supporting children in community-based settings. Please see DSP information memo 2022-24i for more information.

eWiSACWIS

Child Abuse and Neglect Removal Reasons defines the federal AFCARS reason for removal values selected in eWiSACWIS when documenting a child’s removal.

The Indian Child Welfare Act mandates that states make active efforts in every ICWA case in two areas

1. Provide services to the family to prevent removal of an Indian child from his or her parent or Indian custodian.
2. Reunify an Indian child with his or her parent or Indian custodian after removal.

The Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act (WICWA) clarifies, with specificity, when in the course of an action a court must make the finding that active efforts have been made. More information about active efforts can be found in the Active Efforts: A Child Welfare Practitioner’s Guide for Meeting the WICWA Active Efforts Requirement guide.

Child Welfare Reports & Dashboards provides standard report documents and dashboards. Dashboards are interactive, visual reports showing statewide and local agency child welfare summary data. They cover Child Protective Services, Placement, Placement Discharge, Well-being and Provider Based Measures.

Using Data in Child Welfare and Youth Justice Practice is a source of more information available to agency workers.