System Improvements

Eight system improvements are identified in the settlement agreement. Implementation of each is required and will be monitored by the court monitor until the exit criteria are met.

Develop and implement an array of supported statewide housing for young people ages 16-20 years with living unit configurations tailored to the needs of youth, including; 24/7 staffing who provide culturally responsive, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and trauma-informed support and training in independent living skills, transportation for participants to stay connected to their friends and families, and crisis response that includes intensive case management.

In response to the issue of placement stability, but prior to the settlement agreement, DCYF was working to pilot a new placement resource, the Adolescent Transitional Living Program (ATLP). ATLP is a supported housing program for eligible youth who would prefer to live independently rather than in a family setting, as described in the Settlement Agreement. Because ATLP will initially serve only 33 young people statewide, DCYF will assess the need for ATLP expansion and/or other housing services that will be necessary to provide a more complete range of services and programs to make up DCYF’s service array for emerging adults as imagined in the Settlement Agreement.

Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are:

  1. Exit Criteria 37(1) Maintain adequate resources to oversee and sustain contracting/recruitment, training, and provider quality. 
  2. Exit Criteria 37(2) Consistent with the Implementation Plan, sites, contracts, licensing, policies, and additional program staff training in therapeutic, culturally responsive, LGBTQIA+ affirming and trauma-informed care are established statewide.

Resources

Develop and implement a contract and licensing category for Professional Therapeutic Foster Care (PTFC). This licensing category is intended to support children and their immediate families when reunification or placement with extended or chosen family is not possible due to the child’s developmental disabilities or behavioral needs. Children and youth with significant behavioral health needs and developmental disabilities have experienced high levels of placement instability, more restrictive placements, and longer lengths of stay in group care because the current Behavior Rehabilitation Services (BRS) therapeutic homes are not able to meet their needs. 

PTFC can provide youth stability, offer immediate family members and kinship caregivers support, and encourage connection to help safely reunify families. Implementing a PTFC model will provide a less restrictive placement option for youth who may otherwise enter or remain in group care placement.

Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

  1. Exit Criteria 38(1) Maintain adequate resources to oversee and sustain contracting/recruitment, training, and provider quality. 
  2. Exit Criteria 38(2) Consistent with the Implementation Plan, establish sites, contracts, licensing, policies, and additional program staff training in therapeutic, culturally responsive, LGBTQIA+ affirming and trauma-informed care statewide.

Resources

Professional Therapeutic Foster Care Program Outline

DCYF will expand implementation of the Mockingbird Family (MBF) Hub-Home Model (HHM) statewide and establish at least one Hub per region whose Hub Home parents have experience caring for young people who currently or previously qualified for intensive resources and support such as Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe) or Behavior Rehabilitation Services (BRS). 

Expansion includes creating agency infrastructure to sustain Hub Homes and engage in continuous quality improvement. DCYF will make HHM placements available to young people in the Settlement Class that provide normalizing experiences, adequate supports and services promoting permanency, including reunification, visitation, stabilization, independent living skills training, employment, and therapy or counseling.

Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

  1. Exit Criteria 39(1) Maintain adequate resources to oversee and sustain contracting/recruitment, training, and provider quality. 
  2. Exit Criteria 39(2) Consistent with the Implementation Plan, sites, contracts, licensing, policies, and additional DCYF and program staff training in therapeutic, culturally responsive, LGBTQIA+ affirming and trauma-informed care are established statewide.

Resources

Mockingbird Family Program

In response to the D.S. Settlement, DCYF has agreed to amend contracts and policies, as well as to engage in negotiated rulemaking (NRM) to update licensing requirements for foster care placements, to be more developmentally appropriate and/or flexible to meet individual youth’s needs. The NRM is a process by which representatives of an agency along with stakeholder groups impacted by the agency rule seek to reach consensus on the terms of a proposed rule (Washington Administrative Code (WAC) for DCYF consideration. Once new licensing regulations go into effect, these requirements will be reviewed and updated.  

Seven specific areas will be addressed at a minimum: 

  1. Developmentally appropriate autonomy and privacy, including but not limited to developmentally typical access to mobile phones and support or resources necessary to engage in normal social activities with peers
  2. An obligation to facilitate connections to immediate, extended, and chosen family members in accordance with the youth’s case plan
  3. A responsibility to support youth to remain in their school of origin in accordance with the youth’s case plan
  4. Expectations to provide education, training, and coaching to families of origin and other potential long-term or permanent placements about how to best support the child
  5. Expectations to engage in service or discharge planning
  6. Standards for providing sufficient nutrition and satisfaction of dietary needs
  7. Training requirements and expectations for providing culturally responsive, LGBTQIA+ affirming and trauma-informed care

 Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

  1. Exit Criteria 40(1) New developmentally appropriate rules have been adopted for foster care placements in compliance with Chapter 34 Revised Code of Washington (RCW).

Resources 

The purpose of the Kinship Engagement Unit is to implement a family finding model to identify and engage Class Members' extended family members and friends to support families to safely reunify or stay together. The KEU will be responsible for performing or coordinating five main functions. Some of the activities under these functions are currently integrated into other existing or developing services within DCYF. 

The functions are referenced by number throughout this System Improvement Implementation Plan: 

  1. Conducting initial and on-going family engagement methods that utilize individualized communication methods to enlist support of extended family members and family friends that the child and/or family have identified as trusted and familiar individuals 
  2. Providing information about available supports and resources for immediate and extended families, including family reconciliation services, evidence-based practices, and the Emerging Adult Housing Program, Hub homes, and Professional Therapeutic Foster Parent options; 
  3. Offering peer support and system navigation support to address barriers to engagement and assist in accessing resources and supports that extended and immediate families need
  4. Guiding extended and chosen family placements through the licensure process as requested 
  5. Assisting extended and chosen family placements with the requirements of RCW 13.34.065 or 13.34.130 as requested.

 Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

  1. 41(1) Kinship Engagement Unit with family finding model, including providing individualized communication methods about available community-based services and resources, is established statewide. 
  2. 41(2) Kinship supports, including peer support, system navigation, licensure assistance, and information about available supports, are available to kin of Class Members. 
  3. 41(3) Defendants have received and considered stakeholder feedback as described in Attachment A regarding any additional kinship supports. 
  4. 41(4) Data is collected and demonstrates improvements in timeliness and delivery of kinship engagement services.

Resources

DCYF will review Shared Planning Meeting (SPM) and Family Team Decision Meeting (FTDM) policies and practices. The goal is to identify areas for improvement and revise in response to input from individuals with lived experience and other stakeholder feedback. 

In 2006, DCYF rolled out the Team Decision Making model based off of the Family-to-Family program through the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Since the statewide rollout, the model has been sustained with outdated curricula that’s been updated by multiple program consultants. While the FTDM model relies on family engagement for decision-making, the current model has limitations due to varied facilitator roles and supervision structure throughout the state. This has led to inconsistency in practice and structure of the meetings, as well as lack of early family engagement to identify kin and resource supports. 

Shared planning meetings bring together parents, children, youth, caregivers, and other identified supports to plan effectively for child and youth safety, permanency, and well-being. Under the settlement agreement, DCYF is required to establish a quality assurance process for SPM and FTDM practices and ensure these practices are trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and LGBTQIA+ affirming. In addition, the SPM/FTDM process will fulfill the following five functions of the settlement agreement: 

  1. Support and encourage active participation of children and youth, their immediate and extended family members, and other individuals who have trusting relationships with the child and family (collectively the “Family Team”) in the SPM/FTDM process, including offering meetings in times and places that are accessible for all members of the Family Team; 
  2. Educate the Family Team about available services and placement options. 
  3. Elicit and value the child or youth’s preferences including, but not limited to, where to live, where to go to school, what treatment or services to receive, what supports are needed for safety, and who is involved in their lives 
  4. Empower and authorize Family Teams to make and revisit decisions about how and where to best support the child or youth’s health, safety, stability, cultural socialization, and relationships with family 
  5. Provide necessary supports and resources, including those identified in the SPM/FTDMs policies and procedures.

Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

  1. 42(1) Defendants have received and considered stakeholder feedback as described in Attachment A regarding the maintenance or revision of its SPM and FTDM policies.
  2. 42(2) DCYF staff have received training and ongoing coaching in SPM and FTDM policies and protocols, as identified in the Implementation Plan. 
  3. 42(3) Defendants have implemented quality assurance as outlined in the Implementation Plan.

Resources

Develop referral and transition protocols in response to feedback from lived experience and other stakeholders. A contracted stakeholder process will assist with developing, implementing, and evaluating this system improvement.  

Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

1. 43(1) MOUs are in place between DCYF and hospitals and juvenile courts as identified in the Implementation Plan. 

2. 43(2) Class Members are given an opportunity to develop and verify their own case histories and information. 3. 43(3) Defendants have developed and implemented a protocol for pre-placement contacts between Class Members and potential placement resources.

Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with Interested Local Hospitals

DCYF is working to develop a consistent communication and collaboration protocol for children and youth discharging from hospitals when their parents/guardians are unwilling or unable to take them home. In collaboration with partners from interested hospitals DCYF will develop a template Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that establishes a communication and collaboration protocol to prevent the need for out of home placement through timely referrals for reconciliation services. Further, the availability of entering into an MOU will be communicated to the Washington State Hospital Association with regional contact names listed on the DCYF website. During the 2023 legislative session, HB 1580 was passed and signed into law. HB 1580 provides a care coordinator housed at the Governor’s Office, who, in coordination with DCYF, DSHS, HCA and the Office of Financial Management (OFM), will develop and implement a rapid care team to support children and youth in crisis and assist in identifying appropriate services and living arrangements. The details of the rapid care team and how it will interface with the various child and youth serving systems is still under development. As such, it is difficult to say with certainty how the processes outlined in the MOUs will interact with the rapid care team. Further, a MultiSystem Rounds process is already in existence, which may serve as an interim step to service and living arrangement resolution prior to involvement of the rapid care team, but, again, it is difficult to say with certainty how the various processes will interact without current guidance from the Governor’s Office about the care coordinator and the rapid care team.

Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with Interested County Juvenile Courts 

Similarly, DCYF is working to develop a consistent communication and collaboration protocol for youth releasing from juvenile detention when their parents/guardians refuse to pick them up. The MOU has been in development since July 2022. The MOU has been drafted and reviewed by DCYF Regional Administrators. The team drafting the MOU has sought feedback from the juvenile court team that includes juvenile court judges, presiding judge of the Superior Court Judges Association, juvenile court Administrators, a juvenile court Detention Manager, and the President of the Washington Association for Juvenile Court Administrators. DCYF Regional Administrators have already designated the staff in their regions who will serve as Regional Cross-Systems Liaisons for all the juvenile courts in the region and are in the process of updating position descriptions.

Youth Narratives, Supports, & Pre-Placement Contact

DCYF will create a formalized process for children and youth to review information that goes out to potential placements, create a narrative about themselves to share with potential placements, and have pre-placement contacts with potential caregivers and that will assist to preserve relationships where possible or to address grief and loss post transition. These processes will be developed with the input we have received from stakeholders and individuals with lived experience. Recommendations include engaging youth in developing their own narratives to center their voice and honor their requests as much as safely possible, sharing their placement preferences, and giving them the opportunity to speak, meet, or visit prospective placements prior to transfer. (PCG recommendations 22, 23/TOU recommendations 2.1, 2.2, 2.2.4, 2.3, 4.1, 5.2.4, 5.4, 5.4.2)

Resources

Effective January 1, 2024, DCYF will ensure that all children will have a Qualified Residential Treatment Program (QRTP) assessment prior to placement in a QRTP and every 90 days for the duration of placement in the QRTP. QRTP assessments are currently done by neutral and objective qualified individuals, intensive resources SHPC that sit within the centralized headquarters Placement Continuum unit, as defined by DCYF’s federally approved plan, at time of request for entry into a QRTP and then every six months thereafter. DCYF will ensure that all children and youth who require a QRTP assessment will have one that has input from children, youth, families, and other supports, preferably completed in-person. In addition to interviews, assessments will include review of records, determination of strengths and needs of the child, identify child-specific short and long-term mental and behavioral health goals, a finding that family-based alternative or transitional living option, have been considered and deemed insufficient to meet the child’s needs, and the discharge criteria and progress toward meeting discharge criteria.

Exit criteria established in the settlement agreement are: 

  1. Exit Criteria 44(1) Ninety percent of youth in a QRTP or other congregate care setting have been determined to need QRTP placement pursuant to preplacement and subsequent 90-day evaluations by a neutral and objective qualified evaluator.

Resources

QRTP Training Plan