Section 315.110  Worker Interventions and Contacts

This Section applies to caseworker interventions and contacts made during the delivery of child welfare services and does not include the interventions and contacts required by child protective investigative staff during the course of child abuse and neglect investigations.  To meet any of the intervention and contact requirements described in this Section with hearing impaired clients or limited non-English speaking clients, the worker must be able to facilitate communication using the client's primary mode of communication (e.g., fluency in the client's language or the use of foreign or sign language interpreters; e.g., Braille or taped communications for persons with visual impairments, etc.).

a)         Initial Intervention and Contact by Caseworker

1)         The assigned caseworker or person assigned by the supervisor, if the assigned caseworker is unavailable, must attend the shelter care hearing in court.

2)         The assigned caseworker must attempt face-to-face intervention and contact with the family in the home within five working days after the shelter care hearing or case assignment, whichever is earlier, unless the caseworker and supervisor believe, based upon the health, safety, and best interests of the child, that it is necessary to attempt contact sooner.  If the family is unavailable, the caseworker shall make a second attempt within one working day after the failed attempt.  If that attempt is also unsuccessful, the caseworker shall conduct a diligent search for the family.

b)         Ongoing Intervention and Contact

1)         With Families

The families of children in placement shall be seen by the assigned caseworker at least monthly or more frequently as might be specified by the service plan unless parental rights have been terminated.

2)         With Children

The assigned caseworker shall see any child in substitute care in the child's living arrangement at least once every two weeks for the first month immediately following initial placement or a change in placement and at least once every month thereafter.  When visiting children in substitute care, the caseworker must interview verbal children out of the presence of the caregiver.

3)         The above frequencies shall be followed, unless the supervisor, based on the assessment, determines and documents in the service plan, in writing, that the service plan requires more frequent or less frequent contact.

c)         Interventions and Contacts Following Reunification

During all interventions and contacts following reunification, the caseworker must see the child outside the presence of the parent.

1)         Initial Intervention and Contact

Following the return home of a child who has been in substitute care, an initial face-to-face intervention with the child and parent must be made via a visit in the home by the assigned caseworker within 24 to 72 hours after the child's return home.  The timing of the visit will be based upon the safety plan completed when the child is returned home.

2)         First Month

Following the initial visit, weekly or more frequent intervention and contact, as determined by the supervisor, with the child and parent in the home is required for the first month following reunification.  At least two of the visits during this first month after reunification must be unannounced.

3)         Ongoing

Frequency of intervention and contact subsequent to the first month of reunification shall be at least monthly until such time as safety and risk assessments indicate that there are no longer sufficient safety or risk factors present to require continued contact.

d)         Contact With Foster Families/Relative Caregivers

The assigned Department or purchase of service agency caseworker shall provide the primary foster parent or relative caregiver caring for a child for whom the Department is responsible with monthly face-to-face consultation and support and more often on an as needed basis.  This face-to-face contact with the primary foster parent or relative caregiver may occur at the same time as contact with the children in placement is made, provided that children are given the opportunity to be seen and interviewed alone.  If there are two or more foster children in one foster home with more than one worker, their respective workers shall together meet at least once every six months with the foster parent, in the foster home, to discuss issues affecting the children's care.

e)         Children Placed in Residential Facilities

Children placed in residential facilities (group homes or child care institutions and other facilities such as mental health and correctional facilities) must be visited by the assigned caseworker at least monthly.

f)         Children in Out of State Placements

Children who are placed out of state in compliance with 89 Ill. Adm. Code 328 (Interstate Placement of Children) must be visited no less frequently than every six months by a caseworker of the Department or of the state in which the child has been placed.  If the caseworker from the state in which the child is placed conducts the visits, that worker shall prepare a quarterly report regarding the health, safety and welfare of the child.  A Department or Purchase of Service worker who visits a child placed in Illinois from another state shall prepare the same quarterly report.  In either case, the supervising caseworker must submit the quarterly report to his or her respective interstate office, and not directly to the other caseworker.

(Source:  Amended at 32 Ill. Reg. 8103, effective May 30, 2008)