Missouri Children’s Division plans to begin claiming title IV-E foster care maintenance payments for eligible youth placed with a parent in a licensed residential family based treatment facility for substance abuse disorder in accordance with requirements in sections 472(j) and 472(a)2(C) of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). 

Family Self Help Center, also known as Lafayette House in Joplin Missouri, is currently the only substance use disorder treatment facility that meets all of the FFPSA requirements to qualify for maintenance payments for youth in CD custody when they are physically placed with a parent at the facility. Family Self Help Center is a Women’s and Children’s CSTAR (Comprehensive Substance Treatment and Rehabilitation) facility licensed and contracted with Department of Mental Health. Missouri Women’s and Children’s CSTAR providers provide and arrange for individual and family counseling, parenting skills and training, and parent education as required by FFPSA. Family Self Help Center also meets the “Trauma Informed” criteria required by FFPSA. 

To qualify for maintenance payments, the recommendation for placement at Family Self Help Center must be agreed up by the Family Support Team and documented in the child's case plan before the placement. The recommendation should be documented initially in a Contact Note and then on the Child Assessment and Service Plan (CS-1). Placement with a parent at Family Self Help Center can only be considered for the following eligible youth: 

Eligibility: 

• Eligible youth have been physically removed from a home pursuant to a court order. A “legal” or “constructive” removal is acceptable.
• There must be a judicial determination signed by a judge stating that remaining in the home would be contrary to the child’s welfare or that out of home placement would be in the child’s best interest. This determination must be made in the very first court order that authorizes the removal of the child from the home, regardless of whether there is an emergency or a non-emergency. If the judicial determination is not made in the very first court order pertaining to removal, the child will not be Title IV-E eligible for the duration of the child’s stay in foster care; 
• A judicial determination of reasonable efforts to prevent a child’s removal from the home or a statement that reasonable efforts are not required must be specified in a court order and must be made no later than 60 days from the date the child is removed from the home. If the judicial determination is not made timely the child’s foster care maintenance payments will not be eligible for Title IV-E reimbursement for the duration of the child’s stay in foster care;

For tracking and payment purposes and to implement this opportunity for families more quickly, CD will initially track placement of eligible youth by using placement type “CTO” on the placement screen in FACES, which is currently used for non-licensed court ordered facilities. The name of the facility must be entered with address, telephone number and residence county as follows: 

Family Self Help Center 

PO Box 1765 

Joplin, MO 64804 

Jasper County 

Once the case managing office receives an invoice from Family Self Help Center, payment should be made directly to Family Self Help Center. CD staff will use the FACES Financial Management Payment Request process to pay using Vendor number 001418559, program area “AC” with “MM” Vendor type. The Service Code is “MAIN”. 

The maintenance rates CD currently uses to pay vendors that are not licensed by CD will be used to pay qualified SUD (Substance Use Disorder) treatment facilities as illustrated in the table below:

Standard Payment Rate for Family Based Residential Vendors

A FACES systems change has been requested; a new placement code of “FBR” (Family Based Residential) will be created and will eventually replace the use of the CTO placement code for these types of placements. Staff will be alerted when the FBR placement code is available for use. The FBR code will allow the FACES system to track these placements once FBR is implemented and used. 

Currently Family Self Help Center is the only facility that meets the requirements of the Family First Prevention Services Act for reimbursement. Staff will be alerted when additional SUD treatment facilities meet the FFPSA qualifications to receive maintenance payments for youth in CD custody placed with a parent in residential SUD treatment.