A youth or young adult receives PAL Life Skills Training if the youth or young adult is in DFPS conservatorship and age 16 or older, or in extended foster care. PAL staff works with the caseworker to make sure the youth or young adult receives the training.

If the youth or young adult refuses to participate, PAL staff or the caseworker must ask the youth or young adult to sign Form 2546 PAL Life Skills Training Refusal [sic, intranet link] PDF DocumentExternal Link. In the Transitional Living Services Resource GuidePDF Document, see Preparation for Adult Living Life Skills Training Refusal for more information.

The training includes the following core areas:

• Financial management
• Health and safety
• Housing and transportation
• Job readiness
• Life decisions and responsibilities
• Personal and social relationships

PAL staff must ensure the youth or young adult completes the financial management core area as well as four of the five other core areas. The youth or young adult must receive at least five hours of training in a core area to complete it.

For youth with a developmental or intellectual disability that precludes them from participation in Life Skills Training classes, PAL staff works with the caseworker, education specialist, and developmental disability specialist, and utilizes such documents as the following:

• Admission Review Dismissal (ARD) meeting notes.
• Individual Education Plan (IEP).
• Individual Transition Plan (ITP).
• Plans of service.
• Other similar documents to document life skills training that the youth has received, in order to provide equivalent credit for completion of Life Skills Training.

The caseworker makes sure the youth or young adult has the opportunity, within the youth’s placement or through other experiential activities, to use the skills learned in the training.

PAL staff must ensure that the youth meets the training requirement and all other qualifications to be eligible for the transitional living allowance.

See 10241 Qualifications for PAL Transitional Living Allowance.

For a list of the issues that each core area must cover, see the Preparation for Adult Living Life Skills Training Curriculum Outline section of the Transitional Living Services Resource GuidePDF Document.