When Residential Child Care Investigations (RCCI) receives a report of abuse or neglect of a child in a foster home, the RCCI supervisor, Statewide Intake (SWI) RCCI screener, or designee notifies the following people:

• The primary CPS caseworker and the primary caseworker’s supervisor assigned to the child whom IMPACT names as the alleged victim. This notification must occur within 24 hours of RCCI’s receipt of the report.
• The primary CPS caseworkers for any other children placed in the foster home.

Priority None (PN)

SWI RCCI Screener Actions

Additional notifications are required if the SWI RCCI screener changes the intake report involving a foster home to Priority None (PN).

In this situation, the SWI RCCI screener, or designee, immediately notifies all the primary CPS caseworkers and the primary caseworkers’ supervisors assigned to all the children placed in the foster home.

The notification is generated in IMPACT as an alert on the caseworker’s and supervisor’s to-do lists in the child’s SUB stage. An alert icon also displays on the caseworker’s assigned workload in IMPACT.

See the Child Care Investigations Handbook, 3341.3 Notification of Priority None (PN) Intake Reports Involving a Child in DFPS Conservatorship.

After the SWI RCCI screener’s decision to assign PN to an investigation of abuse or neglect in a foster home, the SWI RCCI screener does the following:

• Reviews the foster home’s history of the following:
  • Compliance with minimum standards.
  • Abuse or neglect investigations.
• Writes a report stating details of the home’s history.
• Emails the report to each primary caseworker, primary caseworker’s supervisor, and regional director assistant.
• If the PN is issued outside normal business hours, the SWI RCCI screener also notifies the on-call caseworker and on-call supervisor for the child’s region. That caseworker and supervisor perform an immediate safety assessment. This does not alter any of the other time frames in this section.

If another state’s child welfare or ICPC staff notifies the Texas ICPC unit about an abuse or neglect allegation in an out-of-state foster home that the other state will not investigate, the ICPC worker who is notified shares that information with the SWI RCCI screener’s supervisor and program administrator. The SWI RCCI screener works with ICPC staff to request necessary out-of-state history on the foster home and complete the Home History Review.

CPS Actions

Upon receipt of the review of the foster home’s history, the primary caseworker and the primary caseworker’s supervisor review the report and take the following steps:

• Assess whether there are any concerns for a child’s safety or well-being.
• Document the following in IMPACT as a Home History Review Staffing:
  • A summary of the report.
  • The assessment of safety and well-being and any decisions as a result of the staffing.

The primary caseworker also files the report in each child’s case record.

If the PN is received outside normal business hours, the on-call worker and on-call supervisor review the report and take the following steps:

• Assess whether there are any concerns for a child’s safety or well-being.
• Document the following in IMPACT as a Home History Review Staffing and send to the primary caseworker and supervisor:
  • A summary of the report.
  • The assessment of safety and well-being and any decisions made as a result of the staffing.
• For cases marked sensitive, the on-call program director documents the information above in IMPACT as a Home History Review Staffing.

The immediate assessment of safety by the on-call caseworker and on-call supervisor does not replace the requirements of the primary caseworker and the primary caseworker’s supervisor. The primary caseworker and primary caseworker’s supervisor also must complete an assessment of safety upon receipt of the information and document any decisions made as a result of the staffing.

If there is an allegation that a child has abused or neglected another child, the primary caseworker follows the protocols in Appendix 4623: Protocol for RCCI Investigations Involving Child-on-Child Victimization in Foster Care.

If the report alleges child sexual aggression, the primary caseworker must follow the protocols in the Sexual Incident History Resource GuidePDF Document.