1. Provide Notification of Appointment: CASA will provide timely written notification of appointment to caseworkers, attorneys, parents, and all other parties to the case in a manner agreed to locally. CASA will also provide notification of Dual Status and/or Court Ordered Services case appointment. 

   The CASA notification will identify the CASA staff and the CASA volunteer assigned to the case. Contact information for both will be provided in this notification. 

   Notice of CFE case designation by CASA and DFPS will be provided to all parties, attorneys, parents and the judge in the written court reports. 

2. Share Court Order that Gives Access to Child Files: When appointed as the GAL, TFC § 107.002 gives CASA permission to have access to a child’s file. When appointed as the volunteer advocate, the judge’s court order of appointment provides language giving CASA access to a child’s file. CASA will share these appointments with caseworkers in the method agreed upon locally. 

3. Work to Identify Needs, Issues, and Best Interest for the Child: In a timely manner after appointment, and throughout the case, CASA shall review all records and documents permissible by law, rule, court order, or this MOU. CASA will talk with and interview/visit the child, each person who has significant knowledge of the child's history and conditions, including parents, relatives and fictive kin (close family friends), foster parents/caregivers, attorney ad litem, and the parties to the suit. CASA may also contact teachers, medical and mental health providers for the child, and other persons to determine the facts and perspectives, the child’s needs and wishes, and the child’s situation. 

   In a Dual Status Case, CASA will talk with juvenile caseworkers and review juvenile records as permissible. 

4. Maintain Regular Contact with the Child
   1. Within a reasonable time after appointment, CASA will meet with the child. CASA standards require CASA to meet in person with the child at least every 30 days with certain exceptions allowed by standards and local program written exceptions policies. CASA standards also require that a majority of the in-person visits occur at the child’s placement. 
   2. While CASA and DFPS may visit the child together, it is expected that both will visit the child separately the majority of the time to gain an independent perspective.  
   3. The CASA program will assure only qualified trained volunteers and staff will have contact with the child assigned to the CASA program. 
   4. CASA will have other types of age-appropriate contact with the child, including telephone calls, emails, video-conferencing (e.g., Zoom), and/or letters, as applicable for the child’s age and interests. 
5. Transportation of Children, when CASA Program Policies Allow: If a local CASA program’s policies allow CASA to transport children, the CASA staff or volunteer will notify the caseworker and secure written permission if CASA plans to transport the child on a onetime basis or throughout the duration of the appointment. 

6. Local CASA – Provide Courtesy Assistance and Support Assistance for CASA Volunteers: Given the vast geographical area of the state, local CASA programs will, as resources, CASA standards and local program policies permit, assist each other in fulfilling certain responsibilities of a case. A local CASA program will notify the DFPS caseworker in a timely manner when courtesy assistance is requested, when the courtesy assistance is provided and when the courtesy assistance concludes. Courtesy assistance will be provided by a CASA staff or certain volunteer (as described below).

   Some local CASA programs employ support volunteers within their own program to assist the appointed CASA volunteers in very specific and identified areas where the support volunteer may come into contact with a child. All support volunteers will complete a Child Abuse and Neglect Registry Check (ABC), FBI Fingerprint-Based Criminal check and sign a confidentiality statement.  Support volunteers will be required to complete a minimum of three hours of training appropriate to the support role that includes a definition of the role, job description and both allowed and un-allowed activities within this role. This training also includes the impact of trauma and how it can be exhibited in a child’s behavior. 

7. Provide Best Interest Advocacy: 

   In representing a child’s best interest, CASA will: 

   1. Obtain first-hand a clear understanding of the needs and the situation of the child by conducting an ongoing review of all relevant documents and records, including medical, mental health and school records and talking with, as available and permissible, the child, the child’s parents, relatives, kin and fictive kin, social service providers, caseworkers, foster parents and other relevant persons. 
   2. Seek to understand and consider the child’s wishes. 
   3. Participate in any meetings as outlined in [Section V. DFPS Responsibilities, 
   4. Notifications, Invitations, and Collaboration] that may fall under the description of "permanency planning" or “child planning” meetings as defined in DFPS policy. Assist DFPS in the engagement of family members and children in family meetings including identifying interested persons to attend meetings, and inviting them, as approved by DFPS. In areas in which CASA and DFPS are working together in a designated CFE case, CASA may assist and support other family meetings on the case. 
   5. Provide input for service plans, monitor for the child’s safety, provide input in support of the best placement determinations and transition planning when placements change, and advocate against unnecessary relocations of the child to multiple temporary placements. 
   6. Appear at all hearings to advocate and provide testimony for the child’s best interest and make recommendations concerning permanency that encourage the permanent placement of children with their families, relatives, fictive kin, or through timely placement with adoptive families. At hearings, also report on the progress of the Child and Family Service Plan(s). 
   7. Provide written court reports for all statutorily mandated hearings.  
   8. Review the medical care provided for a child, discuss the medical care with the medical consenter and seek to elicit, in a developmentally appropriate manner, the child’s opinion on the medical care provided.  Additionally, CASA can discuss with a youth age 16 and older their desire to become their own medical consenter as outlined in CPS Handbook Policy 11140 Medical Consent by Minor Youth [sic, broken link]. 
   9. May request a Psychotropic Medication Utilization Review (PMUR) through STAR Health.  See Medical Services Resource Guide [sic, broken link]. 
   10. Review the educational needs and issues of the child and serve as a surrogate parent if appointed by the school district or the court. 
   11. Support normalcy activities, connections, and the child’s expressed wishes in these areas. 
   12. For a child at least 15 ½ years of age, ascertain whether the child has received the following documents, and if not, provide assistance to the child to obtain them: certified copy of birth certificate, original Social Security card or replacement card, driver’s license or personal identification certificate. 
   13. For a child at least 16 years of age, ensure the child has received the following documents: certified copy of birth certificate, original Social Security card or replacement card, driver’s license or personal identification certificate.  If the child has not received one of these documents, or has lost a document, coordinate with the child, caseworker, and caregiver to replace or obtain the missing document(s). 
   14. For a child at least 17 years of age, ensure the child has received information related to continuing their SSI benefits per CPS Handbook Policy 1574 [sic, broken link], if applicable. xiv. Participate in mediation regarding access to, conservatorship of, or any other issue regarding the child. 
   15. Provide input for the (HSEGH) Health, Social, Educational, and Genetic History report, profile in Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TARE), Life Book, targeted recruitment and preparation for adoption. The CASA volunteer and CASA Supervisor will review home studies of prospective adoptive families that are determined eligible by DFPS and may be invited to participate in the selection staffing for the child or children. CASA will offer an opinion as to appropriateness of a potential family to DFPS and the court. 
   16. Verify that a Child’s Plan of Service and Education Portfolio have been created and maintained for the child, and that CASA has reviewed the Family Plan of Service that has been created for the family. 
8. Protect Confidentiality: 
   1. Background Checks: CASA will ensure that all volunteers or staff who will have access to confidential information about children and families have undergone background checks pursuant to CASA standards and have received training regarding confidentiality based on CASA standards and relevant law and policies. 
   2. Sharing Confidential Information: 
      1. All information and records regarding a child’s case will be kept confidential. Local CASA programs will have board-approved written policies and procedures in place to assure confidentiality of case information and records in accordance with CASA Standards, the Texas Family Code and other applicable law. 
      2. Decisions to share confidential information about a family or child must be made on a case-by-case basis, sharing only the minimum information necessary and only to individuals who need to know the information to support the child’s safety, care, well-being, and best-interest. 
      3. CASA staff and volunteers may not share files and records with individuals or entities not a party to the DFPS case. If an outside entity requests records or files about a child or family in order to provide services, direct the request to the DFPS caseworker. 
      4. Once a case is closed or CASA is dismissed, CASA will assume full responsibility for ensuring all DFPS paper or electronic records in their possession are either destroyed or kept in safe, secure storage for seven years, or longer as determined by the local program board-approved policies. 
   3. Sharing information – finding and engaging connections for a child’s wellbeing and permanency: 
      1. For purposes of Collaborative Family Engagement (CFE) or general family finding and engagement with people who are or who can be connections for a child, information may be shared with caregivers, potential caregivers, or other identified individuals that would reasonably be needed to locate, engage, or involve that individual. The following may be shared for these purposes: child’s name (first, last initial) and age (year, not DOB), possible relationship, that the child is in DFPS conservatorship, parents’ names (first, last initial) and ages, general location, and the child’s needs (general needs, safety, and well-being). 
      2. Within family meetings, CASA and DFPS may verbally share additional information, as needed, to ensure that the individual can make informed decisions about the child and their potential involvement with the child. 
   4. What may never be shared: 
      1. The person who reported the alleged abuse or neglect. 
      2. Records regarding a child or parent’s substance use disorder or alcohol treatment.
9. Manage Case Connection Participation, Confidentiality, and Removal from Case Connection:  
   1. CASA will ensure that all CASA volunteers or staff registering for access to the DFPS Case Connection External Access to IMPACT portal have read and understood the DFPS Security Requirements (addendum to this MOU), have a signed User Security Agreement Form which will be maintained in the CASA staff or volunteer file, and are otherwise authorized to access the electronic system before accessing the Case Connection. 
   2. Courtesy assistance will not be available through Case Connection. CASA will not attempt to assign cases to courtesy workers across units when using Case Connection.  
   3. Confidential information accessed electronically through the DFPS Case Connection maintains its confidential nature; electronic transmission does not operate as a waiver of confidentiality or change the confidential nature of the information in any way. 
   4. If the volunteer or staff has been removed from a case or terminated from the CASA program, the CASA Designated Identity Access Management (IAM) Portal Representative must terminate the volunteer or staff's Case Connection account via the IAM Administrative process within two days. This action will automatically terminate all case assignments for the volunteer. 
   5. Failure to promptly terminate a dismissed advocate's access to the Case Connection may result in the local CASA organization losing access to the Connection on a temporary or permanent basis. 
10. Notify of CASA Dismissal, or Staff or Volunteer Change of Assignment: 
    1. When a CASA Program has been removed by the Court from an open DFPS case, the CASA Program must notify DFPS by email or other written method within two business days of removal unless DFPS was present at the hearing where the CASA removal occurred. 
    2. When there has been a change of assignment of a CASA staff or volunteer in an open and ongoing case, the CASA Program will notify the caseworker by email or other written method within five days. 
11. Provide Notice and Remedy for Security Breach:  In the event of a security breach whereby confidential information regarding a child, children or family is accidentally or intentionally disclosed to a party who is not authorized to have access to the information, the CASA organization must immediately notify DFPS, and will take such remedial measures as determined necessary by DFPS or as may be required by Texas Business and Commerce Code, Chapter 521. 

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