Staff in the following divisions must follow this policy when requesting placements across regional lines into Community-Based Care (CBC) catchment areas:

• Child Protective Investigations
• Family Based Safety Services
• Conservatorship
• Foster and Adoptive Home Development
• Regional Placement Team (including centralized placement unit, residential treatment placement coordinators, and developmental disability specialists, when applicable)
• Preparation for Adult Living (when a youth or young adult is returning to extended foster care

Requesting Placement of a Child in Paid Foster Care

Requesting a paid foster care placement of a child into a CBC catchment area must occur on rare occasions, as a placement of last resort, and be based on the best interest of the individual child (such as placing a child with his or her sibling in the same verified kinship or foster or adoptive home).

When it has been determined that a child requires a paid foster care placement, the caseworker makes a referral to one of the following:

• Regional Placement Team coordinator
• PAL staff (when a youth or young adult is returning to extended foster care)

If the Regional Placement Team coordinator or PAL staff determines that the best placement for the child is located in the CBC catchment area, the caseworker must consult and obtain approval from all of the following members of his or her chain of command:

• Supervisor
• Program director
• Program administrator
• Regional director

The caseworker must complete Form 1508 Request for Placement into CBC Catchment Areas.Wor.. In this form, the caseworker provides his or her chain of command the justification for the placement into the CBC catchment area, including:

• Why the placement is in the child’s best interest.
• All alternate placement options pursued, and the reasons they were denied or not appropriate.

The regional director who approves the placement must consult with the regional director from the CBC catchment area, who gives final approval for the placement. 

The time frame for completing this process depends on when the child requires placement, but should occur prior to the child’s physical placement into the CBC catchment area. Generally, the regional director approves or denies the child’s placement into the CBC catchment area within 24 hours of receiving the justification. For emergency placements, the regional director approves or denies the child’s placement into the CBC catchment area as soon as possible after receiving the justification.

The caseworker records the regional director’s approval of the child’s placement into the CBC catchment area as a contact in the Contact Detail page in IMPACT and follows 4153.2 Out-of-Region Placements if the placement is outside the region.

This process does not include youth entering Supervised Independent Living (SIL) placements.