Concurrent planning is a process in which the Department or purchase-of-service agencies will make reasonable efforts to return children home within nine months after the children's placement in substitute care. At the same time, they will make it clear to the children's families that alternative permanency plans are being developed that will take effect if they do not make sufficient progress to enable the return home of their children within nine months.

Poor Prognosis Cases

While social work practice dictates the use of concurrent planning in all cases, additional concurrent planning elements are required for families who are assessed to be at high risk of further abuse, have a poor prognosis for change, or who have not made substantial progress in accomplishing service plan goals for reunification. 

Illinois statute and Department policy specifies poor prognosis cases as those in which the family “demonstrates patterns of behavior, of commission or omission, which indicate a poor prospect for safe reunification.” Cases that are assessed as having “poor prognosis" (at high risk for long-term placement) require: 

• Written, detailed, and specific alternate permanency plans. 
• Earlier placement of the children (post-assessment) into permanent homes. 

If, upon assessment, there is a determination that families and children are poor prognosis cases, the child welfare professional must consult with their supervisors.

Select and place the children in (potentially) permanent homes by the 90th day of placement. 

Early in cases, while providing services to parents, child welfare professionals simultaneously pursue possible kinship options, determine if the Indian Child Welfare Act applies to the children, and/or identify possible adoptive or foster/adopt families as concurrent plans. For these cases, the children are quickly placed in permanency planning foster homes so that, if plans to return home fail, the children will not have to move again into adoptive placements. The children are placed in homes where they can reasonably be expected to remain until adulthood. Every effort will be made to minimize the number of moves children must make while in care. Consistent with the best interest of the children, once thorough assessments are complete, placements should provide for long-term permanency needs.

Develop and document detailed and specific alternate permanency plans, including specific permanent placement options. 

Be particularly aware of and make clear to parents the need to meet established timeframes for progress on service plan goals.

Select permanency goal of "Return home within 12 months." 

Full disclosure to biological parents is very important with this permanency goal. Child welfare professionals must inform parents that progress toward reunification will be evaluated during client service planning in preparation for the Administrative Case Review. If sufficient progress has not occurred, the child welfare professional will inform the parents and will prepare the case for legal screening. 

Families must be fully informed of the consequences of their failure to quickly resolve their problems. With the exception of expedited termination cases, families must receive services, including visitation, until parental rights are terminated. 

Concurrent planning is an essential part of quickly moving children from the uncertainty of foster care to the security of permanent families.

Expedited Terminations 

Expedited termination involves moving children's cases directly from temporary custody to termination of parental rights and adoption. It is appropriate when "the maltreatment of children is so egregious that efforts should not be made to preserve the family." When this occurs, the child welfare professional should request a legal screening, and the children should be placed with families committed to permanency. Upon approval at permanency staffings, the goal of "substitute care pending court determination of termination of parental rights" should be selected. Contact between the children and parents should focus on therapeutic needs of the children around maltreatment, the transition of relationships to other caregiving families, and closure with the birth families with emphasis on the needs of the children. The parental behaviors that require pursuing expedited termination are specified in Illinois law.

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