1. Memo Series 2008-01

2. Overview  Requirements  Frequently Asked Questions  Reports  Reporting to the Federal Government Did Wisconsin Make the target for FFY 09?

3. Applicability  All children and juveniles in OHC placement  Including those who are over 18 years of age  Whom the agency has placement and care responsibility under a court order or Voluntary Placement Agreement  And is living in one of the following placement settings …

4. Applicability – Continued  Court-ordered Kinship Care,  Foster Family Home (relative or non- relative),  Pre-adoptive home,  Receiving home,  Unlicensed relative or non-relative placement,  Treatment foster home,  Group home,  Shelter care,  Residential care centers,  Trial reunification, or  Supervised Independent Living (Placement Settings)

5.  Voluntary Kinship Care,  Juvenile Correctional Institutions,  Adult Corrections,  Secure Detention, or  Hospitals. Applicability – Continued (Does Not Always Include These Settings)

6. However… If a child or juvenile is placed in an out-of- home care setting that counts and subsequently moved to an out-of-home care setting that does not count without being discharged between those out-of-home settings, the caseworker must continue to conduct monthly FF contact ** See Handout

7.  At least 1 face-to-face contact with the caseworker, or designee, each and every full calendar month the child or juvenile is in OHC.  The majority (51%) must occur in the OHC placement. Caseworker Contact: (Face-to-face)

8.  Changes Location of contact, now 51% in OHC placement Participant focus from Family to Child Required to document in eWiSACWIS  More Stringent Requirement If the child resides in a placement more than 60 miles from their residence, face-to face contact can be quarterly if the placement facility or another agency or contract worker (e.g., licensing worker, residential staff, treatment foster care worker, etc.) is maintaining at least monthly face-to-face contact with the child. DCFS Memo Series 2005-10 (CPS Cases)

9. Focus of the visit  Safety, permanence, well-being of the child or juvenile,  Must be of substance and duration sufficient to address goals of the case plan or permanency plan

10. Frequently Asked Questions  How long does a child need to be in care for the month to count in the statistics? Answer: The report looks for the first and last full calendar month a child is in an out-of-home care setting that counts. For example, if a child enters care October 4 th and remains in placement through November 30th, the report will not look for a monthly face- to-face contact until November which is the first full calendar month the child has been in placement.

12. Frequently Asked Questions  How do kids missing from OHC affect the overall number pertaining to our required FF contact? Answer: Children who are in a documented Missing From Out-of-Home Care placement are included in the population of children requiring contact. The federal calculation requires the inclusion of children missing from care. However, if the child is not located or able to be contacted during a given period, a Face-to-Face contact will not be documented for that child.

13. Frequently Asked Questions  How do kids missing from OHC affect the overall number pertaining to our required FF contact? Answer (Continued): Any child whom the agency is unable to see in the month is considered an error case for the entire year. DCFS Memo Series 2008-12, Definition of Missing From Out-of-Home Care and Documentation Requirements at the following website: http://dcf.wisconsin.gov/memos/num_memos/2008/2008-12.pdf.

14.  Joint (courtesy) Supervision In cases of joint (courtesy) supervision, the agencies involved must determine the specifics of who will provide what services and how communication between agencies will occur. DCFS Memo Series 2005-10 (CPS Cases - Continued)

15. Frequently Asked Questions  Can teleconferencing be used to meet the monthly face-to-face contact requirement? Answer: No, teleconferencing does not constitute a face-to-face contact.

16. Caseworker Defined “The social worker or other professional staff person, under ss. 48.067, 48.069, 938.067, and 938.069, Stats., assigned by the agency to provide general case supervision, to make child removal and placement decisions, or to provide case management for a child under the care or supervision of the agency.”

17.  A tribal caseworker  Facility caseworker  Treatment foster care caseworker  Out-of-state caseworker  Contracted staff  Contracted aftercare staff Caseworker Designees (Sample – Not limited to this list)

18. Frequently Asked Questions  Can tribes enter caseworker contacts in eWiSACWIS? Answer: No. Tribes currently have read only access in eWiSACWIS and do not have security rights to enter case notes. CW agencies and tribes must work together to assure monthly contact information is provided to the agency so that summary notes created by the tribal child welfare staff can be entered as eWiSACWIS case notes in a timely manner.

19. Frequently Asked Questions  How do kids in Hospital/Correctional placements affect the overall number of our required face-to- face contacts? Answer: Hospitals, Corrections, Youth Corrections, Juvenile Corrections, Adult Corrections, Detention, Secure Detention (including Detention Center-Reception) all fall into a category of "episode dependent placements". These types of placements, although documented as an Out-of-Home Placement in eWiSACWIS, are not considered part of a defined placement episode for these reporting purposes unless they are preceded by a qualified placement (e.g. an Out-of-Home Placement such as a foster home, group home, RCC placement,).

20. Frequently Asked Questions  How does the requirement apply when a child is in shelter or detention as a service (sanction)? Answer: When a child or juvenile is living at home, but is given a sanction to detention or shelter, that service is not considered an out-of-home placement and therefore, a monthly caseworker contact is not required; this service may not be documented on the Out of Home Placement page, but can be documented on the Service page in eWiSACWIS. However, when a child or juvenile is placed in OHC and subsequently given a sanction, the child remains in OHC status and therefore, the monthly caseworker contact requirement continues to apply.

21. Frequently Asked Questions  If a juvenile is in a foster home then goes to detention and is waiting for the court to reach disposition, is a monthly contact required? Answer: If the juvenile was in a placement setting that counts, e.g. a foster home, group home or RCC setting, prior to going to detention, monthly contact is required for the duration of the placement episode, including the period the child is in a detention placement setting.

22. Frequently Asked Questions  How does the requirement apply if a child is in a hospital or psychiatric setting under Chapter 51? Answer: If the child enters a psychiatric hospital under Chapter 51 and will subsequently return home, the child’s stay is not documented as an out-of-home placement and monthly contact during the hospital stay is not required. If the hospital placement, or any other “episode dependent setting” such as detention or correctional facilities, is part of the out-of-home care episode, then monthly contact is required during the hospital or secure facilities placement.

23. Frequently Asked Questions  How does the requirement apply when the Department of Corrections (DOC) is providing aftercare? Answer: Similar to when a private agency is involved and the CW agency is considering this private provider as a “designee,” it is up to the CW agency to request the assigned DOC staff to provide necessary information on visits to meet the requirement. The CW agency is responsible for communicating this expectation, i.e. provision of monthly contact documentation, and for ensuring this documentation is entered as an eWiSACWIS case note for the child.

24. So What Does All This Look Like On Paper?

27. Documentation in eWiSACWIS  The date, time, and duration of the contact  The participants involved  The location of the visit  The type of contact  The purpose of the contact  A summary of the results of the contact

28. Documentation Continued…  Face-to-Face contact must be documented within 30 calendar days after the face-to-face contact with the child or juvenile regardless of whether the visits were conducted by caseworker or his or her designee

29. The Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) is: October 1 – September 30

30. Caseworker Contacts Report  A monthly report lists the following: 4 Tabs ○ Summary ○ Detail ○ Detail2 ○ County Trends You can request the report ‘on demand’ for any time period (CM06x100)

31. Caseworker Contacts Report (4 Tab Structure)

32. Caseworker Contacts Report (Summary Tab)

33. Caseworker Contacts Report  Displays last month’s performance on two percentages: What % of children who were in OHC the entire previous calendar month and had a documented face-to-face contact? What % of the children had a documented face-to- face contact in the child’s OHP? ○ Note: When a child has multiple contacts during the calendar month, the report always counts the contact in the child’s OHP first. (CM06x100 – Summary Tab)

34. Caseworker Contacts Report  Displays the county’s performance for the FFY (October 1 through end of most recent month) on two percentages: How many children had a documented contact for each and every full calendar month they were in OHC? For children with documented contacts each and every full calendar month, what % of the child’s contacts were in the child’s OHP? (CM06x100 – Summary Tab Continued)

35. Caseworker Contacts Report (Detail Tab)

36. Caseworker Contacts Report  Lists those children, that meet the requirement, and do not have a successful face-to-face contact for the month documented in eWiSACWIS.  The last column alerts you to whether that child has met the FFY requirement prior to this month. Met with the child every month from October 1 through the end of most recent month. (CM06x100 – Detail Tab)

37. Caseworker Contacts Report (Detail2 Tab)

38. Caseworker Contacts Report  Lists those children, that meet the requirement, and have a successful face-to-face contact for the month documented in eWiSACWIS.  The last column alerts you to whether that child has met the FFY requirement prior to this month. Met with the child every month from October 1 through the end of most recent month. (CM06x100 – Detail2 Tab)

39. Caseworker Contacts Report (County Trends Tab)

40. Caseworker Contacts Report  Lists a month-by-month depiction, for the current FFY reporting period, of how successful the County was at seeing those children that they have in a qualifying out-of- home placement. (CM06x100 – County Trends)

41. FFY 2009 TARGET  55% of all children will have a face-to-face contact each and every full calendar month they are in out-of-home care and  51% of those contacts will be in the child’s out-of-home care placement

42. RESULTS  53% of children in out-of-home care have a documented face-to-face contact each and every full calendar month while in OHC  74% of the Face-to-Face contacts occurred in the child’s out-of-home care placement

43. Why Aren’t My Contacts Being Counted?  Most common documentation errors ○ Did not select Face-to-Face for they Type of note ○ Did not indicate that the contact “occurred” ○ Did not select *a* Participant, or certain participants ○ Did not Enter the correct date for note. ○ Note was entered after the reporting period ○ Did not enter note in the correct case (must be in the same case that the OHP is documented). ○ Location must be “Home Visit” or “Out-of-home Care” in order to qualify as being seen in child’s home.

44. eWiSACWIS Case Note

45. There’s Still Time To Improve!  You have until the end of November to get all your successful face-to-face contacts entered correctly so that they count for the reporting measure.

46. Caseworker Contacts Report (CM06x100 – On Demand)  Run it to see where you are at.  Run it for multiple months (FFY measure).  Re-run as often as you wish to check progress.  Same detail minus FFY performance.  Same Tabs, format slightly more basic.

48. FFY 2010 TARGET  75% of all children in out-of-home care will have a Face-to-Face contact each and every full calendar month while in out-of-home care  51% or more of those contacts will be in the child’s out-of-home care placement

49. Resources  For concerns related to reports contact: eWiSACWIS Help Desk Telephone: ○ 608) 261-4400 or ○ toll-free (866) 335-2180 ○ TTY: 1-608-836-2852 Or Email: Helpdesk@wi.gov (Include eWiSACWIS in Subject Line)  For questions about how to use the cm06 Caseworker Contacts Report? Contact your regional Human Service Area Coordinator

50. QUESTIONS