12.35.010 Active efforts required

12.35.010 Active efforts required.

YSS shall make active efforts to maintain the family unit and prevent the unnecessary removal of a child from his/her home, as long as the child’s safety is assured; to effect the safe reunification of the child and family (if temporary out-of-home placement is necessary to ensure the immediate safety of the child); and to make and finalize alternate permanency plans in a timely manner when reunification is not appropriate or possible.

(a) In determining active efforts to be made with respect to a child and in making such efforts, the child’s health and safety shall be the paramount concern.

(b) When a child is removed from his/her home, a judicial determination as to whether active efforts were made, or were not required to prevent the removal, must be made no later than 60 clays from the date the child is removed from the home. If the determination concerning active efforts to prevent the removal is not made within 60 days of removal, the child is not eligible under the Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments program for the duration of that stay in foster care.

(1) Prior to the placement of a child in foster care, to prevent or eliminate the need for removing the child from the child’s home; and

(2) To make it possible for a child to safely return to the child’s home;

(3) If continuation of active efforts to reunify is determined to be inconsistent with the permanency plan for the child, active efforts shall be made to place the child in a timely manner in accordance with the permanency plan (including, if appropriate, through an inter-jurisdictional placement) and to complete whatever steps are necessary to finalize the permanent placement of the child.

(1) YSS must obtain a judicial determination that it has made active efforts to finalize the permanency plan that is in effect (whether the plan is reunification, adoption, legal guardianship, placement with a fit and willing relative, or placement in another planned permanent living arrangement) within 12 months of the date the child is considered to have entered foster care, and at least once every 12 months thereafter while the child is in foster care.

(2) If such a judicial determination regarding active efforts to finalize a permanency plan is not made within 12 months of the date the child is considered to have entered foster care, and at least once every 12 months thereafter, the child becomes ineligible under title IV-E at the end of the twelfth month in which the judicial determination was required to have been made, and remains ineligible until such a determination is made.

(e) When Active Efforts to Prevent Removal or Reunify are Not Required. There are certain circumstances in which active efforts are not required to prevent a child’s removal from the home or to reunify the child and family. Active efforts to prevent a child’s removal from home or to reunify the child and family are not required if YSS obtains a judicial determination that such efforts are not required because:

(1) The Court has determined that aggravated circumstances justify the nonprovision of active efforts as described in this section. Aggravated circumstances as defined in this title shall consist of those circumstances identified in California Welfare and Institutions Code § 361.5(b).

(f) Permanency Hearings When Active Efforts Are Not Required. When a judicial determination is made that active efforts are not required:

(1) A permanency hearing, which considers interstate and inter-jurisdiction permanent placement options for the child, shall be held for the child within 30 days after the determination; and

(2) Active efforts shall be made to place the child in a timely manner in accordance with the permanency plan, and to complete whatever steps are necessary to finalize the permanent placement of the child; and

(3) Active efforts to place a child for adoption or with a legal guardian, including identifying appropriate interstate and inter-jurisdiction placements may be made concurrently with reasonable and active efforts to reunify.

(g) Documentation of the Judicial Determinations. The judicial determinations regarding contrary to the welfare, active efforts to prevent removal, and active efforts to finalize the permanency plan in effect including judicial determinations that active efforts are not required, must be explicitly documented and must be made on a case-by-case basis and so stated in the court order.

(1) If such judicial determinations are not included as required in the court orders, a transcript of the court proceedings is the only other documentation that will be accepted to verify that these required determinations have been made.

(2) Court orders that reference Tribal law (or the laws of another jurisdiction) to substantiate judicial determinations are not acceptable, even if the law provides that a removal must be based on a judicial determination that remaining in the home would be contrary to the child’s welfare or that removal can only be ordered after active efforts have been made.

(h) The duty to make active efforts includes, but is not limited to the, duty to:

(1) Identify family support services that will assist the parent/guardian/caretaker in remedying the conduct or conditions in the home that created the need for removal or made the child a CINA;

(2) Actively offer the parent/guardian/caretaker the services identified under this section;

(3) Initiate a Family Conferencing Plan;

(4) Actively refer the parent/guardian/caretaker to community-based family support services whenever community-based services are available and desired by the parent/guardian/caretaker; and

(5) Document all actions taken by YSS pursuant to subsections (a) through (d) of this section. Such documentation will be included in any reports made to the Court.

YSS shall make, not less often than every six months, a determination or redetermination as to whether the child remains at imminent risk of removal from the home.

(1) YSS or other agency designated by the court shall develop a case plan in all cases. A case plan means a written document which is a discrete part of the case record, developed jointly with the parent(s) or guardian(s) of the child.

(2) For the purpose of determining proper disposition of a child, written reports and other material relating to the child’s mental, physical, and social history may be received and considered by the court along with other evidence.

(3) The court, either on its own motion or if so requested by the child, the child’s parent or guardian, or other interested party, shall require that the person who wrote the report or prepared the material appear as a witness and be subject to both direct and cross-examination.

(4) The case plan shall be made available to the court and the parties as deemed appropriate by the court at least five court days prior to the hearing at which it will be considered.

(j) Trial Home Visits. A trial home visit may not exceed six months in duration, unless the court orders a longer trial home visit. If a trial home visit extends beyond six months and has not been authorized by the court, or exceeds the time period the court has deemed appropriate, and the child is subsequently returned to foster care, that placement must then be considered a new placement and title IV-E eligibility must be newly established. Under these circumstances, the judicial determinations regarding contrary to the welfare and active efforts to prevent removal are required. [Ord. 46A § 1601, adopted, 3/24/2016.]