an overview georgia program improvement plan - Department of ...

Increased the number of children placed in the long-term custody (until age 18) of relatives. These placements are supported with Relative Care Subsidy (RCS) funds, as
long as the child remains eligible. Georgia was initially approved to place 1,000 children using RCS resources. There are now more than 2,030 children and youth who
have achieved permanency through this program.
Item 13: Visiting with Parents and Siblings in Foster Care. The continuity of family relationships and connections will be preserved for children in care by increasing the
number of visits they have with their parents and siblings. At the initial federal on-site review, Georgia was 66.6% compliant with visitation requirements. In the 1 st quarter QCR
report, Georgia was 95% compliant with this indicator. This is a significant increase over our federal final review report. Georgia targeted specific problem areas as needing
improvement pertinent to visitation with parents and siblings. Among them were:
Improved documentation of visits in the case plan
On-going training and professional development strategies focused on the importance of visitation
Creation of a “How To” manual to assist staff and volunteers in enhancing the visiting experience for children and their visitors (parents, siblings, and others)
To accomplish these goals, Georgia took the following steps:
Formulated a workgroup, whose specific task was to address changes needed to improve the Supervisory Review Form and implementation process. The group’s
directive was to assure that supervisory reviews included staff efforts to document visitations between the child, parent(s) and sibling(s).
Decided to use the results obtained from the Child Placement Services Evaluation and Reporting (E & R) Social Services Reviews, thereby achieving the PIP requirement
for documenting visits. Visitation is a required field on the Case Plan form.
Assured that all Basic and Advanced Case Plan Reporting System (CPRS) Training was provided to staff in all 159 counties and that it includes specific references to
visitations with parents and siblings.
Provided training opportunities for supervisors and case managers to learn the importance of visitations and the significance of documenting each visit in the CPRS. Staff
was trained on CPRS at either the Placement Conference and/or the Annual Staff and Foster Parent Institute. The importance of visitation with parents and siblings was
emphasized in all training programs.
Increased the number of visitation centers to twenty-five statewide and supported private ventures as established by the Georgia Presbyteries, and provided improved
approaches for enhancing the visits between children with their parents and/or their siblings. A “How To” manual was developed for this purpose and is available online.
Safe Futures – A Plan for Program Improvement
Georgia Department of Human Resources
November, 2004 Quarter 8 – Table of Contents Page xii