Caseworkers don't want to wake a director in the middle of the night to sign off on a non-relative placement. Requiring this level of sign-off incentivizes thorough efforts to engage kin and may prevent placements in group homes by encouraging workers to exhaust all kin options first.

How to do this

Set up the sign-off requirement. Require senior staff sign-off for all non-kin placements, no matter the time of day. Apply this to initial placements, subsequent placements, and any congregate care placements. Have the senior staff member ask specific questions about what activities have been conducted and what activities are planned for finding and connecting with kin. Note that planned placement changes may follow a different process than emergency placements.

Create clear processes. Develop or update policy requiring senior staff sign-off on non-kin placements. Specify exactly which senior staff member is responsible at any given time and provide their contact information. Create recommended questions for senior staff to ask about progress on efforts to engage kin. Ensure your placement desk has viable ways to engage kin since this strategy won't work without adequate resources.

This strategy in action

New Mexico has a policy that a director must sign off on any placement with non-kin, whether general foster care or a group home, even if it's the middle of the night.

New York has implemented a kinship firewall policy with similar requirements.

Resources