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DSS proposes clarified appeal rights for foster parents in placement decisions
Summary
A Department of Social Services regulation would clarify foster parents’ administrative appeals rights for adverse placement decisions while specifying exceptions when appeals are not available; the subcommittee carried the proposal forward.
The Department of Social Services proposed regulatory amendments to clarify foster parents’ appeal rights in administrative hearings involving adverse placement decisions, and the Senate subcommittee carried the changes to the full committee by voice vote.
Conley Ann Ragley described document 5313 as updates to appeal procedures for foster parents, including the right to appeal placement changes in certain circumstances. Ragley said the department is adding provisions that explain when foster parents cannot appeal—for example, when a child has been in a foster home less than 12 months, when the foster parents do not submit required documents to complete an adoptive-home approval process within 90 days, when the agency reunifies a child with family or places siblings together, or when the agency moves a child to a kinship caregiver.
Ragley told the committee the department administers administrative fair hearings for adverse decisions that affect foster parents’ public benefits, and she said the state has 369 frontline caseworkers who conduct home visits and oversight in foster placements. "Those are the folks that are visiting children. They are, you know, assessing to make sure that their permanency and well-being," Ragley said.
The department reported no expected fiscal impact from the regulation changes. A senator moved a favorable report, the motion was seconded, and the committee carried the regulation to the full committee by voice vote.
