When a child is placed in an out-of-home setting, you record the placement details in TFACTS. The system manages placement records according to the placement episode.
Placement referral
The FSW identifies the need for a new placement, and initiates the Placement Referral by recording the basic information that identifies the service needed, the expected date of placement, and so on. See Record a placement referral.
After the referral is complete, the Placement Service Division worker completes the process by creating a placement record for the child and selecting of the most appropriate resource. See Record a placement from the placement referral.
Placement episode
A placement episode begins with the date of a child’s initial removal, when the child is taken into physical custody or placed under a formal voluntary agreement between the agency, the parents, and the placement provider. The child is assigned an agency legal status at the beginning of the placement episode. See Record a child's legal status.
The placement episode ends when you change the child's legal status to inactive. Then you end the child's placement record and you enter the date the child was discharged from placement. Discharge information cannot be recorded for a child who has an active legal status. See End a child's placement.
Within a placement episode, the child may be placed with multiple resources in different substitute care settings. These changes may be due to actions initiated by the agency, the resource, the child, the parent, or the court. Each time the child's placement setting changes, you must end-date the previous placement and enter a new placement record with the new begin date. See Record placement information.
Temporary break in placement
A child may also be placed on a temporary break during the placement episode, with the intent of returning the child to the substitute care setting. For example, the child may be with parents or relatives, at camp, in the hospital, in detention, and so on.
A temporary break is considered as a simultaneous placement setting for a child such as an In-Patient Psychiatric Placement, a Medical Surgical Placement, Runaway, or Detention, while the child also remains actively placed in their regular placement location such as a resource placement.
The length of a break may not exceed 30 days. During the break, the child's place in the substitute care setting cannot be filled by another child. See Record a temporary break in placement.
Placement exception requests
A placement exception request (PER) is a request to exceed or waive DCS placement standards and policies to maintain sibling bonds, caregiver bonds. Also to meet medical, emotional, and psychological needs of the children in care. See Record a placement exception request.
A PER can be created as part of a placement referral or as part of a general placement record. If a PER is created as part of a referral for one of the matched resources, and that referral is used to create a placement, the PER is then associated to both the placement record and the match record on the placement referral.
A PER is created from the Placement screen when first recording a placement if the system identifies the need for a PER at that time. The PER contains a verbal approval field so users can indicate that they have verbal approval to proceed, so that the placement can be recorded in a timely manner.
A PER can also be generated at a later time if circumstances change, such as the overloading of a Resource, or a child remains in a Primary Treatment Center over 30 days.
The PSD worker can generate an aggregate report identifying all Placement Exception Requests for a given time period.