OAR 413-070-1020: Approval and Implementation of a Fit and Willing Relative Permanency Plan

(1) Subject to OAR 413-070-0518, when the Department is considering a change in the permanency plan of a child or young adult, the Department makes the determination pursuant to OAR 413-070-0500 to 413-070-0519. (2) The permanency committee must consider the best interests of the child or young adult and each of the following factors when developing a recommendation regarding placement with fit and willing relative to the Child Welfare Program Manager or designee: (a) The safety, permanency, and well-being needs of the child or young adult. (b) The opportunities the Department has provided the child or young adult and his or her parents to identify permanency resources. (c) The parents' acceptance of fit and willing relative as a permanency plan and their preference for continued contact with the child or young adult. (d) The ability of the fit and willing relative to meet the needs of the child or young adult pursuant to OAR 413-070-0640. (e) The compelling reasons placement with a parent, adoption, or guardianship cannot be achieved. (f) The sufficiency of the plan for continued contact with siblings. (3) The Child Welfare program manager or designee must consider all of the following when deciding whether placement with a fit and willing relative is the appropriate permanency plan for the child or young adult: (a) The considerations in section (2) of this rule. (b) The information presented to the permanency committee. (c) The recommendation of the permanency committee. (4) Within 30 days of a Department decision to approve a fit and willing relative permanency plan under OAR 413-070-0519, the caseworker must request a permanency hearing before the court. (5) At the hearing, the caseworker must provide all of the following to the court: (a) The intensive, ongoing efforts by the Department to return the child or young adult home, or secure a placement with an adoptive parent or guardian. (b) The compelling reasons it would not be in the best interests of the child or young adult to return home, be placed for adoption, or be placed with a guardian. (c) The type and amount of parent-child and child-sibling contact and involvement until a more preferred permanency plan is achieved, the child reaches age of majority, reaches independence, or the juvenile court relieves the Department of legal custody of the child or young adult. (d) The reasonable services the Department may offer each parent to meet the best interests of the child or young adult until a more preferred permanency plan is achieved, the child reaches the age of majority, reaches independence, or the juvenile court relieves the Department of legal custody of the child or young adult. (e) The steps the Department has taken to ensure the foster parent is following the reasonable and prudent parent standard, and opportunities the child has had to engage in age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate activities. (f) A recommendation that the court issue an order approving the placement with a fit and willing relative permanency plan. (g) A timetable for placement of the child or young adult with a fit and willing relative. (6) When the Department recommends that contact be limited or prohibited between a parent and child or young adult, or between a sibling and child or young adult, the caseworker must make the request to the court and include the reasons contact should be limited or prohibited in the court report. (7) The caseworker must ensure the Placement with a Fit and Willing Relative Agreement is signed by the fit and willing relative and the Child Welfare program manager within a reasonable time after the court has approved the permanency plan and the relative resource has been identified and approved. (8) Within 30 days of the Department or court decision not to approve the fit and willing relative permanency plan, the caseworker must: (a) Inform the child or young adult and, at the option of the child or young adult, up to two members of the case planning team who are chosen by the child or young adult as described in OAR 413-040-0010(3)(c), the child or young adult’s relative caregivers, parents, attorney, court appointed special advocate, and other persons with significant involvement in the life of the child or young adult; and (b) Consult with the child’s or young adult’s case planning team to reconsider other permanency options.