| (a) If a child cannot be placed with a relative or
other person with whom the child has a long-standing and significant
relationship, DFPS will seek to place the child in a foster or adoptive
home that can meet the child's needs. If DFPS is unable to locate
a foster or adoptive home that can provide safe and appropriate care
to the child, DFPS may place the child in any of the settings described
in §700.1307 of this title (relating to In what kinds of settings
may a child in DFPS conservatorship be placed?), when:
(1) the child needs treatment services or additional
programmatic services, other than child care services, that are not
available or cannot be provided to the child in a foster home;
(2) the child is placed with a sibling or parent who
needs the services described in paragraph (1) of this subsection,
and placement of the child with the sibling or parent in a general
residential operation is deemed to be in the child's best interest;
(3) the child is placed temporarily in a general residential
operation because of the proximity of the placement to the child's
home or school of origin, and such placement is deemed to be in the
child's best interest;
(4) there is no foster home immediately available for
the child to be placed; or
(5) the placement is ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
(b) A child receiving emergency care services from
a general residential operation may not remain in such operation beyond
the maximum lengths of stay set forth in the following chart unless
the child's caseworker obtains supervisory approval to extend the
placement and documents the reasons for extending the placement in
the child's case record:
Attached Graphic
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision in this section,
unless ordered by a court to do so, DFPS does not place a child in:
(1) a general residential operation that the Child
Care Licensing Department of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission
has placed on probation unless the placement is approved by the Associate
Commissioner or Deputy Associate Commissioner for Child Protective
Services, the Deputy Commissioner for DFPS, or the Commissioner for
DFPS; or
(2) a foster home whose verification has been placed
on inactive status by the child-placing agency that verifies the home.
(d) For youth who are placed in a residential treatment
center the caseworker, as appropriate, includes in the Child's Plan
of Service, transition plan goals that assist in preventing the youth
from aging out of foster care from a residential treatment center.
The goals must be:
(1) consistent with the youth's best interest and special
needs;
(2) in the transition plan in the Child's Plan of Service
by the youth's 17th birthday, or at the time the youth is placed in
the residential treatment center when the youth's placement occurs
after the youth's 17th birthday; and
(3) discussed and evaluated with the youth each month.
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| Source Note: The provisions of this §700.1311 adopted to be effective August 1, 2012, 37 TexReg 5632; amended to be effective November 4, 2020, 45 TexReg 7718; amended to be effective August 10, 2022, 47 TexReg 4688 |
