Glossary 607-05-01-01

(New 12/1/20 ML 3601)

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The management and treatment of threats to child safety is based on concepts that should be fully understood and applied. The foundation for how the child welfare agency practices is grounded in these concepts. The proficient use of the ideas that are expressed through these definitions is fully dependent on a versatile working knowledge of what these concepts are and how they have relevance, give meaning, and apply to child welfare practice.

 

"Abused child" means an individual under the age of eighteen years who is suffering from abuse as defined in NDCC 14-09-22 caused by a person responsible for the child's welfare.

 

"Alternative response assessment" means a child protection response involving substance exposed newborns which is designed to:

1. Provide referral services to and monitor support services for a person responsible for the child's welfare and the substance exposed newborn; and
2. Develop a plan of safe care for the substance exposed newborn.

“Alternate Caregiver” means a person who is at least 18 years old who cares for a child in his or her home or in the child’s home. An alternate caregiver can be an identified relative, kin, or fictive kin (i.e. friends or neighbors) of the child, or a licensed foster parent.

 

“Blue light” is the time agency staff spend working with families and their informal or formal supports including the following activities for CPS workers and case managers: present and impending danger assessments, safety planning, case transition staffing, maltreatment determination, face to face visits, child and family team meetings, court hearings, etc. and the following activities for supervisors: daily unit monitoring, staffing and consulting, field support and coaching, quality assurance and reporting, etc.

 

“Case Plans” include identified goals developed with the family, which are specific, behavioral, and measurable with a focus on enhancing parent/caregiver protective capacities in order to establish child safety and a safe home. Case plans include tasks/change strategies, specified roles, and responsibilities of providers, family members, and the case manager to assist the family in achieving the identified goals.

 

“Change strategy” refers to a well-defined approach that identifies specific tasks, services and activities for the purpose of supporting and enhancing diminished parent/caregiver protective capacities, ideally developed mutually with the parent/caregiver and including formal and informal elements.

 

“Child” means any unmarried person who is under the age of eighteen [NDCC 27-20-02.(4)] or a person over the age of 18 who chooses to remain in the 18+ continued foster care program [NDCC 27-20-30.1].

 

"Child Protection Services Assessment" is a factfinding process designed to provide information that enables a determination to be made that services are required to provide for the protection and treatment of an abused or neglected child and an evidence-based screening tool.

 

“Child welfare management information system” is the web-based case record system operated by the department (i.e. FRAME).

 

“Conditions For Return” means a written statement of specific behaviors, conditions or circumstances that must exist within a child's home before a child can safely return and remain in the home with an in-home ongoing safety plan. The Conditions For Return are embedded within the safety determination analysis questions of the CPS assessment, PCFA and PCPA.

 

"Danger Threshold” refers to the point at which family behaviors, conditions, or situations rise to the level of directly threatening the safety of a child. The danger threshold is crossed when family behaviors, conditions, or situations are manifested in such a way that they are beyond being just problems or risk influences and have become threatening to child safety. They are now active at a heightened degree, a greater level of intensity, and are judged to be out of the parent’s/caregiver’s or family’s control thus having implications for dangerousness.

 

“Degree (level) of intrusiveness” refers to the type of agency response that will ensure the child's safety in the least intrusive manner and ranges from no intervention necessary (the child is deemed safe) to child placement out of the home with custody granted to the Human Service Zone by the court.

 

“Family Centered Engagement meetings” are a front-end engagement strategy designed to create a participatory and inclusive process that brings together those with relationships to the children and services providers to improve child welfare decision-making and outcomes for children who are temporarily removed per the present danger plan, at risk of removal, and children involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

 

"Family services assessment" means a child protection services response to reports of suspected child abuse or neglect in which the child is determined to be at low risk and safety concerns for the child are not evident according to guidelines developed by the department and an evidence-based screening tool [NDCC 50-25.1-02(10)].

 

“Formal supports” are service providers who assist the family in assuring safety for the child and accomplishing case goals (e.g. therapists, parent aides, case aides, teachers, etc.).

 

“Full kit” is the collection of information required before every transition in the child welfare workflow process (i.e. from CPS to case management, from case management to the family, etc.).

 

“Goals” are specific, behavioral, and measurable, agreed upon by the child and family team, and included as part of the Case Plan. Goals focus on enhancing parent/caregiver protective capacities in order to establish and sustain child safety and a safe home.

 

“ICWA Family Preservationist” (IFP) is a representative of North Dakota tribes in Indian child welfare cases who is designated by the Indian child’s tribe as being qualified to testify to the prevailing social and cultural standards of the child’s tribe. The IFP serves as an advocate for the best interests of the Indian child and family.

 

“Impending danger” is a foreseeable state of danger in which family behaviors, attitudes, motives, emotions, and/or situations pose a threat which may not currently be active but can be anticipated to have severe effects on a child at any time in the near future and require safety intervention. The danger may not be obvious at the onset of CPS intervention, or occurring in the present context, but can be identified and understood upon more fully evaluating individual and family conditions and functioning. There are fourteen (14) impending danger threats contained as criteria for assessing, determining, and recording the presence of impending danger.

 

“Indian child” means any unmarried person who is under the age of eighteen and is either a member of an Indian tribe or is eligible for membership in an Indian tribe and is the biological child of a member of an Indian tribe [25 USC 1903(4), ICWA].

 

“Informal supports” are those who provide assistance and support to the child and family but are not paid providers (e.g. extended family members, friends, clergy, etc.).

 

“In-home safety plan” refers to safety management so that safety services, actions, and responses assure a child can be kept safe in his/her own home. In-home safety plans include activities and services that may occur within the home or outside the home but contribute to the child remaining home. People participating in in-home safety plans may be responsible for what they do inside or outside the child’s home. An in-home safety plan primarily involves the home setting and the child’s location within the home as central to the safety plan; however, in-home safety plans can also include periods of separation of the child from the home and may even contain an out-of-home placement option such as on weekends (e.g., respite).

 

“Level of effort” refers to the type and intensity of supports and/or services necessary to control impending danger and assure child safety.

 

“Needs” are behaviors or issues the family wishes to address in order to assure safety, permanency, and well-being for all family members.

 

"Neglected child" means a child who, due to the action or inaction of a person responsible for the child's welfare:

1. Is without proper care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for the child's physical, mental, or emotional health, or morals, and is not due primarily to the lack of financial means of a person responsible for the child's welfare;
2. Has been placed for care or adoption in violation of law;
3. Has been abandoned;
4. Is without proper care, control, or education as required by law, or other care and control necessary for the child's well-being because of the physical, mental, emotional, or other illness or disability of a person responsible for the child's welfare, and that such lack of care is not due to a willful act of commission or act of omission, and care is requested by a person responsible for the child's welfare;
5. Is in need of treatment and a person responsible for the child's welfare has refused to participate in treatment as ordered by the juvenile court;
6. Was subject to prenatal exposure to chronic or severe use of alcohol or any controlled substance as defined in chapter 19-03.1 in a manner not lawfully prescribed by a practitioner;
7. Is present in an environment subjecting the child to exposure of a controlled substance, chemical substance, or drug paraphernalia as prohibited by NDCC 19-03.1-22.2; or
8. Is a victim of human trafficking as defined in NDCC 12.1 [NDCC 50-25.1-02(14)].

“Out-of-home safety plan” refers to safety management when a child cannot be kept safe in his/her own home. Out-of-home safety plans involve child placement in a safe and stable environment with alternate caregivers who 1) possess adequate parent/caregiver protective capacity to meet or accommodate the needs of the child, 2) is/are cleared of criminal activity and CPS history after completing all necessary background checks, and 3) is/are sufficient to manage impending danger. The alternate caregivers are typically relatives, kin, fictive kin, or licensed foster parents unless the child needs placement in a facility due to the identified needs.

 

“Parent/caregiver protective capacities” refer to personal and parenting behavioral, cognitive, and emotional characteristics that can specifically and directly be associated with a person being protective of his/her child. A protective capacity is a specific quality that can be observed, understood, and demonstrated as part of the way a parent/caregiver thinks, feels, and acts that makes him/her protective.

 

“Present Danger Threats” refer to immediate, significant, and clearly observable family conditions that are actively occurring or ‘in process’ of occurring at the point of contact with a family and will likely result in severe harm to a child.

 

“Present Danger Plan” is an immediate, short term, and sufficient action that protects a child from present danger threats by providing the child with responsible adult supervision and care. “Immediate” means that the plan is capable of controlling present danger the same day it is created. Before the worker or case manager leave the family, the present danger plan is in motion and confirmed. “Short term” means that the plan only needs to control the particular present danger situation until sufficient information can be gathered and analyzed to determine the need for a longer-term safety plan. “Sufficient” means that the adults who will provide care and supervision of the child are responsible, available, trustworthy, and capable of fulfilling their responsibilities within the present danger plan. It is confirmed that the responsible adults are willing to cooperate and are emotionally and physically capable of carrying out the protective actions needed to keep the child safe.

 

“Protected Time” is uninterrupted time included on the agency staff’s schedule each week to complete essential tasks that require undivided attention, such as completing paperwork or documentation.

 

“Protective Capacities Family Assessment” (PCFA) is a collaborative process between the case manager and the parent/caregiver to examine and understand the behaviors, conditions, or circumstances that resulted in a child being unsafe. The collaborative process identifies protective capacities that can be employed to promote and reinforce change, and diminished protective capacities that must change in order for the parent/caregiver to regain full responsibility for the safety of the child.

 

“Protective Capacities Progress Assessment” (PCPA) is completed after the Case Plan is in effect and continues until case closure. The PCPA checks in on the quality of the helping relationship between the parents/caregivers and the agency, and the degree to which specific behaviors or conditions are changing in the intended direction.

 

"Protective services" includes services performed after an assessment of a report of child abuse or neglect has been conducted, such as social assessment, service planning, implementation of service plans, treatment services, referral services, coordination with referral sources, progress assessment, monitoring service delivery, and direct services [NDCC 50-25.1-02 (16)].

 

“Reunification” refers to a safety decision to modify an out-of-home safety plan to an in-home safety plan based on an analysis that impending danger threats can be controlled, parent/caregiver protective capacities have been sufficiently enhanced, and parents/caregivers are willing and able to accept an in-home safety plan.

 

“Safe child” is one in which no threats of danger exist within the family, or parents/caregivers possess sufficient protective capacity to manage any threats, or the child is not vulnerable to the existing danger.

 

“Safe home” refers to the required safety intervention outcome that must be achieved in order for a case that involves an unsafe child to be successfully closed. A safe home is a qualified environment and living circumstance that once established can be judged to assure a child’s safety and provide a permanent living arrangement. A safe home is qualified by: 1) The absence or reduction of threats of severe harm; 2) the presence of sufficient parent or caregiver protective capacities; and 3) confidence in consistency and endurance of the conditions that produced the safe home. The term “safe home” is used in the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) as the objective of child welfare agency intervention.

 

“Safety assessment” means the identification and focused evaluation of impending danger threats as part of the initial CPS assessment and continues throughout the life of the case.

 

“Safety determination analysis” refers to the examination of safety intervention information, impending danger threats as identified by the CPS assessment, and parent/caregiver protective capacities in order to determine if the child is safe or unsafe and if unsafe, create a safety plan.

 

“Safety Framework” refers to all the actions and decisions required throughout the life of a case to: 1) Assure that an unsafe child is protected; 2) Expend sufficient efforts necessary to support and facilitate parents/caregivers taking responsibility for the child’s protection; and 3) Achieve the establishment of a safe, permanent home for the unsafe child. Safety Framework consists of identifying and assessing threats to child safety, planning, and establishing safety plans that assure child safety, managing safety plans that assure child safety, and creating and implementing case plans that enhance the capacity of parents/caregivers to provide protection for their child(ren).

 

“Safety Plan” is a written arrangement between parents/caregivers and the agency that is required when a child is concluded to be unsafe. A safety plan establishes how impending danger threats will be managed. It is implemented and active as long as impending danger threats exist, and parent/caregiver protective capacities are insufficient to assure a child is protected. See “in-home safety plan” and “out-of-home safety plan.”

 

“Secondary Traumatic Stress” is the emotional response that results when child welfare professionals are indirectly exposed to the graphic details of others’ traumatic experiences and to their posttraumatic stress symptoms.

 

“Services” are formal or informal supports put into place to assist the family to accomplish their case plan goals (e.g. counseling, mentoring, treatment, etc.).

 

“Severe harm” refers to detrimental effects consistent with serious or significant injury, disablement, grave/debilitating physical health or physical conditions, acute/grievous suffering, terror, impairment, or death.

 

“Sexually abused child" means an individual under the age of eighteen years who is subjected by a person responsible for the child's welfare, or by any individual, including a juvenile, who acts in violation of sections 12.1-20-01 through 12.1-20-07, sections 12.1-20-11 through 12.1-20-12.3, or chapter 12.1-27.2 [NDCC 50-25.1-02(3)].

 

“Tasks,” or change strategies, are case plan activities that describe how change will be accomplished so that the goal is achieved.

 

“Threats to child safety” refers to specific conditions, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, attitudes, intents, actions, or situations within a family that represent the potential for severe harm to a child. A threat to child safety may be classified as present danger threats or impending danger threats.

 

“Trauma” refers to a deeply stressful experience or its short and long-term impacts. Child maltreatment can cause traumatic stress in some children, while others are more resilient and show few, if any, lasting effects.

 

“Trauma-informed practice” involves an ongoing awareness of how traumatic experiences may affect children and families. Trauma-informed child welfare staff recognize how children and families may perceive practices and services. They are aware of how certain actions and physical spaces have the potential to retraumatize or trigger behaviors in those they serve.

 

“Unsafe child” is one in which threats of danger exist in the family, and the child is vulnerable to such threats, and parents/caregivers have insufficient protective capacities to manage or control the threats.

 

“Warm Handoff” is the action of transferring a child welfare case across the workflow process. A full kit of information is required as part of a warm handoff. In a typical child welfare case, there are four warm handoffs: 1) CPS referral to case management supervisor, 2) case transition staffing, 3) case manager’s initial contact with the family, and 4) case closure.

 

“Wraparound” is a strength-based philosophy of care using a definable process of partnering with the family to assure child safety, permanency, and well-being.