§ 16-1621 — CASE PLAN HEARING — NO FINDING OF AGGRAVATED CIRCUMSTANCES

(1) In every case in which the child is determined to be within the jurisdiction of the court and there is no judicial determination that aggravated circumstances were present, the department shall prepare a written case plan, including cases in which the parent(s) is incarcerated. The court shall schedule a case plan hearing to be held within thirty (30) days after the adjudicatory hearing. The case plan shall be filed with the court no later than five (5) days prior to the case plan hearing. Copies of the case plan shall be delivered to the parents and other legal guardians, the prosecuting attorney or deputy attorney general, the guardian ad litem and attorney for the child.
(a) The court shall hold a case plan hearing to determine whether the best interests of the child are served by adopting, rejecting or modifying the case plan proposed by the department.
(b) If there is reason to believe that the child is an Indian child and there has not been a final determination regarding the child’s status as an Indian child, the court shall:
(i) Inquire about the efforts that have been made since the last hearing to determine whether the child is an Indian child; and
(ii) Determine that the department is using active efforts to work with all tribes of which the child may be a member to verify whether the child is a member or eligible for membership.
(c) If the child is being treated with psychotropic medication, the court shall inquire as to, and may make any additional inquiry relevant to, the use of psychotropic medication.
(2) Notice of the case plan hearing shall be provided to the parents and other legal guardians, the prosecuting attorney or deputy attorney general, guardian ad litem, attorney for the child, the department, and foster parents. Although foster parents are provided notice of this hearing, they are not parties to the child protective act action.
(3) If the child is placed in the legal custody of the department, the case plan filed by the department shall set forth reasonable efforts that will be made to make it possible for the child to return home. The case plan shall also:
(a) Identify the services to be provided to the child, including services to identify and meet any educational, emotional, physical or developmental needs the child may have, and to assist the child in adjusting to the placement or to ensure the stability of the placement. For youth age fourteen (14) years and older:
(i) Identify the services needed to assist the youth in making the transition to successful adulthood; and
(ii) Document the youth’s rights in regard to education and health, visitation, court participation and receipt of an annual credit report, including a signed acknowledgment by the department that the youth was provided with a written copy of these rights and that the rights were explained to the youth in an age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate manner;
(b) Address the options for maintaining the child’s connection to the community:
(i) Include connections to individuals with a significant relationship to the child and organizations or community activities with which the child has a significant connection;
(ii) Ensure educational stability for the child, including the efforts to keep the child in the school in which the child is enrolled at the time of placement or the reasons why remaining in that school is not in the best interests of the child;
(iii) Include a visitation plan and identify the need for supervision of visitation and child support;
(iv) Either document that siblings were placed together or, if siblings were not placed together, document the efforts made to place the siblings together, the reasons why siblings were not placed together and a plan for ensuring frequent visitation or other ongoing interaction among siblings, unless visitation or ongoing interaction would be contrary to the safety or well-being of one (1) or more of the siblings; and
(v) If there is reason to believe the child is an Indian child and there has been no final determination as to the child’s status as an Indian child, document:
1. The efforts made to determine whether the child is an Indian child; and
2. The department’s efforts to work with all tribes of which the child may be a member to verify whether the child is a member or eligible for membership;
(c) Include a goal of reunification and a plan for achieving that goal. The reunification plan shall identify all issues that need to be addressed before the child can safely be returned home without department supervision. The court may specifically identify issues to be addressed by the plan. The reunification plan shall specifically identify the tasks to be completed by the department, each parent or others to address each issue, including services to be made available by the department to the parents and in which the parents are required to participate, and deadlines for completion of each task. The case plan shall state with specificity the role of the department toward each parent. When appropriate, the reunification plan should identify terms for visitation, supervision of visitation and child support;
(d) Include a concurrent permanency goal and a plan for achieving that goal. The concurrent permanency goal may be one (1) of the following: termination of parental rights and adoption, guardianship or, for youth age sixteen (16) years or older only, another planned permanent living arrangement. The concurrent plan shall:
(i) Address all options for permanent placement of the child, including consideration of options for in-state and out-of-state placement of the child;
(ii) Address the advantages and disadvantages of each option and include a recommendation as to which option is in the child’s best interests;
(iii) Specifically identify the actions necessary to implement the recommended option;
(iv) Specifically set forth a schedule for accomplishing the actions necessary to implement the concurrent permanency goal;
(v) Address options for maintaining the child’s connection to the community, including individuals with a significant relationship to the child and organizations or community activities with which the child has a significant connection;
(vi) Identify the names of the proposed adoptive parents when known if the permanency goal is termination of parental rights and adoption;
(vii) In the case of a child who has attained the age of fourteen (14) years, include the services needed to assist the child to make the transition from foster care to successful adulthood;
(viii) For youth with a proposed permanency goal of another permanent planned living arrangement, document:
1. The intensive, ongoing and, as of the date of the hearing, unsuccessful efforts made to place the youth with a parent in an adoptive placement, in a guardianship, or in the legal custody of the department in a placement with a fit and willing relative, including an adult sibling;
2. Why another planned permanent living arrangement is the best permanency goal for the youth and a compelling reason why, as of the date of the case plan hearing, it would not be in the best interests of the child to be placed permanently with a parent, in an adoptive placement, in a guardianship, or in the legal custody of the department in a placement with a fit and willing relative, including an adult sibling;
3. The steps taken by the department to ensure that the youth’s foster parents or child care institution are following the reasonable and prudent parent standard when making decisions about whether the youth can engage in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural and social activities; and
4. The opportunities provided to the youth to regularly engage in age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate activities; and
(ix) Identify further investigation necessary to identify or assess other options for permanent placement, to identify actions necessary to implement the recommended placement or to identify options for maintaining the child’s significant connections.
(4) If the child has been placed under protective supervision of the department, the case plan filed by the department shall:
(a) Identify the services to be provided to the child, including services to identify and meet any educational, emotional, physical or developmental needs the child may have, and to assist the child in adjusting to the placement or to ensure the stability of the placement. For youth age fourteen (14) years and older, identify the services needed to assist the youth in making the transition to successful adulthood and document the youth’s rights in regard to education and health, visitation, court participation and receipt of an annual credit report, including a signed acknowledgment by the department that the youth was provided with a written copy of the youth’s rights and that the rights were explained to the youth in an age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate manner. The plan shall also address options for maintaining the child’s connection to the community, including individuals with a significant relationship to the child and organizations or community activities with which the child has a significant connection;
(b) Identify all issues that need to be addressed to allow the child to remain at home without department supervision. The court may specifically identify issues to be addressed by the plan. The case plan shall specifically identify the tasks to be completed by the department, the parents or others to address each issue, including services to be made available by the department to the parents and in which the parents are required to participate, and deadlines for completion of each task. The plan shall state with specificity the role of the department toward each parent.
(5) If the child is placed in a qualified residential treatment program, then the case plan shall include the assessment report of the qualified individual.
(6) The case plan, as approved by the court, shall be entered into the record as an order of the court. The order may include interim and final deadlines for implementing the case plan and finalizing the permanency goal. The court’s order shall provide that reasonable efforts shall be made to reunify the family in a timely manner in accordance with the case plan. Unless the child has been placed under the protective supervision of the department, the court’s order shall also require the department to simultaneously take steps to accomplish the goal of reunification and the concurrent permanency goal.

Legislative History

[(16-1621) 16-1610, added 1976, ch. 204, sec. 2, p. 738; am. 1982, ch. 186, sec. 10, p. 497; am. 1986, ch. 121, sec. 2, p. 320; am. 1989, ch. 218, sec. 2, p. 527; am. 1989, ch. 302, sec. 3, p. 755; am. 1991, ch. 212, sec. 4, p. 503; am. 1996, ch. 272, sec. 8, p. 891; am. 1998, ch. 257, sec. 3, p. 852; am. 1998, ch. 385, sec. 1, p. 1186; am. 2001, ch. 107, sec. 11, p. 361; am. 2003, ch. 279, sec. 6, p. 755; am. and redesig. 2005, ch. 391, sec. 23, p. 1283; am. 2013, ch. 287, sec. 5, p. 748; am. 2016, ch. 265, sec. 5, p. 709; am. 2016, ch. 347, sec. 4, p. 1004; am. 2017, ch. 58, sec. 5, p. 101; am. 2021, ch. 281, sec. 6, p. 847.]