QSR Electronic Rollup Guidance Sheet

QSR Electronic Rollup Guidance Sheet

The terms and definitions below are referenced by the footnotes found in the QSR electronic rollup sheet and are intended to clarify the questions reviewers are required to answer.

1 Number of Persons Interviewed

Enter the number of persons interviewed for the target child/youth’s case being reviewed during the onsite QSR (some interviews may have included multiple individuals so you should count the number of individuals, not the number of interviews that were done). Do not count individuals with whom interviews were scheduled but did not occur. Each person should only be counted once, even if they are “interviewed” more than once.

2 Type of Case Reviewed

Instructions for Type of Case Reviewed: The case is a “foster care case” if the focus child/youth, at day one of the onsite review, is in out of home care. A child/youth is considered to be in foster care if the County child welfare agency (hereafter “the agency”) has care and placement responsibility for the child/youth. This includes a child/youth who is placed by the agency with relatives or in other kin-type placements, but the agency maintains care and placement responsibility. It does not include a child/youth who is living with relatives (or caregivers other than parents) but who is not under the care and placement responsibility of the agency.

The case is an “in-home services case” if the focus child/youth was not in foster care from the effective sampling date (i.e. 90 days prior to the date of the first day of the onsite review). This also includes informal placements.

* IF the case is closed at the time of the onsite review, indicate the placement setting at time of case closure.

“Other” case – this section is only to be used to identify specific categories of cases if a county is conducting their own internal QSRs for specific populations (not to be used for state-led QSRs). If you are conducting an internal review please provide the specific type of case being reviewed.

3 Shared Case

Refers to the sharing of the responsibility for the care and services to youth who are under the direct supervision of either County Child and Youth Agencies (CCYA) or Juvenile Probation Offices (JPO), or both concurrently, and to the families of these youth. The youth include adjudicated delinquents in the CCYA-administered Title IV-E Foster Care Maintenance Program.

4 Focus Child/Youth’s Date of birth

Format for this must be MM/DD/YYYY. By entering the child/youth’s date of birth, and hitting Tab button, the child/youth’s age will automatically generate.

5 Juvenile Correctional Placement

The Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services (BJJS) within the Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) of the Department of Public Welfare administers and manages all nine state-owned youth development centers, youth forestry camps, and secure treatment units. Seven of the facilities are publicly operated, and two are privately contracted. The YDC/YFC system embraces the principles of balanced and restorative justice that is consistent with the practice of juvenile courts and probation departments across the state.

The YDC/YFC system includes secure treatment units for habitual and violent juvenile offenders and open residential programs for less serious offenders with an overall capacity of 649 beds (396 secure and 253 non-secure, including a 20-bed community re-entry program and a 20-bed facility for females). Specialized programs serve sex offenders, substance abusers, emotionally disturbed offenders, developmentally delayed offenders, and dually-diagnosed offenders.

6 Detention Placement

Primarily, counties operate juvenile detention facilities. Pennsylvania's 24 juvenile detention facilities have a combined 763-bed capacity. Most of these facilities are county-owned. The state reimburses counties for 50% of their detention expenditures.

Pennsylvania law (42 Pa.C.S. §6325) states that juveniles may not be admitted to secure detention prior to an adjudication of delinquency unless detention is required to: protect persons or property; protect the juvenile; or ensure the juvenile’s attendance at hearings. Detention may also be court-ordered due to ‘extraordinary and exceptional circumstances’ (37 Pa. Code §200.9). Juveniles may be detained pre-adjudication, pre-disposition, and while awaiting placement. The Juvenile Act does not preclude placing delinquent youth in secure detention facilities as a sanction for violating probation.

A detention hearing must be held within 72 hours of admission, and a hearing on the merits or a mandatory release must be within 10 days. The revised Rules of Juvenile Court Procedure now require that a petition be filed within 24 hours after the detention hearing is held. The change in the timing of the filing of the petition—from within 24 hours after a juvenile is admitted to detention to within 24 hours after the detention hearing—was made so that an informal adjustment of the juvenile’s case or other informal court action would not be precluded.

7 Timeliness of Investigations

Purpose of Assessment: To determine whether responses to all accepted child maltreatment reports received during the 12 months prior to the date of the review were initiated, and face-to-face contact with the focus child/youth made, within the timeframes established by agency policies or State statute.

Applicable Cases: Cases are Applicable for an assessment of this item if an accepted child maltreatment report on the focus child was received during the last 12 months prior to the date of the review. “Accepted” means that the report was assigned to the agency to conduct an assessment or investigation. This includes reports assigned for an “alternative response” assessment. Reports that are screened out are not considered “accepted.” “Alternative response” refers to an agency’s approach to addressing child maltreatment reports that meet agency criteria for acceptance but at the initial screening do not meet the agency’s requirements for a mandated investigation. For example, the agency’s policy may be that reports that appear to present low to moderate risk to the child may be referred for a family assessment, rather than an investigation. Under such a response, no determination of child maltreatment is made. The alternative response may include an assessment to determine the safety of the child(ren), the risk of maltreatment, and the family’s strengths and needs. The assessment may lead the State agency to provide services to eliminate or lessen the safety concerns and maltreatment risks.

Cases are Not Applicable for an assessment of this item if, during the last 12 months prior to the date of the review, there were no child maltreatment reports on the focus child/youth, or if a report was received on the focus child/youth but was “screened out,” that is, not referred for an assessment or investigation.

A list or table of related information, such as the report date, allegation, date of investigation and date of face-to-face contact will either be provided to you OR you will may locate the necessary information within the case file and fill in a table similar to the one provided below.

Referral Date / First name of the child/youth who the report was received about / Allegation (CPS or GPS) / Response Time (Number of days/hours) / Date and time that the Investigation/Assessment was initiated / Date of Face-to-Face Contact with the subject child/youth / Disposition /

8 CPS – Child Protective Services

CPS cases are those with alleged harm, or with threat or risk of harm to the child. These cases include allegations of physical abuse that result in severe pain or dysfunction, sexual abuse, medical neglect, or lack of supervision resulting in a specific physical condition or impairment, psychological abuse attested to by a physician, or repeated injuries with no explanation.

Child protective services, (*Definition as per “The Child Protective Services Law”, Chapter 63, Act 127 of 1998 6303. (b)

Child Abuse - The term “child abuse” shall mean any of the following (1) Any recent act or failure to act by a perpetrator, which causes non-accidental serious physical injury to a child/youth under 18 years of age; (2)An act or failure to act by a perpetrator, which causes non-accidental serious mental injury to or sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child/youth under 18 years of age; (3) Any recent act, failure to act or series of such acts or failures to act by a perpetrator which creates an imminent risk of serious physical injury to or sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child/youth under 18 years of age; (4) Serious physical neglect by a perpetrator constituting prolonged or repeated lack of supervision or the failure to provide the essentials of life, including adequate medical care, which endangers a child/youth’s life or development or impairs the child/youth’s functioning.

No child/youth shall be deemed to be physically or mentally abused based on injuries that result solely from environmental factors that are beyond the control of the parent or person responsible for the child/youth’s welfare, such as inadequate housing, furnishings, income, clothing, and medical care.

If, upon investigation, the county agency determines that a child/youth has not been provided needed medical or surgical care because of seriously held religious beliefs of the child/youth’s parents, guardian, or person responsible for the child/youth’s welfare, which beliefs are consistent with those of a bona fide religion, the child/youth shall not be deemed to be physically or mentally abused. The county agency shall closely monitor the child/youth and shall seek court-ordered medical intervention when the lack of medical or surgical care threatens the child/youth’s life or long-term health. In cases involving religious circumstances, all correspondence with a subject of the report and the records of the Department of Public Welfare and the county agency shall not reference “child abuse” and shall acknowledge the religious basis for the child/youth’s condition, and the family shall be referred for general protective services, if appropriate.

Serious Bodily Injury - Bodily injury, which creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment, of function of any bodily member or organ.

Serious Mental Injury - A psychological condition, as diagnosed by a physician or licensed psychologist, including the refusal of appropriate treatment, that: (1) Renders a child/youth chronically and severely anxious, agitated, depressed, socially withdrawn, psychotic or in reasonable fear that the child/youth’s life or safety is threatened; or (2) Seriously interferes with a child/youth’s ability to accomplish age-appropriate developmental and social tasks.

Serious Physical Injury – is an injury that: (1) Causes a child/youth severe pain; or (2) Significantly impairs a child/youth’s physical functioning, either temporarily or permanently.

Sexual Abuse or Exploitation - The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement or coercion of any child/youth to engage in or assist any other person to engage in any sexually explicit conduct or any simulation of any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction, including photographing, videotaping, computer depicting or filming, of any sexually explicit conduct or the rape, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, molestation, incest, indecent exposure, prostitution, statutory sexual assault or other form of exploitation of children.

9 GPS – General Protective Services

GPS cases include most instances of child neglect, including environmental conditions such as inadequate housing, inadequate clothing, and medical neglect not leading to a specific physical condition (e.g., failure to keep appointments or get prescriptions).

General protective services,(*Definition as per “The Juvenile Court Act”, PA. C.S. Sec. 6301 et seq.)

Dependent Child/Youth - is a child/youth who: (1) is without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for his physical, mental, or emotional health, or morals; (2) has been placed for care or adoption in violation of law; (3) has been abandoned by his parents, guardian, or other custodian; (4) is without a parent, guardian, or legal custodian; (5) while subject to compulsory school attendance is habitually andwithout justification truant from school; (6) has committed a specific act of habitual disobedience of the reasonable and lawful commands of his parent, guardian or other custodian and who is ungovernable and found to be in need of care, treatment or supervision; (7) is under the age of ten years and has committed a delinquent act; (8) has been formerly adjudicated dependent, and is under the jurisdiction of the court, subject to its conditions or placements and who commits an act which is defined as ungovernable in paragraph (6); or (9)has been referred pursuant to section 6323 (relating to informal adjustment), and who commits an act which is defined as ungovernable.

10 State Timeframes

For CPS allegations the agency has 24 hours to respond to the report. GPS allegations are handled differently in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Please ask your site review leader for a summary of the GPS protocol for the county in which you are reviewing.

11 Timeliness of Investigations & Rating Criteria

To rate as a “strength:” The number of accepted reports in the last 12 months is greater than zero and the number of identified reports investigated in a timely manner and the number of reports subject to a face to face contact is equal to the number of reports received in the past 12 months OR the number of reports investigated in a timely manner and the number of reports subject to a face to face contact are less than the number of accepted reports received in the last 12 months but there were reasons for the delays which were due to circumstances beyond the control of the agency.

To rate as “an area needing improvement:” The number of accepted reports in the last 12 months is greater than zero and the number of identified reports investigated in a timely manner and the number of reports subject to a face to face contact is less than the number of accepted reports received AND the delays were not due to circumstances beyond the control of the agency.

To rate as “N/A”: There were no accepted CPS or GPS report in the last 12 months.

12 Focus Child/Youth’s Mother and Father

For in-home services cases, "parents" are defined as the child/youth’s primary caregivers with whom the child/youth live, or as a noncustodial parent who is involved or wishes to be involved in the child/youth's life.

For foster care cases, "parents" include, (1) the child/youth's biological parents; (2) the child/youth's primary caregivers (if other than the biological parents) from whom the child/youth was removed (if relevant); and (3) the child/youth's adoptive parents if the adoption has been finalized.