Overview of ICPC Process: What the Guardian ad Litem Needs to Know

1
Overview of ICPC ProcessWhat the Guardian ad
Litem Needs to Know

• H. Stephen Pennypacker, Esq.
• ICPC Compact Administrator
• November 18, 2009

2
Outline

1. What is the ICPC and why do we need it
2. When does it apply and when does it not apply
3. What is the process
4. Articles of interest
5. Regulations of interest
6. ICPC Central Office
7. What slows an ICPC down
8. The New ICPC

3
What is the Interstate Compact on the Placement
of Children?

• An agreement created by social service
  administrators in 1950s to provide order to the
  movement of children between states under court
  jurisdiction
• New York was first state to adopt it in 1960
• Adopted by all 50 states, District of Columbia,
  Virgin Islands
• Not adopted by Puerto Rico
• 10 Articles, 9 Regulations (Number 2 repealed in
  1999)
• Articles are statutory (Fla. Stat. 409.401)
• Regulations are derivative of articles, adopted
  by the Association of Administrators of the
  Interstate Compact

4
What is the Compact (cont.)?

• a) defines the types of placements
  (parent/relative/foster care/adoptive/residential)
  and the persons or entities able to make
  placements subject to the law
• b) sets out the procedures to be followed in
  making an interstate placement
• c) provides specific protections, services, and
  requirements if placement occurs

5
Why is the Compact needed?

• Provides the sending agency the opportunity to
  obtain homestudies and an evaluation of the
  proposed placement.
• Allows the prospective receiving state to ensure
  that the placement is not contrary to the
  interests of the child and that the receiving
  states applicable laws and policies have been
  followed before approving the placement.
• Guarantees the child legal and financial
  protection by fixing these responsibilities with
  the sending agency or individual.
• Ensures the sending agency does not lose
  jurisdiction over the child once the child moves
  to the receiving state.
• Provides the sending agency the opportunity to
  obtain supervision and regular reports on the
  childs adjustment and progress in the placement.

6
What if there were no compact?

• If there were no compact, the court could send
  children to another state with no homestudy, no
  services, no supervision, no obligation to
  provide support, and no jurisdiction.
• Conversely, children would be arriving in
  Florida every day to live in unsuitable, even
  dangerous homes, with no services, no support,
  and no supervision many would end up in our
  dependency and/or delinquency system or worse.

7
When does the Compact apply?

• Placement preliminary to an adoption, including
  placements through a public agency, private
  agencies or attorneys.
• Placements into foster care, including foster
  homes, group homes and residential treatment
  facilities.
• Placements with parents and relatives when a
  parent or relative is not making the placement.

8
When does the Compact NOT apply?

• Placements made in medical and mental health
  facilities (although notice of residential
  treatment placement is made through ICPC)
• Boarding schools or any institution primarily
  educational in character
• Placement of a child made by and to a parent,
  stepparent, grandparent, adult brother or sister,
  adult aunt or uncle, or childs guardian
• Divorce or custody procedures
• International studies or international adoptions
• Visits (up to 30 days or summer school vacation)
• Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam or Samoa

9
How do you begin an ICPC

• Order of Compliance entered by court
• Regular parent/relative/foster care
• Intact family child already placed
• Priority (Regulation 7) - expedited
• Court Jurisdiction supervision
  closed or non-public agency
• Agency (CBC) creates homestudy packet for
  submission to ICPC central office

10
Checklist Florida to Another State
11
Priority ICPC Regulation 7

• 6. A court order finding entitlement to a
  priority placement shall not be valid unless it
  contains an express finding that one or more of
  the following circumstances applies to the
  particular case and sets forth the facts on which
  the court bases its finding
•     (a) the proposed placement recipient is a
  relative belonging to a class of persons who,
  under Article VIII (a) of ICPC could receive a
  child from another person belonging to such a
  class, without complying with ICPC and (1) the
  child is under two (2) years of age or (2) the
  child is in an emergency shelter or (3) the
  court finds that the child has spent a
  substantial amount of time in the home of the
  proposed placement recipient.
•     (b) the receiving state Compact Administrator
  has a properly completed ICPC-100A and supporting
  documentation for over thirty (30) business days,
  but the sending agency has not received a notice
  pursuant to Article III (d) of ICPC determining
  whether the child may or may not be placed.
• Parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult
  brother or sister, adult uncle or aunt or a
  guardian

12
Checklist Priority (Regulation 7)
13
Form 100A
14
Time Frames

• From entry of order to packet being uploaded into
  ICS 5 business days (non-Reg. 7 case)
• Packet to be processed by our office (checked for
  completeness and sent out) 2 -3 business days
• Packet assigned to other state local office 14
  days
• Homestudy completed in other state 30 60 days
  (Safe and Timely Placement of Children Act of
  2006)

15
Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Children
Act of 2006

• Under section 471(a)(26), a State is required to
  complete
• and report on foster and adoptive home studies
  requested
• by another State within 60 days. An exception to
  the 60-
• day requirement is provided (but only until
  9/30/08) if the
• States failure to complete the home study within
  60 days is
• due to circumstances beyond the States control
  (e.g.,
• delays in receipt of Federal agency background
  checks).
• This exception gives the State 15 more days to
  complete
• and report on the home study.
• The State that requested the home study must
  accept the
• completed home study unless, within 14 days of
  receiving
• the report, the State determines that reliance on
  the report
• would be contrary to the childs welfare.
• The parts of the home study involving education
  and
• training of prospective foster and adoptive
  parents do not
• have to be completed within the same 60- (or 75-)
  day
• timeframe. Further, States are permitted to
  contract with a
• private agency to conduct the home study.

16
Incentive for Timely Completion under Safe and
Timely Interstate Placement

• Federal government authorized 10,000,000.00 to
  be utilized to pay an incentive to states that
  completed homestudies within 30 days for non-
  priority cases
• But money has never been appropriated!

17
Homestudy is approved 100B for placement
18
Articles of Interest
19
Articles of Interest (cont.)
20
Articles of Interest
21
Article V (cont.)
22
Article VIII - Limitations

• This compact shall not apply to     (a) The
  sending or bringing of a child into a receiving
  state by his parent, stepparent, grandparent,
  adult brother or sister, adult uncle or aunt, or
  his guardian and leaving the child with any such
  relative or non-agency guardian in the receiving
  state.     (b) Any placement, sending or
  bringing of a child into a receiving state
  pursuant to any other interstate compact to which
  both the state from which the child is sent or
  brought and the receiving state are party, or to
  any other agreement between said states which has
  the force of law. 

23
Regulations of InterestRegulation 1 intact
family
24
Regulation 1 (cont.)
25
Regulation No. 3
26
When can you place with a non-offending parent
without doing an ICPC?
27
Regulation 7 Priority Placement
28
Regulation 7 (cont.)

• CHILD CANNOT BE 2.5 BUT UNDER 2.
• WE WILL SEND IF ITS A SIBLING GROUP AND AT LEAST
  ONE CHILD IS UNDER 2 YOA BUT THE OTHER STATE MAY
  OR MAY NOT ACCEPT AS SUCH.
• EMERGENCY SHELTER IS NOT OUR LEGAL STATUS BUT A
  LICENSED SHELTER FACILITY.
• SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF TIME IS NOT DEFINED. BEST
  PRACTICE IS FOR COURT TO MAKE SPECIFIC FACTUAL
  FINDINGS SO A CLEAR EXPLANANTION OF THE
  RELATIONSHIP IS SET OUT IN THE ORDER.
• IF AN ORDER OF COMPLIANCE IS NEEDED, CAN COMBINE
  THAT WITH THE PRIORITY ORDER.
• Resource PARENT, STEPPARENT, GRANDPARENT, ADULT
  BROTHER OR SISTER, ADULT UNCLE OR AUNT, GUARDIAN

29
Regulation 7 (cont.)
30
Regulation 7 (cont.)
31
Regulation 9 - visits
32
Regulation 9 (cont.)
33
New Regulation Being Proposed Existing
Regulations Being Modified

• AAICPC committees working on a new regulation to
  govern supervision
• Re-writing Regulation 1 (intact family),
  Regulation 3 (regular ICPC), and Regulation 7
  (priority ICPC)
• Proposed regulations will be voted upon at
  AAICPC annual conference in Atlanta, (April
  16-20, 2010)

34
Composition of ICPC Central Office Tallahassee

• Seven full-time specialists
• Cases assigned by states
• Two full-time people in mail room
• Approximately 370 new cases per month
• Ratio of in state to out of state 2 to 1

35
Organizational Chart

36
(No Transcript)
37
Electronic ICPC System in Florida

• Started in spring 2008
• Completed in spring 2009 (some enhancements still
  desired)
• Paperless system within Florida -documents
  scanned by Florida local for outgoing cases,
  printed in central office
• Ten states accept electronic transmission from
  Florida at present

38
ICS Homestudy Page
39
ICS Homestudy Page
40
Uploading a Document
41
Finding a Pending Document
42
Transmittal Memo
43
(No Transcript)
44
The Old Way to Process ICPC Requests
45
Electronic Processing in Florida

• The New Way - Outgoing
• Day 1 - Court enters Order of Compliance
  attorney for state uploads order to state central
  office
• - Central office opens file in
  Interstate Compact System
• Desk 1 - Local creates packet and scans, sends
  to lead agency electronically
• Desk 2 - Lead agency reviews and uploads to ICS
  system in Tallahassee (1 2 days)
• Desk 3 Tallahassee reviews, prints, mails to
  receiving state (2 3 days) or sends
  electronically
• Desk 4 Receiving state reviews, sends to local
  (2 3 days)
• Desk 5 Local does homestudy, mails to state
  capital (14 60 days)
• Desk 6 state capital reviews, sends to other
  state capital (2 3 days)
• Desk 7 - state capital receives, scans, uploads
  into ICS (1 2 days), transmittal automatically
  generated
• Desk 8 lead agency sends to local (2 -3 days)
• Total time (with states that do not process
  electronically) 26 77 days
• Total time (ideal) for states that also process
  electronically (Oregon, Texas, Ohio, Vermont,
  Alaska, Minnesota, Nevada, Oklahoma, Idaho,
  Washington, D.C. ) can be as little as two weeks
  no paper, no mail, no overnight delivery
• For private adoptions with approved homestudy as
  part of packet verbal approval can be given in
  less than 24 hours

46
Automatic E-mails

• When transmittal saved
• When homestudy completed date filled in
• When Order of Compliance rendered date filled in
• Batch e-mails at night
• 25 days from date homestudy sent down to
  local
• 55 days from date homestudy sent down to local

47
Same day delivery!
48
Looking Ahead
49
A National Electronic ICPC Data Base - Imagine

• All ICPC homestudy request packets, transmittals,
  etc., sent electronically
• Central tracking system
• No lost files
• Current status of request available without
  telephone call, e-mail, or subpoena
• Private adoption approvals the same day packet
  received
• What else can you think of?

50
National Electronic ICPC

• Web based system behind secure firewall for
  security
• SACWIS compatible
• Read only access for critical
• stakeholders (ICPC central
• offices, courts, case managers,
• Department attorneys,
• Guardian ad Litem)
• Centralized data collection

51
Home page in CHILD
52
ICPC The most frustrating part of dependency

• What slows down an ICPC request?
• Problem delay from hearing to entry of order,
  entry of order to submission of completed packet
  to ICPC Central office
• Solution
• 1) ICPC Compact Administrator working with
  CLS to encourage entry of orders at time of
  hearing or within no more than 24 hours
• 2) CLS to provide copy of order of
  compliance to ICPC central office upon entry
• 3) ICPC Central Office to send automatic
  e-mail to CBC lead agency liaison with due date
  for packet
• 4) CBCs agreed to have packets submitted
  to central office within 2-3 days of entry of
  order of compliance
• 5) ICPC Central office now can track
  critical dates with new homestudy page

53
What slows down an ICPC

• Problem
• Awaiting results of background screens
  conventional rolled fingerprints, delays in
  processing of criminal history
• Solution
• 1) have prospective placement get their
  background screening started as soon as you think
  they might want to have the child placed with
  them
• 2) do informal screen by having placement
  answer questions about criminal and abuse history
  before sending through ICPC request
• four out of five are not approved
• 3) have prospective placement contact local
  agency in receiving state to push for ICPC
  homestudy process to begin

54
What slows down an ICPC (cont.)

• Problem
• Other state requires prospective placement to
  be licensed (foster care, even for relatives)
  most states do require licensing, Florida is one
  of few that dont prospective placement must
  complete training and CBC must pay other state
  board rate
• Solution
• As soon as prospective placement is
  identified, if receiving state requires
  licensing, have placement sign up for training
  and have CBC negotiate board rate dont wait
  until preliminary homestudy is done and then
  start training, discussing money, IVE
  eligibility, Medicaid, etc.

55
What else can be done?

• The New ICPC
• What is it? compact approved by Association of
  Administrators of Interstate Compact on Placement
  for Children, American Association of Adoption
  Attorneys, American Bar Association, American
  Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Uniform Law
  Commission
• Why do we need it now?
• Current ICPC has
• No forum to challenge results only remedy
  is to sue other state
• No forum to enforce violations
• Private adoptive parents must wait in state
  for approval before traveling
• Current Articles and Regulations do not
  cover all situations and states are left to
  interpret no consistency

56
New ICPC

• Adopted by Florida legislature in 2009 (F.S.
  409.408), but does not become law until 35 states
  adopt (F.S. 409.409)
• Currently only eleven states have adopted it
• Will be at least two years at the earliest before
  it becomes law

57
Resources
Articles and Regulations http//icpc.aphsa.org/Hom
e/resources.asp
58
Questions?

• Contact Information
• H. Stephen Pennypacker, Esq.
• ICPC Compact Administrator
• Department of Children and Family Services
• 1317 Winewood Boulevard, Bldg. 1, Room 307
• Tallahassee, FL 32617
• [phone]
• stephen_pennypacker_at_dcf.state.fl.us