3.1.1 Permanency Goals and Permanency Planning

AS 47.10.010 Jurisdiction

AS 47.10.086 Reasonable Efforts

AS 47.10.088 Termination of Parental Rights and Responsibilities

42 U.S.C. 670-675 Federal Payments for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance

AS 47.10.080  Children in Need of Aid

AS 47.10.086  Reasonable Efforts

AS 47.14.100  Powers and Duties of Department over Care of Child

42 U.S.C. 671  State Plan for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance (Title IV-E)

42 U.S.C. 675  Definitions (Title IV-E)

45 CFR 1356.21(h) Case Plan Requirements

To outline the formal process for making recommendations on setting goals and making goal changes in all cases to help ensure timely permanency.

Federal Requirements:

1. At permanency hearings, which must be held within 12 months of when a child is taken into State custody and placed out of home, and at least every 12 months thereafter, the hearing shall determine the permanency plan for the child that includes whether, and if applicable, when:

   1. The child will be returned to the parent;

   2. Placed for adoption and the State will file a petition for termination of parental rights;

   3. Referred for legal guardianship; or

   4. In cases where the State agency has documented to the State court a compelling reason for determining that it would not be in the best interests of the child to return home, be referred for termination of parental rights, or be placed for adoption, with a fit and willing relative, or with a legal guardian, placed in another planned permanent living arrangement.

2. If the title IV-E agency concludes, after considering Reunification, adoption, legal guardianship, or Permanent Placement with a Fit and Willing Relative, that the most appropriate permanency plan for a child is placement in another planned permanent living arrangement, the title IV-E agency must document to the court the compelling reason for the alternate plan. Examples of a compelling reason for establishing such a permanency plan may include:

   1. the case of an older youth who specifically requests that emancipation is established as their permanency plan;

   2. the case of a parent and child who have a significant bond but the parent is unable to care for the child because of an emotional or physical disability and the child's foster parents have committed to raising them to the age of majority and to facilitate visitation with the disabled parent; or

   3. the Tribe has identified another planned permanent living arrangement for the child.

3. Reasonable efforts to place a child for adoption or with a legal guardian, including identifying appropriate in-State and out-of-State placements, which may be made concurrently with reasonable efforts to return the child home.

State Requirements:

1. Within 12 months after the date a child enters foster care, the court shall hold a permanency hearing. When establishing the permanent plan for the child, the court shall make appropriate written findings, including findings related to whether:

   1. and when the child should be returned to the parent or guardian;

   2. the child should be placed for adoption or legal guardianship and whether a petition for termination of parental rights should be filed by the department; and

   3. there is a compelling reason that the most appropriate placement for the child is in another planned permanent living arrangement (APPLA), and the department has recommended the arrangement under AS 47.14.100(p) (see (7) below). The findings under this paragraph must include the steps that are necessary to achieve the new arrangement.

2. The court shall hold a permanency hearing to review the permanent plan at least annually until successful implementation of the plan. If the plan approved by the court changes after the hearing, the department shall promptly apply to the court for another permanency hearing, and the court shall conduct the hearing within 30 days after application by the department.

3. At the permanency hearing, the court may conclude that continuation of reasonable efforts is not in the best interest of the child. The department shall make reasonable efforts to place the child in a timely manner in accordance with the permanent plan and to complete whatever steps are necessary to finalize the permanent placement of the child. The court may make this finding if:

   1. a parent or guardian has not sufficiently remedied their conduct or the conditions in the home, despite timely resonable efforts made by the department; and

   2. family support services have been provided to the child, and the parents or guardian, that are designed to prevent out-of-home placement, or to enable the safe return of the child to the home.

4. The court may determine that reasonable efforts of the type described in (B)(3) above are not required if the court has found by Clear and Convincing Evidence that:

   1. the parent or guardian has subjected the child to circumstances that pose a substantial risk to the child's health or safety; these circumstances include abandonment, sexual abuse, torture, chronic mental injury, or chronic physical harm;

   2. the parent or guardian has:

      1. committed homicide of a parent of the child or of a child;

      2. aided or abetted, attempted, conspired, or solicited to commit a homicide of a parent of the child or of a child;

      3. committed an assault that is a felony and results in serious physical injury to a child;

      4. committed the conduct described in (B)(4)(b)(1)-(3) above that violated a law or ordinance of another jurisdiction having elements similar to an offense described in (B)(4)(b)(1)-(3) above; or

      5. during the 12 months preceding the permanency hearing, failed to comply with a court order to participate in family support services.

   3. the department has conducted a reasonably diligent search over a time period of at least three months for an unidentified or Absent Parent and has failed to identify and locate the parent;

   4. the parent or guardian is the sole caregiver of the child and the parent or guardian has a mental illness or mental deficiency of such nature and duration that, according to the statement of a psychologist or physician, the parent or guardian will be incapable of caring for the child without placing the child at substantial risk of physical or mental injury even if the department were to provide family support services to the parent or guardian for 12 months;

   5. the parent or guardian has previously been convicted of a crime involving a child in this state or in another jurisdiction and, after the conviction, the child was returned to the custody of the parent or guardian and later removed because of an additional substantiated report of physical or sexual abuse by the parent or guardian;

   6. a child has suffered substantial physical harm as the result of abusive or neglectful conduct by the parent or guardian or by a person known by the parent or guardian and the parent or guardian knew or reasonably should have known that the person was abusing the child;

   7. the parental rights of the parent have been terminated with respect to another child because of child abuse or neglect, the parent has not remedied the conditions or conduct that led to the termination of parental rights, and the parent has demonstrated an inability to protect the child from substantial harm or the risk of substantial harm;

   8. the child has been removed from the child's home on at least two previous occasions, family support services were offered or provided to the parent or guardian at those times, and the parent or guardian has demonstrated an inability to protect the child from substantial harm or the risk of substantial harm; or

   9. the parent or guardian is incarcerated and is unavailable to care for the child during a significant period of the child's minority, considering the child's age and need for care by an adult.

5. The department may develop and implement an alternative permanency plan for the child while the department is also making reasonable efforts to return the child to the child's family described in (3) above.

6. Except as provided in (7) below, the department shall continue to search for a suitable adoptive or permanent legal guardianship for a child who is in the custody of the state and who is under 18 years of age.

7. The department may recommend to the court another planned permanent living arrangement for a child who is in state custody only if:

   1. The child is 16 years of age or older;

   2. The department has unsuccessfully made intensive efforts to find a permanent placement for the child; and

   3. The department, after considering reunification, adoption, legal guardianship, or permanent placement with a fit and willing relative, determines that there is a compelling reason that the most appropriate permanency plan for the child is placement in another planned permanent living arrangement, and the department documents for the court the compelling reason for the alternate plan. "Compelling reason" may include circumstances in which:

      1. the child has specifically requested that emancipation be established; or

      2. a parent and child have a significant bond, but the parent is unable to care for the child because of an emotional or physical disability, and the child's foster parents have committed to raising the child to the age of majority and to facilitating visitation with the disabled parent.