Comment: Revised Proposed Foster Home Licensing Regulations 2011

In response to proposed amendments to regulations on foster home licensing, policy director Sharra Greer submitted comments on behalf of Children’s Law Center. The comments urge broader reform to truly facilitate placing foster children with kin, an important goal that offers more opportunity for children to succeed in both the short and long term. Suggestions include:

• Remove the “exigent circumstances” requirement, which limits the situations in which DC’s Child and Family Services Agency can expedite the licensing process for kin caregivers
• List licensing factors that can be considered “non-safety” requirements, which can sometimes be waived when placing children in a kin caregiver’s home
• Develop a separate licensing process for foster parents who already serve as “lifelong connections” for youth 18 to 20 years old
• Change the proposed kinship waiver process so the request for a waiver does not have to go all the way to the CFSA director
• Eliminate the proposed requirement for kin seeking temporary licenses to obtain a lead-based paint certificate and rely on existing regulations which require a certificate for foster parents seeking permanent licenses
• Reject a proposed change that would lessen visitation requirements for social workers by allowing visits from other personnel to satisfy the current visitation requirement
• Revise the proposed regulation for back-up caregivers who may provide short-term care for a foster child so that people licensed as foster parents in other states are allowed to serve as back-up caregivers without undergoing additional DC licensing

Read the complete comments (PDF).