Children Services Transformation Advisory Council
Recommendations
Prevention
Invest in services, training and supports for parents. Develop a collaborative strategy that
includes ODJFS and partner agencies to ensure that a broader array of support services,
including trauma informed care training, therapeutic services and other supports are available to
families in their communities to help address stressful situations without the need for children
services intervention.
Integrate and expand peer parent partner work in Ohio. Expand access to programs
designed to provide peer mentoring with other parents with lived experience with the children
services system to empower families and prevent children from entering foster care.
Elevate prenatal-to-three prevention and early intervention efforts. Create collaborative
strategies to further evaluate and strengthen prenatal-to-three prevention and early intervention
cross-system efforts that prioritize the diverse needs of children and families involved in the
children services system. This should include the identification of barriers and necessary
processes that will lead to more effective, efficient, and ethical coordination of services for
children and families referred for early intervention services.
Establish a statewide, multisystem data exchange. Establish a statewide data exchange
platform to support at risk families. This will ensure state and local agencies are able to share
information with one another, so they will be better equipped to meet the unique needs of
children and families in the children services system to better coordinate their care.

Workforce
Review and evaluate the University Partnership Program (UPP). Review and evaluate the
University Partnership Program (UPP) to identify and expand opportunities for prospective
students. ODJFS should leverage the Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO)
and the established University Partnership Program (UPP) in this work. The program will
provide students meaningful experiences that build commitment and capacity for improving the
children services system, with the goal of attracting and retaining a high-quality workforce.

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 Establish a consistent onboarding program. Launch a statewide onboarding program for
integrating new employees into the Public Children Services Agencies.
Create a tiered program for caseworkers to help expand career pathways in children
services. Create expanded career pathway programs that prepare and support children services
caseworkers to promote career longevity. This strategy should include ODJFS and partner
agencies building on known best practices and successful innovative approaches to create a
tiered program for Ohio.
Reduce organizational and state level red tape. Evaluate unnecessary red tape and duplication
to expedite processes and decision-making. This will allow caseworkers to focus on improving
outcomes for families and children.
Explore and identify technological solutions and support for caseworkers. Identify
technology solutions to support caseworkers and to better meet the unique needs of children and
families involved with children services. This will enhance practice and support the workforce
while ensuring better coordination of care.

Practice
Create regional best practice hubs to drive training, technical assistance (TA), coaching,
communication, innovation and collaboration. Create regional hubs that maximize training,
TA, coaching, communication, innovation, and collaboration that align with specific state
priorities, regional priorities, and the needs of children and families. This will help ensure there
are strategies to support the workforce and enhance agency organizational culture through policy
and practice improvements.
Strengthen consistent screening decision-making. Establish a team to review and evaluate
screening decision-making practices throughout Ohio to create consistency and to formulate
standards associated with critical screening decisions statewide.
Institute a statewide children services ombudsman. Establish a state level ombudsman to act
as an independent entity for the investigation and resolution of complaints made by or on the
behalf of children and families involved with children services. Ohio should have an independent
outlet for individuals to voice their concerns with the foster care system.

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 Kinship
Integrate targeted kinship caregiver training through the Ohio Child Welfare Training
Program (OCWTP). Strengthen and create new trauma informed kinship caregiver training,
that includes a focus on the importance of supportive birth parent and kinship relationships and
co-parenting best practices.
Establish statutory requirements and tools for family finding and due diligence. Prioritize
family connections for children by requiring the identification and engagement of kin from the
onset of children services involvement, when out-of-home placement is needed, to include: (a)
prioritizing father engagement (b) exploration of search engine tools to locate kin (c)
expectations of the court for review and documentation (d) and details of circumstances under
which family finding efforts may be discontinued.
Identify collaborative strategies for family finding in other systems. Review current family
finding efforts across other systems and agencies to identify gaps and challenges, with a goal to
formulate strategies that support cross-system family finding priorities and activities.
Establish a federal Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KGAP). Explore a federally
subsidized KGAP that promotes permanency for children who cannot return to their parents.
KGAP will provide ongoing financial support to kin who make a commitment of legal
guardianship to a child in their care. The recommendation to establish KGAP would only work
in tandem with a plan to license kin caregivers.
Incorporate the terminology “resource parents” to define kinship and foster families
involved in the children services system. Understanding the importance of language and its
impact on children and families involved in the children services system, ODJFS should align
with federal guidance and prioritize using the term “resource parents” to define those who are
providing care to youth in the foster care system.

Foster Care
Establish a Foster Youth Bill of Rights. Establish in law a clearly articulated set of rights that
youth in foster care may expect of the children services system.
Establish a Resource Family Bill of Rights. Establish in law a clearly articulated set of rights
that kinship and foster caregivers may expect of the children services system.
Strengthen required normalcy standards for youth in foster care. Strengthen Ohio statutes
to ensure that all children in foster care can engage in a range of developmentally appropriate
experiences necessary for healthy emotional and social development, as these experiences help
youth build relationships and develop skills to prepare for adulthood.

3

 Strengthen relationships between birth families and foster parents. Establish changes in
foster care recruitment, training and rules to support relationships between birth families and
foster parents to create reunification-focused relationships.
Develop trauma informed training for all involved in the system including resource
families, caseworkers, agency staff, courts, service providers, mandated reporters (e.g.
teachers, counselors), kin and parents. The training at a minimum must include understanding
trauma and its impact on development.
Establish a statewide technology resource that can be easily accessed to find information,
benefits and resources for youth and resource families. Explore different types of technology
to create a tool that is easy to use, up to date and guides a youth and/or caregiver to resources
including available benefits and supports, necessary qualifications/eligibility requirements and
application details.
Elevate foster youth and caregiver recognition and appreciation. Establish a statewide
strategy that prioritizes recognition and appreciation for foster youth and caregivers throughout
Ohio.
Establish requirements for concurrent planning. Institute statute that promotes the pursuit of
more than one permanency goal simultaneously, with full knowledge of all involved, to increase
permanency outcomes so children do not linger in foster care if reunification is not achieved.

Adoption
Ensure permanency education and youth voice is incorporated into a Foster Youth Bill of
Rights and the Foster Youth Rights Handbook. Partner with youth organizations, PCSAs
and other stakeholders to develop educational materials for older youth regarding permanency
options, including relational permanency. Ensure youth are prepared for and invited to
participate in meetings and court hearings.
Expand child centered recruitment efforts. Build on Ohio’s successful investments including
the evidence-based Wendy’s Wonderful Kids child-centered recruitment model and the Youth
Centered Permanency Roundtables (YCPRT) program. ODJFS should continue to work with
both the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) and Kinnect to expand each program in
order to increase legal and relational permanency for youth.
Promote permanency planning by limiting the option of Planned Permanent Living
Arrangement (PPLA). PPLA is essentially long-term foster care and does not represent legal
permanency for a child. The state of Ohio needs to reinforce existing limits while also assessing
the need to further limit this legal status and support and promote permanency planning early on
and throughout the life of the case.

4

 Ensure the successful implementation of the Statewide Foster Care and Adoption Assessor
Registry. Develop a utilization plan that includes consideration for resource gaps and the impact
on home study completion data measures. Consider modifying statute to expand who qualifies as
an assessor.
Strengthen and standardize adoption subsidy negotiation processes. Reduce the burdensome
and inconsistent negotiation process for counties and new adoptive parents that prioritizes
necessary long-term support and preserves the child’s permanency. Consider a state/county
hybrid model and consider implementing a non-retaliation provision in ORC or OAC.
Evaluate the option of having the Post Adoption Special Services Subsidy (PASSS)
program administered by the Ohio Kinship and Adoption Navigator Program (OhioKAN).
Explore moving the administration of the PASSS program to the state level to ensure consistent
processes and decision-making for adoptive parents throughout the state.

Juvenile Justice System
Collaborate with the Supreme Court of Ohio to identify strategies to achieve greater
accountability and increased communication with Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) programs to
ensure better outcomes for children and families with children services court cases. ODJFS
will partner with the Supreme Court of Ohio and other necessary associations to implement the
new amendments for Rule 48 of the Rules of Superintendence related to GAL oversite and court
processes to ensure cross-system awareness and rule effectiveness.
Review and evaluate Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and Guardian Ad Litem
(GAL) programs to identify opportunities for recruitment and expansion. Explore the best
practices and opportunities of the current CASA and GAL programs, as they relate to court
involved children services cases, to understand the strengths, weaknesses, training needs and
expansion opportunities of each program.
Support continued strategic collaborative efforts between ODJFS and the Supreme Court
of Ohio to create an implementation plan for multidisciplinary legal representation for
parents. Quality legal representation on behalf of all parties in the children services system
improves the outcomes for children and families. In accordance with the priorities of the
Children’s Bureau and the investment of federal IV-E dollars into a multidisciplinary legal
representation model for parents and children, ODJFS and the Supreme Court of Ohio will
ensure the creation of an implementation plan to replicate this model.

5

 Strengthen guidance for all involved systems and parties of a children services court case to
reinforce the established 12-month timeline requirement for reunification and permanency,
with consideration for justified family specific needs for 6-month extensions. Partner with
the Supreme Court of Ohio to review data regarding extensions, refiled proceedings,
continuances and appeals. Update guidance and improve education to court and PCSA staff
regarding the use of extensions and the negative impact unjustified decisions that delay
permanency have on children and families. Explore options to utilize the Supreme Court of
Ohio’s public facing dashboard, as well as other quality data reporting mechanisms, to promote
better outcomes and uniformity across counties.
Review PCSA legal representation structures throughout the state. Partner with the Public
Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO), County Commissioners Association of Ohio,
Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, and Ohio Association of Juvenile Judges to evaluate
the various county models for legal representation throughout the state to determine best
practices and opportunities for strengthened county partnerships that result in accountable,
collaborative decision-making processes and alignment.
Support the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on Children and Families’
recommendation to implement a Child in Need of Protective Services (CHIPS) court
framework to replace Ohio’s current abuse, neglect and dependency court system. ODJFS
should continue partnering with the Supreme Court of Ohio to implement a CHIPS model that
provides a child-centered, family focused alternative to the abuse, neglect and dependency model
under which the state currently operates.

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