Permanency Outcome 2

The continuity of family relationships and connections is preserved for children.

Item 7 & 8 :

The Round 4 OSRI Quality Assurance Guide provides short-term foster care case guidance that reviewers can rate Item 8 NA based on the length of time the case is open, the case circumstances, and how reasonable it is to expect visits to have been arranged with the target child and parents/siblings. However, OMS logic does not allow a NA rating for Item 8 in situations where parents are NA for Item 8, siblings are separated for a short period of time during the PUR (Question 7A is answered as No), and per case circumstances, efforts were not needed given the short period of separation.

Should reviewers use an override to avoid having to rate Item 8 when efforts to ensure visitation and/or contacts between the siblings were not necessary during the short-term separation?

When a child has at least one sibling in foster care who is, or was, in a different foster care setting for a short period of time at any point during the PUR, reviewers should select Yes to the Item 8 applicability criteria, “The child has at least one sibling in foster care who is in a different foster care setting.” Doing so will make the item applicable, allowing reviewers to answer NA to questions E1, E, and F if sibling visits/contacts did not need to occur during the separation, per case circumstances.

In situations where efforts were made to ensure that visits/contacts occurred between siblings who were separated for a short period of time, capture relevant practice related to sibling visitation by answering questions E1, E, and F.

Overrides should not be needed to address short periods of sibling separation.