Assigned to TTMC FOR COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1458
congregate care; dependent children; procedures
Purpose
Establishes procedures and processes for the placement of a child in a congregate care
setting and modifies reporting requirements.
Background
The Department of Child Services (DCS) must make available program and outcomes data
on its website as provided, in a format that can be downloaded and that is conducive to analysis.
DCS must make available the prescribed information on a semiannual basis: 1) success in meeting
training requirements; 2) caseloads for child safety workers; 3) the number of new reports and
reports that have been closed; 4) the number of case-carrying caseworkers, investigations and
children being served in-home and out-of-home in each region; 5) the total number of reports
received; 6) the number of reports not responded to; 7) the number of reports assigned for
investigation; 8) the number of reports completed; 9) number of reports assigned for investigation
that remain open; 10) number of children reported to DCS, the percentage of children placed in
out-of-home care; 11) number of newborn infants delivered to safe havens; 12) number of children
entering out-of-home care and who are voluntary placements for children under 18 years old; 13)
the number of children removed who had been in out-of-home care; 14) number of children who
have remained in a shelter or receiving home for more than 21 consecutive days; 15) total number
of licensed foster homes; 16) number of licensed foster homes that receive the required visitation
by licensing agency representatives; 17) number of children placed under DCS custody and who
received required visitation; 18) the number of kids under DCS custody and who are in out-of-
home placement; 19) percentage of parents who received required contact by case managers; 20)
number of children who left custody of DCS; 21) number of children who petitioned for
termination of parental rights granted and not granted; 22) number of children with a case plan for
adoption and who were not placed in an adoptive home, who were placed in an adoptive home,
whose adoptive placement was disrupted during the reporting period and whose adoptions were
finalized; 23) the number of children who died in the custody of DCS; 24) the number of children
with open or active cases who died due to abuse; 25) ration of supervisors to specialists by region;
26) the source and use of federal and state monies in DCS; and 27) information regarding the
educational placement of foster children (A.R.S. § 8-526).
A person acting as a parent is a person, other than a parent, who: 1) has physical custody
of the child or has had physical custody for a period of six consecutive months, including any
temporary absence, within one year immediately before the commencement of a child custody
proceeding; and 2) has been awarded legal custody by a court or claims a right to legal custody
under the law of the state (A.R.S. § 25-1002). If a child is taken into temporary custody, as part of
the ongoing search, DCS must use due diligence in an initial search to identify and notify adult FACT SHEET
S.B. 1458
Page 2
relatives of the child and persons with a significant relationship with the child within 30 days after
the child is taken into temporary custody (A.R.S. § 8-514.07).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this
legislation.
Provisions
1. Allows a child to be placed in a congregate care setting only with the prior written approval of
the Director of DCS (Director).
2. Requires the written approval of the Director to document that the placement is required for:
a) placing the child with the child's siblings;
b) placing the child with a parent who has been adjudicated a dependent child;
c) addressing the child's documented exceptional needs, which can only be met by a
specifically identified congregate care provider; or
d) completing an evaluation of the child's placement needs.
3. Requires DCS, before seeking the Director's approval for a congregate care placement, to:
a) assemble a family and permanency team for the child;
b) initiate efforts to identify adult relatives or persons with a significant relationship with the
child for possible placement;
c) conduct a preplacement visit to the congregate care setting unless impracticable;
d) engage the child, if developmentally appropriate, the child's attorney and members of the
child's family and permanency team in making a recommendation for the child's placement;
and
e) document the child's family and permanency team's placement recommendations,
including any alternatives considered.
4. Requires the family and permanency team to consist of:
a) the child, if developmentally appropriate;
b) appropriate biological family members, adult relatives and persons with a significant
relationship to the child; and
c) the child's attorney and other appropriate professionals, including medical or mental health
providers, teachers or clergy.
5. Requires the Director to review the child's family and permanency team's placement
recommendations before approving or disapproving placing the child in a congregate care
setting.
6. Allows DCS to use previously established teams to support the child and the child's family as
the child's family and permanency team.
7. Requires a preplacement visit to the congregate care setting to include the child, if
developmentally appropriate, the child's attorney and members of the child's family and
permanency team.
8. Stipulates that if the child's needs cannot be met through placement with adult relatives or
persons with a significant relationship to the child or in a foster home, the child and the child's FACT SHEET
S.B. 1458
Page 3
team must determine which setting will provide the most effective and appropriate level of
care, in the least restrictive environment.
9. Requires DCS, within 30 days after placing the child in a congregate care setting, document
the child's case plan, including:
a) DCS's reasonable and good faith efforts to identify and include all the individuals on the
child's team and in the child's family and permanency team;
b) any evidence demonstrating that the parents the child was removed from provided input on
the members of the child's family and permanency team;
c) contact information for the child's family, permanency team, other adult family members
and other adults of significant relationship with the child who are not part of the child's
family and permanency team;
d) evidence that meetings with the child's family and permanency team, including meetings
relating to the assessments as prescribed, are held at a time and place convenient for the
child's family;
e) evidence of DCS's ongoing efforts to identify potential placement with an adult relative or
other persons with a significant relationship to the child;
f) evidence that the assessment, as prescribed, was conducted with the child's family and
permanency team;
g) information regarding the placement preferences of the child's family and permanency
team, the placement preference must recognize a preference for placing a child with the
child's siblings unless that placement is contrary to the best interests of the child; and
h) reasons why the preferences of the child and the child's family and permanency team were
not recommended if the preferences are not recommended by the qualified individual
conducting the assessment, as prescribed.
10. Requires, within 30 days of placement, a qualified individual towork with the child, the child's
attorney, the child's family members and the child's family and permanency team to:
a) assess the child's strengths and needs using an age-appropriate, evidence-based, validated
and functional assessment tool;
b) determine whether the needs of the child can be met through placement with adult relatives
or persons with a significant relationship to the child or in a foster home; and
c) develop a list of child-specific short-term and long-term behavioral health goals.
11. Requires the qualified individual conducting the assessment, as prescribed, to specify the
reasons why the needs of the child cannot be met by an adult relative or person with a
significant relationship to the child or in a foster home, if it is determined that the child should
not be placed with an adult relative, a person with a significant relationship or in a foster home.
12. Requires the qualified individual to specify why the placement in a congregate care setting will
provide the child with the most effective and appropriate level of care in the least restrictive
environment and how it is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals for the child.
13. Requires the court, within 60 days after a child is placed in a congregate care setting, to conduct
a hearing and at the hearing the court must:
a) consider the assessment, determination and documentation made by the qualified
individual who conducted the assessment, as prescribed; FACT SHEET
S.B. 1458
Page 4
b) determine whether the needs of the child can be met through placement with an adult
relative or person with a significant relationship to the child or in a foster home;
c) determine whether the placement of a child in a congregate care setting provides a more
effective and appropriate level of care for the child in the least restrictive environment;
d) whether the placement is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals for the child;
and
e) approve or disapprove the congregate care placement and include the court's determination
in the child's case plan.
14. Requires DCS, at each status review and permanency hearing after the child is placed in
congregate care, to submit the following to the court:
a) evidence of ongoing assessments that continue to show the child's needs cannot be met
through placement with an adult relative or person with significant relationship with the
child or in a foster home;
b) evidence that placement in a congregate care setting continues to be the most effective and
appropriate level of care for the child with the least restrictive environment;
c) evidence that the placement is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals of the
child;
d) documentation of the child's specific treatment or service needs being addressed in the
congregate care placement and the length of time the child is expected to require that
treatment or service; and
e) documentation of the DCS's efforts to prepare the child to return home or be placed with
an adult relative, a person with a significant relationship to the child, a foster family, a legal
guardian or an adoptive parent.
15. Requires the court, at each status review and permanency hearing held after the child is placed
in a congregate care setting, to:
a) consider the evidence and documentation provided by DCS;
b) make a finding as to whether the needs of the child can be met through placement with an
adult relative or person with a significant relationship to the child or in a foster home;
c) determine whether the continued placement in a congregate care setting provides the most
effective and appropriate level of care for the child in the least restrictive environment;
d) determine whether the placement is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals for
the child; and
e) approve or disapprove the child's continued congregate care placement.
16. Requires that if a child if placed in a congregate care setting for more than six consecutive or
nonconsecutive months, DCS submit a report to the court every 30 days consisting of:
a) updated evidence and documentation, as prescribed; and
b) a request from the Director for court approval of the continued placement of the child in
the child's current congregate care placement.
17. Requires the court, on receipt of the submitted report, to:
a) consider the evidence and documentation submitted by DCS;
b) determine whether the continued placement of the child in a congregate care setting
provides the most effective and appropriate level of care for the child in the least restrictive
environment; FACT SHEET
S.B. 1458
Page 5
c) determine whether the placement is consistent with the child's short-term and long-term
goals; and
d) approve the child's continued congregate care placement or set a hearing to further consider
the child's placement.
18. Allows DCS to vacate the hearing, as prescribed, if the child is removed from congregate care
and placed with an adult relative or person of significant relationship with the child within 60
days of being placed.
Miscellaneous
19. Prohibits a shortage or lack of foster homes from being a reason for determining that the needs
of a child cannot be met in a foster home.
20. Adds, to the information that DCS must report and make available online, the number and
percentage of dependent children who are under 12 years old and who experienced a
congregate care placement during the current reporting period and as categorized by:
a) age; ethnicity;
b) gender;
c) type of congregate care placement;
d) reason for congregate care placement;
e) length of time in congregate care placement of less than 30 days, 31 days to 12 consecutive
months, 12 to 24 consecutive months and more than 24 consecutive months, including the
median, average and range of the number of out-of-home placements;
f) the number of Director approvals sought and received for placement in congregate care;
and
g) the number of court approvals sought and received for placement in congregate care.
21. Expands the reported the number and percentages of children who are in DCS care, custody
and control at the end of the reporting period and who are in out-of-home placement
information to include:
a) as categorized by gender; and
b) as categorized by ethnicity, for the type of out-of-home placement categorization.
22. Defines the following for congregate care placement:
a) child as a dependent child who is under 12 years old;
b) congregate care as a facility that is operated by a child welfare agency, licensed by the
DCS, to provide 24-hour group care to unrelated children, including shelter care facilities
intended to provided short-term care children and residential group care facilities that are
intended to provide care for children for longer periods of time, this does not include a
qualified residential treatment program;
c) qualified individual as an objective licensed mental health professional who has at least
two years' experience working with dependent children, who is not an employee of the
DCS and who is not affiliated with any placement setting in which children are placed by
the DCS; and
d) qualified residential treatment program as a qualified residential treatment program that
serves children with specific treatment needs who need short-term out-of-home placement
and that qualifies for funding under the Family First Prevention Services Act. FACT SHEET
S.B. 1458
Page 6
23. Makes conforming changes.
24. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 8, 2024
KJA/EB/cs