Illinois Administrative Code › Title 89 - SOCIAL SERVICES › Part 337 - SERVICE APPEAL PROCESS › Section 337.20 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
"Adequate notice" means a notice that contains all of the
				elements identified in Section
				337.90(c)
				of this Part.
"Administrative Hearings Unit" means the Department's unit
				responsible for receiving requests for and acting upon a service appeal and
				conducting fair hearings on appeal.
"Administrative law judge" means an attorney who is appointed
				by the Director of the Department and who is responsible for conducting the
				fair hearing.
"Administrator of the Administrative Hearings Unit" means the
				person who is responsible for receiving requests for a service appeal and for
				coordinating the fair hearings.
"Appellant" means the person who requests a service appeal or
				on whose behalf a service appeal is requested.
"Authorized representative" means a person authorized in
				writing by the appellant to assist the appellant in the appeal process. If the
				appellant is unable to reduce such authorization to writing, the Department
				shall assist the appellant in doing so. The representative may be legal counsel
				or other spokesperson.
"Clinical Intervention for Placement Preservation" or "CIPP"
				means a regionally based, multidisciplinary team consisting of designated DCFS
				staff, the child (when age-appropriate), the child's family, extended family
				and others who have relevant and current information about the child, and
				professionals who are critical to achieve informed, sound
				decision-making.
"Clinical Intervention for Placement Preservation (CIPP) Action
				Plan" means a written document summarizing a clinical assessment of a child's
				or youth's service needs, identifying the resources required to meet those
				needs, and establishing time frames for their achievement.
"Child welfare services" means public social
				services
that
are directed toward the accomplishment of the
				following purposes:
protecting and promoting the health, safety and welfare
				of
all
children, including homeless, dependent, or neglected
				children;
preventing,
remedying, or assisting in the solution of
				problems
that
may result in, the neglect, abuse, exploitation,
				or delinquency of children;
preventing the unnecessary separation of children from
				their families by identifying family problems, assisting families in resolving
				their problems, and preventing breakup of the family where the prevention of
				child removal is desirable and possible, when the child can be cared for at
				home without endangering the child's health and safety;
restoring to their families children who have been
				removed by the provision of services to the child and the families, when the
				child can be cared for at home without endangering the child's health and
				safety;
placing children in suitable adoptive homes, in cases
				where restoration to the biological family is not possible or
				appropriate;
assuring safe and adequate care of children away from
				their homes, in cases where the child cannot be returned home or cannot be
				placed for adoption. At the time of placement, the Department shall consider
				concurrent planning so that permanency may occur at the earliest opportunity.
				Consideration should be given so that, if reunification fails or is delayed,
				the placement made is the best available placement to provide permanency for
				the child;
providing supportive services and living maintenance that
				contributes to the physical, emotional and social well-being of children for
				whom the Department is legally responsible who are pregnant and
				unmarried;
providing shelter and independent living services for homeless
				youth; and
placing and maintaining children in facilities that provide
				separate living quarters for children under the age of 18 and for children 18
				years of age and older, unless a child 18 years of age is in the last year of
				high school education or vocational training, in an approved individual or
				group treatment program, or in a licensed shelter facility, or secure child
				care facility. The Department is not required to place or maintain
				children:
who are in a foster home; or
who are persons with a developmental disability, as
				defined in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code
[ 405
				ILCS 5 ]; or
who are female children who are pregnant, pregnant and
				parenting or parenting; or
who are siblings;
in facilities that provide separate living quarters for
				children 18 years of age and older and for children under 18 years of
				age
. [
				20
				ILCS 505/5(a)(3) ]
These services include but are not limited to: counseling,
				advocacy, day care, homemaker, emergency caretaker, family planning, adoption,
				visitation, placement, child protection and information and referral.
"Clinical placement review" means a process in which designated
				clinical Department staff will review a disputed decision by the Department or
				purchase of service agency to remove a child from the home of a foster family
				or relative caregiver, when the child will be placed in the home of another
				foster family or relative caregiver.
"Date of action" means the effective date of the action or
				proposed action by the Department or provider agency that resulted in the
				appeal.
"Date of appeal" means the postmark date or date of receipt of
				appellant's written request for an appeal, whichever is earlier, at the address
				specified in the notice.
"Date of notice" means the date on which the appellant receives
				written notice of the Department's intended action or decision or the date on
				which the appellant learns of the intended action or decision, if a written
				notice was not provided.
"Day care services" means care provided to children for less
				than 24 hours per day in facilities requiring licensure under the Child Care
				Act of 1969 [ 225 ILCS 10 ] in facilities exempt from licensure, in the homes
				of relatives, or in their own home.
"Department representative" means an attorney or designated
				individual responsible for presenting the Department's position in mediation,
				staffings and negotiations and at an emergency review and fair hearing.
"Emergency review" means a limited review of the actions or
				decisions of the Department or provider agency that may adversely affect an
				individual or individuals served by the Department. An emergency review
				provides for an interim decision pending a fair hearing.
"Fair hearing", as used in this Part, means a formal review of
				the action or decision of the Department or provider agency to determine
				whether that action or decision is in compliance with applicable laws and rules
				and will be in the best interests of the child.
"Family" means the biological or adoptive parents (provided a
				court has not terminated parental rights), legal guardian, or any relative who
				has assumed custody and control of the child in the absence of the child's
				biological or adoptive parents.
"Final administrative decision" means the Department's final
				decision, order, or determination on an appealed issue rendered by the Director
				in a particular case that affects the legal rights, duties or privileges of
				appellants and that may be appealed in a circuit court under the Administrative
				Review Law [ 735 ILCS 5 /Art. III].
"Fictive kin" means any individual, unrelated by birth
				or marriage, who:
is shown to have significant and close personal or
				emotional ties with the child or the child's family prior to the child's
				placement with the individual; or
is the current foster parent of a child in the custody
				or guardianship of the Department pursuant to the Child and Family Services Act
				and the Juvenile Court Act of 1987, if the child has been placed in the home
				for at least one year and has established a significant and family-like
				relationship with the foster parent, and the foster parent has been identified
				by the Department as the child's permanent connection.
[
				20 ILCS
				505/7(b) ]
"Godparent" is a person who sponsors a child at baptism or one
				in whom the parents have entrusted a special duty that includes assisting in
				raising the child if the parent cannot raise the child. If the person is
				considered to be the child's godparent, in order for placement to occur, the
				same placement selection criteria as contained in 89 Ill. Adm. Code
				301.60
				(Placement Selection Criteria) must be met. If the godparent is not a licensed
				foster parent, all the conditions currently in effect for placement with
				relatives in 89 Ill. Adm. Code
				301.80
				(Relative Home Placement) must be met.
"Imminent risk of harm" means that individuals' actions,
				omissions or conditions endanger the life, or seriously jeopardize the physical
				or mental health or safety of themselves or others, if protective action would
				not be taken immediately.
"Individual legally acting on a person's behalf" means an
				individual who has been appointed by a court to act on behalf of a person when
				the person is incompetent, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to speak for
				himself or herself.
"Mediation" means a meeting open to all parties affected by the
				decision being appealed to attempt agreement on the issue in dispute with a
				mediator, who assists the parties in resolving issues and drawing up an
				agreement.
"Mediator" means a neutral third party appointed by the
				Director of the Department who conducts the mediation and assists the parties
				in resolving issues and drawing up an agreement.
"Parties" means the Department or its agents and those persons
				who have appealed the service decisions made by the Department or its
				agents.
"Permanent connection" means a family-like relationship,
				consistent with a child's best interests, health, safety and well-being, that
				provides:
safe, stable and committed parenting;
unconditional love and lifelong support; and
a permanent legal status between child and family.
For a child for whom the Department is legally responsible, a
				permanent connection may be the child's parents or another caregiver in the
				child's home of origin. When the child cannot be safely returned home, a
				permanent connection may be the current or former foster parent or relative
				caregiver, an individual identified as an adoptive or legal guardianship
				placement resource, or another individual from among the child's or family's
				lifelong connections with whom a child has developed a familial
				relationship.
"Preponderance of the evidence" means the greater weight of the
				evidence or evidence that renders a fact more likely than not.
"Provider agency" means an agency offering case management
				and/or casework services through a signed contract with the Department for paid
				services.
"Relative"
, for purposes of placement of
				children for whom the Department is legally responsible, means
any
				person, 21 years of age or over, other than the parent, who:
is currently related to the child in any of the
				following ways by blood or adoption: grandparent, sibling, great-grandparent,
				uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, first cousin,
first cousin once removed
				(children of one's first cousin to oneself),
second cousin
(children of first cousins are second cousins to each other)
,
				godparent
(as defined in this Section),
great-uncle, or
				great-aunt; or
is the spouse
, or party to a civil union,
of such a relative; or
is the child's step-father, step-mother,
				step-grandfather, step-grandmother or adult step-brother or step-sister;
				or
is the partner, or adult child of a partner, in a civil union
				with the child's mother or father; or
is a fictive kin as defined in this Section.
"Relative" also includes a person related in any of the
				foregoing ways to a sibling of a child, even though the person is not related
				to the child, when the child and its sibling are placed together with that
				person. For children who have been in the guardianship of the Department, have
				been adopted, and are subsequently returned to the temporary custody or
				guardianship of the Department, a "relative" may also include any person who
				would have qualified as a relative under this
definition
prior
				to the adoption, but only if the Department determines, and documents, that it
				would be in the child's best interests to consider this person a
				relative
. [
				20 ILCS
				505/7(b) ]
"Request for an appeal" means the written request by an
				appellant for a fair hearing to review an action taken or a decision made by
				the Department or a provider agency on behalf of the Department. If the
				appellant is unable to request an appeal in writing, the Department or provider
				agency shall help the appellant put the request in writing.
"Reviewer" means the person appointed by the Department to
				conduct an emergency review.
"Service appeal process" means the appeal system offered by the
				Department to parents, children, guardians ad litem, foster parents and
				relative caregivers to challenge service decisions of the Department.
"Services" means child welfare or day care services, including
				placement services or benefits provided by the Department or its provider
				agencies under Titles IV and XX of the Social Security Act (
				42 USC
				601 et seq. and 1397 et seq.) or the laws of
				the State of Illinois.
"Stay of action" means the action or decision made by the
				Department or its provider agency will not be implemented pending an emergency
				review or final administrative decision by the Department.
"Timely written notice" means a notice that complies with the
				requirements of Section
				337.90(b).