Minnesota Statutes 260C.704 – Requirements for the Qualified Individual’s Assessment of the Child for Placement in a Qualified Residential Treatment Program
(a) A qualified individual must complete an assessment of the child prior to the child’s placement in a qualified residential treatment program in a format approved by the commissioner of human services unless, due to a crisis, the child must immediately be placed in a qualified residential treatment program. When a child must immediately be placed in a qualified residential treatment program without an assessment, the qualified individual must complete the child’s assessment within 30 days of the child’s placement. The qualified individual must:
Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes 260C.704
- Agency: means the responsible social services agency or a licensed child-placing agency. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Child: means an individual under 18 years of age. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Court: means juvenile court unless otherwise specified in this section. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Family and permanency team: means a team consisting of the child's parent or legal custodian, relatives, foster care providers, and professionals who are resources to the child's family such as teachers, medical or mental health providers who have treated the child, or clergy, as appropriate. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Family foster home: means the home of an individual or family who is licensed for child foster care under Minnesota Statutes, chapter 245A, meeting the standards in Minnesota Rules, chapter 2960, excluding foster residence settings licensed under Minnesota Rules, parts Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Foster care: means 24-hour substitute care for a child for whom a responsible social services agency has placement and care responsibility and:
(1) who is placed away from the child's parent or guardian in foster family homes, foster homes of relatives, group homes, emergency shelters, residential facilities not excluded in this subdivision, child care institutions, and preadoptive homes;
(2) who is colocated with the child's parent or guardian in a licensed residential family-based substance use disorder treatment program as defined in subdivision 22a; or
(3) who is returned to the care of the child's parent or guardian from whom the child was removed under a trial home visit pursuant to section 260C. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Parent: means a person who has a legal parent and child relationship with a child which confers or imposes on the person legal rights, privileges, duties, and obligations consistent with sections 257. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Permanency plan: means the established goal in the out-of-home placement plan that will achieve a safe, permanent home for the child. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Qualified individual: means a trained culturally competent professional or licensed clinician, including a mental health professional under section 245. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Qualified residential treatment program: means a children's residential treatment program licensed under chapter 245A or licensed or approved by a tribe that is approved to receive foster care maintenance payments under section 256. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Residential treatment facility: means a 24-hour-a-day program that provides treatment for children with emotional disturbance, consistent with section 245. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
- Responsible social services agency: means the county social services agency that has responsibility for public child welfare and child protection services and includes the provision of adoption services as an agent of the commissioner of human services. See Minnesota Statutes 260C.007
(1) assess the child’s needs and strengths, using an age-appropriate, evidence-based, validated, functional assessment approved by the commissioner of human services;
(2) determine whether the child’s needs can be met by the child’s family members or through placement in a family foster home; or, if not, determine which residential setting would provide the child with the most effective and appropriate level of care to the child in the least restrictive environment;
(3) develop a list of short- and long-term mental and behavioral health goals for the child; and
(4) work with the child’s family and permanency team using culturally competent practices.
If a level of care determination was conducted under section 245.4885, that information must be shared with the qualified individual and the juvenile treatment screening team.
(b) The child and the child’s parents, when appropriate, may request that a specific culturally competent qualified individual complete the child’s assessment. The agency shall make efforts to refer the child to the identified qualified individual to complete the assessment. The assessment must not be delayed for a specific qualified individual to complete the assessment.
(c) The qualified individual must provide the assessment, when complete, to the responsible social services agency. If the assessment recommends placement of the child in a qualified residential treatment facility, the agency must distribute the assessment to the child’s parent or legal guardian and file the assessment with the court report as required in section 260C.71, subdivision 2. If the assessment does not recommend placement in a qualified residential treatment facility, the agency must provide a copy of the assessment to the parents or legal guardians and the guardian ad litem and file the assessment determination with the court at the next required hearing as required in section 260C.71, subdivision 5. If court rules and chapter 13 permit disclosure of the results of the child’s assessment, the agency may share the results of the child’s assessment with the child’s foster care provider, other members of the child’s family, and the family and permanency team. The agency must not share the child’s private medical data with the family and permanency team unless: (1) chapter 13 permits the agency to disclose the child’s private medical data to the family and permanency team; or (2) the child’s parent has authorized the agency to disclose the child’s private medical data to the family and permanency team.
(d) For an Indian child, the assessment of the child must follow the order of placement preferences in the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, United States Code, title 25, § 1915.
(e) In the assessment determination, the qualified individual must specify in writing:
(1) the reasons why the child’s needs cannot be met by the child’s family or in a family foster home. A shortage of family foster homes is not an acceptable reason for determining that a family foster home cannot meet a child’s needs;
(2) why the recommended placement in a qualified residential treatment program will provide the child with the most effective and appropriate level of care to meet the child’s needs in the least restrictive environment possible and how placing the child at the treatment program is consistent with the short-term and long-term goals of the child’s permanency plan; and
(3) if the qualified individual’s placement recommendation is not the placement setting that the parent, family and permanency team, child, or tribe prefer, the qualified individual must identify the reasons why the qualified individual does not recommend the parent’s, family and permanency team’s, child’s, or tribe’s placement preferences. The out-of-home placement plan under section 260C.708 must also include reasons why the qualified individual did not recommend the preferences of the parents, family and permanency team, child, or tribe.
(f) If the qualified individual determines that the child’s family or a family foster home or other less restrictive placement may meet the child’s needs, the agency must move the child out of the qualified residential treatment program and transition the child to a less restrictive setting within 30 days of the determination. If the responsible social services agency has placement authority of the child, the agency must make a plan for the child’s placement according to section 260C.212, subdivision 2. The agency must file the child’s assessment determination with the court at the next required hearing.
(g) If the qualified individual recommends placing the child in a qualified residential treatment program and if the responsible social services agency has placement authority of the child, the agency shall make referrals to appropriate qualified residential treatment programs and, upon acceptance by an appropriate program, place the child in an approved or certified qualified residential treatment program.