Vol. 10, No. 3, Pg. 18. Evaluating a Placement Plan.

• Author: By Mary C. Williams

South Carolina Lawyer

1998.

Vol. 10, No. 3, Pg. 18.

Evaluating a Placement Plan

18Evaluating a Placement PlanBy Mary C. WilliamsA placement plan is designed to remedy the conditions that led to the child's removal from the home. The plan should address the needs and services to benefit the child, while also serving as a useful guide to measure the parent's progress.

The goals of the placement plan should be specific, clear and realistic. Reasonable efforts must be made to provide services that relate to the family's needs. The guardian ad litem or the parent's lawyer (if present at the probable cause hearing) should ask whether the reasonable efforts meet the requirements in §20-7-610(L).

The goals of the plan should be realistic and meaningful to both the child and the family. Goals should be achievable within a reasonable time and relate to the problems that caused the child's removal. If physical neglect (i.e., child left alone, unclean housing) was the basis of the removal, then the placement plan must relate to issues of adequate day care and homemaker services. The criteria should be behaviorally specific and measurable. (i.e., Ms. Doe will attend parenting skills classes should be replaced with Ms. Doe will give her children a daily balanced diet).

The meeting on the development of the placement plan should not be held on the day of the merits hearing. The placement plan should be negotiated and developed with the cooperation and participation of all parties. The parents' limitations--such as transportation, day care problems, hours spent working or mental deficiency--should be considered.

A plan that simply provides for parenting classes, mental health sessions and a psychological evaluation may not be an achievable goal for the parents. Working parents would find it difficult to attend parenting classes and mental health counseling if the sessions are only held during their working hours. Transportation must be addressed as well.

* Specific reasons for the removal and specific changes that must be made before the child is returned home;

* Other conditions that, warrant state intervention that would not alone justify the child's removal and the changes that must be made;

* Specific time frames for the parents to accomplish the plan's objectives;

* Goals of the plan that must relate to the problems that resulted in the child's removal;

* Social and other services to be made available to the...