The Legislature establishes a family support planning process to be used by the Department of Children and Families as the service planning process for targeted individuals, children, and families under its purview.(1) The Department of Education shall take all appropriate and necessary steps to encourage and facilitate the implementation of the family support planning process for individuals, children, and families within its purview.
(2) To the extent possible within existing resources, the following populations must be included in the family support planning process:(a) Children from birth to age 5 who are served by the clinic and programs of the Division of Children’s Medical Services of the Department of Health.
(b) Children participating in the developmental evaluation and intervention program of the Division of Children’s Medical Services of the Department of Health.
(c) Children from age 3 through age 5 who are served by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
(d) Children from birth through age 5 who are served by the Mental Health Program Office of the Department of Children and Families.
(e) Healthy Start participants in need of ongoing service coordination.
(f) Children from birth through age 5 who are served by the voluntary family services, protective supervision, foster care, or adoption and related services programs of the Child Care Services Program Office of the Department of Children and Families, and who are eligible for ongoing services from one or more other programs or agencies that participate in family support planning; however, children served by the voluntary family services program, where the planned length of intervention is 30 days or less, are excluded from this population.
(3) When individuals included in the target population are served by Head Start, local education agencies, or other prevention and early intervention programs, providers must be notified and efforts made to facilitate the concerned agency’s participation in family support planning.
(4) Local education agencies are encouraged to use a family support planning process for children from birth through 5 years of age who are served by the prekindergarten program for children with disabilities, in lieu of the Individual Education Plan.
(5) There must be only a single-family support plan to address the problems of the various family members unless the family requests that an individual family support plan be developed for different members of that family. The family support plan must replace individual habilitation plans for children from 3 through 5 years old who are served by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
(6) The family support plan at a minimum must include the following information:(a) The family’s statement of family concerns, priorities, and resources.
(b) Information related to the health, educational, economic and social needs, and overall development of the individual and the family.
(c) The outcomes that the plan is intended to achieve.
(d) Identification of the resources and services to achieve each outcome projected in the plan. These resources and services are to be provided based on availability and funding.
(7) A family support plan meeting must be held with the family to initially develop the family support plan and annually thereafter to update the plan as necessary. The family includes anyone who has an integral role in the life of the individual or child as identified by the individual or family. The family support plan must be reviewed periodically during the year, at least at 6-month intervals, to modify and update the plan as needed. Such periodic reviews do not require a family support plan team meeting but may be accomplished through other means such as a case file review and telephone conference with the family.
(8) The initial family support plan must be developed within a 90-day period. If exceptional circumstances make it impossible to complete the evaluation activities and to hold the initial family support plan team meeting within a reasonable time period, these circumstances must be documented, and the individual or family must be notified of the reason for the delay. With the agreement of the family and the provider, services for which either the individual or the family is eligible may be initiated before the completion of the evaluation activities and the family support plan.
(9) The Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health, and the Department of Education, to the extent that funds are available, must offer technical assistance to communities to facilitate the implementation of the family support plan.
