(b) Protective services.

1. (1) The Division of Children and Family Services will open a case as appropriate and ask for documentation of the parent and child’s birth.
2. (2) The funding source for services to undocumented immigrants will be state general revenue.
3. (3) Staff will contact their Area Director to receive approval from the Division of Children and Family Services Administrative Services prior to any purchase of services for suspected undocumented immigrants.
4. (4) Contact the Division of County Operations and request any available information regarding the identity and citizenship or immigration status of the family members.

5. (5)

   1. (A) If any family members involved in the case are in the United States illegally, the worker will report them through the County Supervisor and Area Director.
   2. (B) The Area Director will discuss the case with the Office of Chief Counsel attorney designated to handle such cases.
   3. (C) The Division of Children and Family Services worker will make every reasonable effort to keep the family together.

(c) Supportive services.

1. (1)

   1. (A) Will be available to undocumented immigrants.
   2. (B) Ask the client to verify his or her citizenship or immigration status and accept their documents or verbal statement without further questioning.
   3. (C) If any family member involved in the case is in the United States illegally, report them through the County Supervisor and Area Director.
   4. (D) The Area Director will discuss the case with the Office of Chief Counsel attorney designated to handle such cases.
2. (2) All requests for exception must go up through the supervisory chain and be referred to the Director of Division of Children and Family Services for the same processing as a request for alternative compliance (see Appendix F for protocol for requesting an alternative compliance or a policy waiver).

(d) Foster care.

1. (1) Document citizenship status in CHRIS.
2. (2) Address the issue of resolving alien status in the case plan.
3. (3) Judicial proceedings. If the parent of the child in foster care is deported and it is not in best interest of the child to be returned to the parent and parent’s country, the Division of Children and Family Services may request special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) if the child is an undocumented immigrant.

4. (4) Hold a staffing to determine if reunification is in the child’s best interest or if the child’s goal should be:

   1. (A) Another planned permanent living arrangement (APPLA);
   2. (B) Adoption; or
   3. (C) Guardian.

5. (5)

   1. (A) If the child’s goal is APPLA, adoption, or guardianship, SIJS must be applied for if the child in care is an undocumented immigrant.
   2. (B) Contact the Area Director for assistance in completing the application for special immigrant juvenile status.
6. (6) Immigrant status must be verified for Chafee services.

(e) Adoption.

1. (1) A child whose immigration status is in question may be eligible for a state adoption subsidy.
2. (2) If the child is granted SIJS the child will be Medicaid eligible and may be Title IV-E eligible.

(g) CHRIS.

1. (1)

   1. (A) Documenting citizenship in CHRIS is done on the client general information screen for each specific client in a case.
   2. (B) There is a field called citizenship/alienage, which has picklist choices, which are listed below.
   3. (C) To the right of the citizenship/alienage field is a blank box called “alien registration number”.
   4. (D) That box is used to input the client’s specific alien registration number, if he or she has one.

2. (2) To select a citizenship/alienage picklist choice and insert an associated alien registration number, the worker must do the following:

   1. (A)

(i) Go to the workload toolbar in CHRIS to select case and click on the client button.

1. (ii) The “select client” box will come up;

   1. (B) Highlight the correct client and click show;
   2. (C) Click on the gen info button, which will bring up the client information screen for that specific client;
   3. (D) The citizenship/alienage picklist field and the alien registration number box are at the bottom of the client information screen in the citizenship grouping; and

   4. (E)

      1. (i) Click on the citizenship/alienage picklist field and select the appropriate choice.
      2. (ii) If the client has an alien registration number, type it into the “Alien Registration Number” box.
      3. (iii) Citizenship/alienage (picklist choices):

(b) (b) Qualified alien; and

1. (c) (c) Nonqualified alien.